I cannot afford my housing costs on my UCSB grad student stipend alone, so I have I had plans to do research, but now the collections and ar

I cannot afford my housing costs on my UCSB grad student stipend alone, so I have taken on multiple side jobs for hourly wages.

The COVID pandemic has dramatically changed my plans for this summer and impeded my research

Having a partner with a stable full-time job has made my graduate school experience possible. However, my partner is now furloughed, and has

I did not secure a summer TA position and I am not sure where to look for a summer job because of the virus and the horrible economy.

I planned to do at least two unfunded West Coast research trips this summer for my pre-Prospectus research needs. I can't do that now.

I love my work and this department, but I need help.

It is hard enough to find seasonal employment without a pandemic and I am legitimately uncertain of what I'm going to do to get through.

I’ve had to cancel all the plans I made for that, effectively pushing my project’s archival research progress back indefinitely.

As an international student, I planned to go back home for the entire summer period, both to see my family and spend time in the...

I am now faced with the real possibility of choosing between paying my rent and future research.

For my first year and part of my second year I lived in a studio, which was actually just a house that the owner subdivided into units,...

Many of my immediate problems would be solved with having an income that’s relative to the high cost of living in Santa Barbara.

When I got accepted to UCSB and started looking at the cost of rentals in Goleta and Santa Barbara, I was completely shocked.

...I have quickly learned that graduate students are homogenized and invisibilized in ways that I would never have anticipated.

Even with my partner’s income, our family cannot afford to live in Santa Barbara.

This cycle repeats every single year no matter how many extra jobs we take on or the fellowships and funding we receive from the department.

I whittled through my meagre savings trying to stay in the last home my partner and I shared in a little over a year.

I have friends who are considering leaving graduate school. I have friends who would have to leave the country if they withdraw from classes

Last year I had to work two other part-time jobs aside from TA-ing to cover the cost of living in SB, which amounts to roughly $2300...

I just want to be able to afford to be one who can eat, sleep, teach, and research, which are all why I am here in the first place.

I would get a second job if it was logistically possible, but I put well over 30 hours per week in my TAship alone.

We applied for family housing. Administrators informed us that we would not get a place until near the baby’s due date...

"When there's an emergency, I work from the bottom of the list up to cut expenses."