During grad school, I spent most of my "free" time organizing events & workshops aimed at helping BIPOC students navigate academe. While engaging in unpaid labor to plan these events, I was often expected to ask highly-trained BIPOC academics to do the same. 1 #PhDChat

Sending requests absolutely sucked because it was difficult to explain that, even at a place like Harvard, you—a volunteer in a student-run organization—didn't have a budget to compensate them for their time and expertise (although they deserved it) #phdchat #AcademicChatter

I just experienced this again while working with @Sakiera_Hudson to organize a free virtual workshop to help BIPOC grad students to apply for nationally competitive fellowships. Someone RIGHTFULLY asked about compensation after I sent out a call for panelists. #AcademicChatter

Unfortunately, as an unemployed recent grad, I'm dipping into my savings to split the cost of gift cards that Kiera—who just started a postdoc—and I decided to offer panelists and breakout session leaders. Beyond that, there is no speaker's budget because we just don't have it.

There are so many other events we want to offer to current and prospective BIPOC grad students. However, we don't want to contribute to the culture of asking folks to do work for free nor do we want to pass the cost to students. #phdchat #AcademicTwitter

I’d love to get folk's thoughts on this dilemma & potential ways to move forward without passing the cost on to grad students (who likely can't afford it) or continuing the pattern of not paying BIPOC what they're worth. Any solutions or insight on getting sponsors? #phdchat