After years of struggling with arbitrary and often inferior compensation, Duke postdoctoral fellows have succeeded in creating an interdepartmental alliance to lobby for their concerns. The University formally recognized the Duke University Postdoctoral Association, founded in the fall of 2001, with an award of $53,600 to provide postdocs with their own leadership structure and program funding.
DUPA began as a "cohesive group of interested people working towards a common goal - building a community and facilitating training for postdocs at many levels in the University," said Jackie Swain, vice president of DUPA and professional events committee chair.
After Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology Hubert Amrein, now faculty adviser of DUPA, persuaded several department chairs to donate money to fund the group's panel discussions and its first annual postdoc research day, the University administration soon followed. Provost Peter Lange responded favorably by acknowledging postdocs' accomplishments and awarding the organization funding with the possibility of an office.
"[The postdocs] didn't come asking without showing they were worth it," said Jo Wright, vice dean of basic sciences in the School of Medicine and professor of cell biology. "They've put on a great year... of activities, and made themselves very visible on campus."
Robert Waterland, president of DUPA and a research associate in radiation oncology, emphasized the importance of postdocs coming together to share their concerns.
"The need for a group like DUPA is increasingly important since the length of time as a postdoc is directly related to the number of postdocs in the country. There aren't enough jobs out there, and this is the last step in a period of uncertainty," he said.
Although they have already obtained their doctorates, postdocs often fill research assistant positions for two to five years to receive additional training in research fundamentals while receiving funding from their principal investigators.
"Postdocs are of the neglected kind," Amrein said. "They're in a transition stage, so they don't have a real status. They have no tenure and they work hard for low salaries."
DUPA is comprised of five committees - professional development, social events, advocacy, membership and communications. The group's main objective, however, is to set standards among postdocs. A recent DUPA-administered survey revealed large discrepancies in titles, salaries, benefits, medical coverage and vacation time by department, not by skill.
Graduate students and faculty all have standardized wages and benefits, yet postdocs "always seem to be left behind," said Susan Murphy, a postdoc in radiation oncology.
The National Institutes of Health has set national experience-based minimum salary levels for postdocs, yet Murphy said some are paid above or below this level at Duke. For example, Murphy said that postdocs who receive external grants risk losing their employee status and benefits.
"There hasn't been much postdocs could do. You would accept the grant, but only some bosses were nice enough to compensate for the loss of benefits," said Murphy.
DUPA has also been responsible for events such as career fairs, research symposiums and a panel on job interviewing techniques and writing curriculums vitae - activities that are intended to provide networking and mentoring resources to postdocs.
The lack of involvement on behalf of postdocs in the humanities has been an obstacle to DUPA, said Waterland, who hopes to make it "more inclusive of the whole University." Approximately 70 percent of all postdocs are in the sciences or medicine.
"We can't design an event to cater to [postdocs in the humanities] unless they get involved," Waterland said.
Pegeen Reichert-Powell, a postdoc in the University Writing Program, does not see this as a problem. "DUPA truly does reach out to us and meet our concerns. In the humanities, postdocs teach more, as opposed to doing research like those in the sciences. We have different primary responsibilities and concerns, and DUPA shouldn't take that into their agenda," said Reichert-Powell.
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