Graduate student Lisa Pfeifer plays with her sons Laton, 1, and Grant, 5, and their two dogs.
In 2005, graduate student Lisa Pfeifer stood in the middle of the graduate student office as she held her crying 3-month-old son, Grant, in her arms. She didn’t want to be there, but she was told she needed to come in to fix an error that left her without the grant money she needed to continue her research.
Pfeifer, whose two sons are now 1 and 5 years old, respectively, lives every day trying to carry her family with one arm while working toward completing her doctoral degree with the other.
“I’m really hyper-organized. That helps me to keep track of where I need to be and where my kids need to be” said Pfeifer, a molecular biology doctoral candidate.
And she’s not the only graduate student in this situation.
Alongside other graduate student leaders, Pfeifer is helping to implement a proposed Childbirth Accommodation Fund, which would set a universal standard that all academic departments would have to adhere to when granting graduate student assistants parental leave. Advocates say it would prevent arbitrary and unequal practices and would help assuage graduate students’ worries over whether university fellowships, assistantships and other programs would be waiting for them upon their return.
Graduate school officials said the fund will likely be in place by next academic year.
In addition to the fund, Pfeifer has suggested introducing workshops next year to inform students about the leave policy and give them parental advice, such as a list of local day care centers and a map of bathrooms with baby-changing stations. The university shouldn’t ask students to choose between professional development and the personal fulfillment that follows parenthood, Pfeifer said.
On occasion, Pfeifer said, she has had to bring her children with her to the on-campus lab and to meetings, when her roles as a mother and student conflict. But, she said, most of the people she encounters are understanding.
“It’s beautiful to watch them all together,” said Lois Reed, an administrative assistant for biology graduate students.
Although some critics have said it’s irresponsible for graduate students to start a family while they’re completing their degrees, Pfeifer said it’s all a matter of planning.
“I doubt graduate students are going to run out and start getting pregnant if they can take a few weeks of paid parental leave and maintain their full-time student status,” she said, noting becoming a graduate student mother was no accident for her.
Before the births of her two sons, Pfeifer said she planned her due dates near the summer months to stay on track with her graduate studies.
“I was very lucky I got pregnant when I wanted do,” Pfeifer said. “If the timing had been different, then I would’ve been a mom with a newborn exhausted and probably not able to work and do my best in the lab or in the classroom but still needing to have income to support myself.”
Pfeifer noted coordinating with her husband was key. The couple began to plan for family only after Pfeifer’s husband finished his graduate studies and found a job.
“I have a very loving, supportive husband. By supportive I mean emotionally, financially, intellectually,” Pfeifer said. “I probably wouldn’t have considered having children during graduate school if my husband was not employed. Having a stable financial situation was a really big thing for me.”
She emphasized that having a family doesn’t need to slow you down.
Throughout her time at this university, Pfeifer has earned the respect of many university leaders with positions on the Graduate Student Government assembly and the University Senate. As a two-term senator from 2005 to 2007, Pfeifer participated in a group interview of Graduate School Dean Charles Caramello and Provost Nariman Farvardin before they were appointed to their positions.
She has won numerous awards for her civic activity at the university, including the President’s Commission on Women’s Issues Graduate Student Award this year.
“She’s the go-to for maternity resources,” GSG President Anupama Kothari said. “She guided me. She’s essentially a mother figure on campus.”
Pfeifer planned Kothari’s baby shower, which was canceled at the last minute when Kothari unexpectedly went into labor.
“Until today we still talk about being graduate students and being mothers,” Kothari said.
Despite her long list of commitments, Pfeifer anticipates on finishing her dissertation at the end of this summer. After she finishes her post-doctorate work at the National Institutes of Health, she would like to become a professor, she said.
“She has this incredible energy to tackle a lot of things in addition to her very active research life,” said Reed, who has maintained a friendship with Pfeifer since she first began her graduate studies. “She has gone beyond the call of duty because of her willingness to help other graduate students.”
quijada@umdbk.com
