ABOVE: The Rockefeller University
WIKIMEDIA, AJAY SURESH
On March 15, as the novel coronavirus swept through New York City, biophysics PhD student Donovan Phua and the rest of the Rockefeller University community learned that the research institution would be shutting down in three days. Only essential labs would remain open, including those that had quickly pivoted their research to COVID-19.
There was no word of changes to Phua’s graduate student salary. Along with faculty members and postdocs, he was instructed to begin working remotely once the university closed, he says. As far as he could tell, staff salaries would remain the same.
The next night, Phua was working in his lab and talked with two custodial employees about the impending shutdown, he tells The Scientist. He asked what was happening with their jobs. According to Phua, the employees, who work for a company contracted by Rockefeller, told him that their last ...
