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Updated: Aug 11, 2025

Improving Student Outcomes with an Adaptable Molecular Cloning Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience
Published on: November 15, 2024
Students and postdocs deserve more
Shirley M Malcom1, Sudip Parikh2
1Shirley M. Malcom is a senior advisor and director of the STEM Equity Achievement (SEA) Change program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, the publisher of Science), Washington, DC, USA.
Abstract:
A slow-motion crisis is underway among graduate students and postdocs in the United States who comprise today's indispensable research and teaching workforce and tomorrow's scientific leaders. Low pay, lack of benefits, and sometimes toxic research environments have persisted for years. Frustrated graduate students, postdocs, and nontenured faculty are protesting and pursuing unionization to address worsening conditions. A few senior leaders are starting to recognize that today's research environment is much more challenging than that of their sepia-tinted memories. In response, some universities have offered salary and benefits relief. Unionization and overdue adjustments are incomplete and temporary responses to deeply embedded problems-with long-term implications that everyone may regret. So where do solutions lie?
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