A group of UE Local 1122-Northwestern University Graduate Workers members has created a monthly grassroots newsletter called “What’s Up Doc?” to educate the public about science and healthcare — and they want to hear from UE members. Their goal is to provide answers in accessible language to bring scientific knowledge to the broader public, and they encourage UE members to send in any questions they have about the doctor’s office, public health, or biomedical research by submitting questions to whatsupdocchicago@gmail.com.
The newsletter is written by both researchers and clinicians. They are encouraging all types of questions to be sent in.
Local 1122-NUGW member Lucy Luo said, “We were seeing a gap between the public’s understanding of science and our own understanding of it. We wanted to bridge that gap and start a dialogue. We want to answer questions and address them in a plain-language way.”
As members of UE, Luo and her co-editor and fellow Local 1122 member Anthea Weng, understand that health and workers’ rights are interconnected. In an interview with the UE NEWS, they mentioned the current funding crisis in higher education. “Northwestern has been disproportionately affected by the funding freeze,” said Weng, “and we realized that this is a big issue for everyone. This isn’t just a black box for scientists, this has a lot to do with all people.” The two members are firm believers that scientific knowledge should be shared with everyone. In an email Luo sent, she said, “As unionized Ph.D. students, we believe that part of our role is to communicate the value of research, and the researchers behind it, to the communities that make our work possible.”
Weng also said, “We unionized and a part of that is recognizing that we are workers. These universities and institutions are fundamental to society and we want to make [scientific research] more relatable to a broader audience in that sense.”
Subscribe to What’s Up Doc? at https://whatsupdoc-chicago.squarespace.com/subscribe; submit questions at whatsupdocchicago@gmail.com.