ABOVE: graduate students held a press conference at UPR’s Río Piedras campus on Wednesday.
BIANCA VALDÉZ, UPR
Hundreds of graduate students at the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras campus were paid late or still haven’t received payment for their work as research or teaching assistants since the semester started in mid-August, according to a statement released by students on Wednesday (October 9) and shared with The Scientist. The university blames recent changes in processing paperwork as the cause of the delays, but students say it’s been an ongoing issue for years.
“Graduate students have fulfilled their part of the contract and began to work as stipulated in this, however, they have not been paid,” Eddie Perez, a fourth-year masters student at UPR Río Piedras and the student representative of UPR’s biology department, writes to The Scientist in an email.
Many have taken to Twitter over the past week to express ...
