free food phd comics

Piled Higher and Deeper #1

Piled higher and deeper: a graduate student comic strip collection.

"Piled Higher and Deeper" the comic strip is currently read by grad students from over 300 universities and from around the world.

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think? Rate this book Write a Review

Friends & Following

Community reviews.

Join the discussion

Can't find what you're looking for.

Advertisement

Free food and procrastination with jorge cham.

Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD) is a comic strip that depicts the hectic life of a grad student. Graduate Professional Council brought PhD creator Jorge Cham to campus earlier this week.

What little happiness exists in graduate school lies in precious hours of procrastination. Students eager for time excellently wasted should consider reading Piled Higher and Deeper Comics. Also known as PhD, the webcomic details the struggles of young academics. The author of these comics, Jorge Cham, recently presented a movie based on his comic and spoke at a University event sponsored by the Graduate Professional Council.

The inspiration for PhD came when Cham himself was a graduate student. “I got my Ph.D. at Stanford University studying robots that could run like cockroaches—that’s your tax dollars at work,” he joked. “An idea came up to do a comic strip about what it’s like to start off as a graduate student and what it takes to get a Ph.D. The comic is generally about academia: professors, teaching assistants and research assistants. It’s told mainly through the viewpoint of four grad students at different stages. Some are starting out, some are in the middle, and some are trying not to graduate,” Cham said.

The original strips were for the Stanford paper, but now they’re publicized online thrice weekly. “At the beginning it was very local. When it went online, I kind of very quickly realized that it had a worldwide audience. After that, I tried to make it as general as possible. I then started traveling to other universities, so that opened up a lot of new material, like grad students at the University of New Mexico who scan the skies with radio telescopes,” Cham said.

The strip’s immense popularity eventually led to demands for a movie. Cham weighed the idea for a while and eventually accepted. “So one day I just decided to do it. I had the idea of doing it all with real graduate students. The story is about real people, their passions and struggles. You don’t really think of them as people. They grade your papers, but you don’t think of their lives.”

About 400 students attended the screening, proof of the strip’s popularity here. The film portrays many aspects of Cham’s graduate experience, from the simple joys to the awkward interactions.

“Free food is a big part of graduate student life. You’re always trying to save a dollar,” Cham explained. “In graduate school, you’re expected to be more independent, more autonomous. Your relationship with your professor is uneasy. You’re in this state of limbo. Should they be holding your hand, or should you be totally independent. It’s a little bit vague.”

Finally, Cham praised procrastination and its benefits for a researcher. “I think we have this uneasy relationship with procrastination, but I say it’s not such a bad thing, for a couple of reasons. One, it’s actually an important part of the creative process. A lot of Eureka moments occur when someone’s mind is thinking of something else. There are scientific studies that show that if we try to focus too hard on problems it’s actually harder to solve them. Procrastination also tells you what you’re really passionate about, since you’ve chosen it over what you’re supposed to be doing. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll change careers, but it’s useful.”

Tags: free food , Jorge Cham , procrastination

Sign up for the email edition

Stay up to date with everything happening at Washington University and beyond.

20 Comics Follow the Lives of Graduate Students and the Challenges of Academia

The lives of graduate students are a unique blend of academic rigor, personal growth, and numerous challenges. These individuals are pursuing advanced degrees, such as Master’s or Ph.D. programs, and are deeply involved in research, teaching, and scholarly activities. While the pursuit of knowledge and expertise is rewarding, the path to academia is rife with its own set of challenges.

Graduate students are committed to their academic pursuits. They spend countless hours conducting research, reading scholarly articles, and preparing for exams or comprehensive assessments. The intellectual demands are high, and they must continually push the boundaries of knowledge in their field. “ PHD Comics ” perfectly captures the lives of graduate students and the challenges of academia. The comics provide a humorous and relatable window into the world of higher education, resonating with graduate students, researchers, and academics who understand the unique struggles and idiosyncrasies of academic life.

Credit: PHD Comics

For more info: Instagram | Facebook | Website

#1. How’s it going?

#2. Lab Safety

#3. Manuscript

#4. Academic edition

#5. Academic conclusions

PHD Comics, also known as Piled Higher and Deeper , is a web comic strip written and drawn by Jorge Cham . It follows the lives of several graduate students as they navigate the challenges of academia. The comic is known for its humor, insight, and relatability. PHD Comics was launched in 1997 and has quickly become a favorite among graduate students and academics alike. The comic has won numerous awards, including the Web Cartoonists’ Choice Award for Outstanding Comic Strip. He has a strong online presence through their website and Instagram account, where he has an audience of 234,000 followers.

#6. Vacations

#7. Posting on Instagram

#8. Lifestyle Influencer

#9. Different Nightmares

#10. Personal Projects

#11. Drawing

The comics humorously depict the everyday struggles, challenges, and quirks of life in academia. They often touch on topics such as research, teaching, publishing, conferences, and the academic job market. The series features a set of recurring characters, each representing different facets of the academic world, including the graduate student, the advisor, and the postdoctoral researcher. These characters are relatable to anyone who has been through or is currently in academia. Jorge Cham’s art style is simple and distinctive, making the comics easy to recognize. The characters often have exaggerated features and facial expressions, adding to the humor.

#12. Social media

#13. What about research?

#14. That’s a valid career goal

#15. What’s this?

#16. Google is bestfriend

Cham experienced firsthand the trials and tribulations of graduate school, including the long hours, intense research demands, and the emotional rollercoaster that often accompanies doctoral studies. He found that humor was an effective way to deal with the stress and challenges. Creating the webcomic served as a form of catharsis for Cham. By turning his experiences into humorous and relatable comic strips, he was able to share his frustrations and triumphs with others who were going through similar experiences. This allowed him to find humor in the often absurd world of academia.

#17. Different Views

#18. There’s a conference

#19. Can’t Avoid

#20. Still Dreaming

Share your love

Related posts.

20 Something Phantastic Comics Based on the Adventures of Pink Reaper

20 War and Peas Comics Based on Strange Situations and Dark Humor

20 Darkly Humorous Comics by Inkyrickshaw, Packed with Unexpected Twists

20 Comically Dark Comics That Will Leave You Surprised and Chuckling

Artists Craft 20 Hilarious Comics Depicting the Everyday Struggles of a Young Woman

20 Tibu Comics Shows The Heartwarming Journey of Eight Year Old Girl

20 Webcomic Name Comics Explores the Frustrations of Modern Life

20 Amity Comics Sums Up the Humor of Everyday Situations in a Relationship

20 Maaike Hartjes Based on Dark Situations for Dark Humor Lovers

20 Stana Comics Perfectly Sums Up How Everyday Life of Couples Goes On

About the author.

shahzaib ali

Leave a comment cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• Backchannel
• Newsletters
• WIRED Insider
• WIRED Consulting

Julia Powles

PHD comics' Jorge Cham on misery, hope and academia

Jorge Cham, creator of the cult comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper , or PHD, is probably the most gut-achingly funny/tragic counsellor you could recommend to a PhD student -- or to any confounded friend, lover, or parent trying to understand what he terms, with some flourish, the "global misery phenomenon" of graduate school.

Cham is a full-time cartoonist, but the deep scars wrought by a PhD programme (in robotic engineering) remain his constant muse.

His webcomic has been running since he started grad school in 1997, is syndicated worldwide, and attracts a loyal following among that peculiar breed of poorly-paid, slightly masochistic overachievers, bravely hunting the frontiers of knowledge, free food, most random societies on campus, and unrequited supervisor approval.

PHD follows the travails of four main characters in grad school: the nameless, hapless hero that bears considerable resemblance to Jorge; Cecilia, the reluctant geek constantly frustrated by undergraduates; Tajel, the free-living social sciences student always willing to rally for a cause; and Mike Slackenerny, that person -- every research group has one -- who has been there longer than anyone can remember. The students' harried encounters with the demanding, loveless Professor Smith and absent-minded Professor Jones form the foundation for many priceless recurring gags, poking fun at the lows of grad student life.

Recently, Jorge was in the UK on an academic world tour , talking about 'The power of procrastination'. His thesis has something for all of us -- grad students and otherwise.

The power of procrastination

"The first thing to note", says Cham, "is that procrastination is not the same thing as laziness. Laziness is when you don't want to do anything. Procrastination, its close but distinct cousin, is when you don't want to do the one thing you really ought to be doing, right now. It's not that you don't want to do it, it's just that you find doing everything else possible, from some completely obscure hobby to categorising the entire internet, like the Yahoo dudes did when their supervisor was on summer break, more appealing."

How much time do you spend on a given comic?

I doodle and brainstorm on a notebook I always carry with me. It can take anywhere from five minutes to eight hours to work out a comic. Drawing it on the computer (using a Cintiq) usually only takes one hour.

Simon Singh has written a whole book about mathematics and The Simpsons . Have you got some examples of deep-coded nerd gags in your comics?

I always try to generalise things because my audience spans so many disciplines, but I do have a running gag that pi/2 is always the answer, and I've lost count how many times I've hidden 1.57 into my comics over the years.

Can you give away anything about your characters?

Increasing the ratio of female professors is a big topic I hope to address in the future. The nameless grad student was given a name in The PHD Movie (the film adaptation of the comics), but it's not clear yet whether that's canon or not.

The comics will eventually follow the characters to the completion of their time in grad school. One graduated several years ago (and is now a Post-doc), and I think another will graduate in the next year or two.

Gabrielle Caplan

You mentioned The PHD Movie . I've heard there's a sequel in the pipeline. Tell us about it.

Yes, we're trying to make a sequel to The PHD Movie ! A few years ago we made what I think is the first independent movie adaptation of a webcomic, and it was a great success in the academic world. It screened at over 500 universities and research centres worldwide (including Antarctica) and got great reviews.

Recently, I've gotten a lot of inquiries whether we're going to make a follow-up so I decided to give the fans a chance to make it happen by launching a Kickstarter . What's different about these movies is that they involve real scientists, researchers and staff members at a real top university (Caltech) in the acting and producing roles.

Part of the message we want to convey is that people in academia are not robots, that they have different passions, talents and even a sense of humour. So, the movie is in the hands of the internet to make it a reality.

Do you have a favourite PHD series?

I started listing out some of my favourite series, but then I realised another reason it's great to be a creator online is that it sort of doesn't matter how many people appreciate any particular piece of work you do. As long as you create something that has meaning to you, you will most likely find others who also connect with it, and the connection will probably be deeper than if you tried to create something that you think everyone would like. It's also easier to take risks because if people didn't particularly like something you did, you have your whole archive there for people to also sample and find something they like.

Is there one comic that stands out as particularly special to you?

One particular comic I've done that comes to mind is a version of Alice in Wonderland where Cecilia gets pulled through her monitor into Thesisland, as a metaphor for her feeling lost on her research. It's a series of comics I feel that works on different levels (character, arc, story, artwork, punch-lines). I also wrote and drew them during the first few weeks my son was born, so it's special also because I was somewhat inspired by that. It's not one I'm particularly famous for, but every once in a while someone will come up to me to say it's their favourite too.

You can see the 11 part series online, starting here and ending here .

The PHD Movie is available to watch for free all this month . You can fund the sequel through this Kickstarter campaign

This article was originally published by WIRED UK

Angela Watercutter

Brian Barrett

Jennifer M. Wood

Reece Rogers

• Help Discord Forums Newsfeed Contact Merch Shop
• Log in or Sign up

Best of PHD Comics

Oct 17, 2014

We're all in this together.

Comments ( 6 )

Top comment

Is there any free food?

Recommendation for you

Recommendation

Long Exposure

LGBTQ+ 2.3m likes

Vamp Sabbath

Mystery 379.5k likes

Out of the Blue

Romance 2.4m likes

Slice of life 2.8m likes

Heartstopper

LGBTQ+ 6.7m likes

Bound-The Contract

BL 1.4m likes

Feeling lucky

Random series you may like

11.1m views 21.1k subscribers

323 episodes

8.8k views 90 likes 6 comments

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebComic/PhD

Webcomic / PHD

Edit locked.

The comics depict the typical life of graduate students in Stanford University: how they obsess about ever getting their theses completed, struggle to make ends meet with their meager stipends, wonder why life is passing them by, and slack off while their supervisors aren't looking.

Contains examples of:

• Absent-Minded Professor : Almost all of the Research Advisors introduced. They can barely remember the students' name, and hardly ever bother to read their thesis draft.
• Adaptation Name Change : Cecelia's advisor Professor Jones is named Professor Chu in the movies.
• All Issues Are Political Issues : Tajel often carries protest signboards for various causes.
• Ambiguously Brown : Dee's friend has a dark skin, but he has no name or distinctive features to determine his actual race (unlike Tajel, who we know is half-Indian from her mother).
• Batman Gambit : During Cecelia's thesis defense in the second film, her advisor Professor Chu gets an adversarial committee member to endorse her thesis by agreeing with him that an additional year of work is needed, knowing that he will change his mind to be Commander Contrarian .
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs : The "How You Spend Your Time" pie chart has a Sports & Leisure section which consist of surfing the internet, doing sports, and reading about sports while surfing the Internet.
• Call-Back : Mike teaches the protagonist how to distract with graphs, which unfortunately doesn't work too well for him. Mike himself does it over a year later, with more success.
• When we see Tajel interact with Prof. Rivera for the first time, he was lamenting her lack of apparent seriousness in her studies, especially when she chose to write about "The Grad student of Academia" for her research topic. Nowadays, their dynamics are reversed, as Rivera becomes the most egregious example of Absent-Minded Professor who never reads Tajel's draft and gives her useless advice, while Tajel desperately tries to get his support in writing her thesis.
• Professor Smith changed too. Originally he was The Faceless , then started to become more of an Absent-Minded Professor who tries to blend in with the students despite being clueless of their trends. Later, he just became a professor with a serious Lack of Empathy .
• Chekhov's Gunman : Early in the second movie, Allison points out Dr. Dukosky as the founder of their field, but the latter is surrounded by other conference attendees at the time and cannot be seen. Later during conference presentations, the Nameless Hero has a casual conversation with an old lady who turns out to be Dr. Dukosky, and she provides him with helpful advice in a subsequent scene.
• Child Prodigy : Professor Jones's daughter is only a first year in elementary school, but is intelligent enough to fix Mike's research data.
• Comic-Book Time : Every year, the strip features the characters celebrating birthdays, summer vacations and various holidays, but despite their constant complains that they're never graduating, they never seem to actually age. Cecelia lampshades this in one of her birthday strips, in which she decided that the time she spends in grad school doesn't count to her age, because it's basically living in a vacuum.
• Cool Old Lady : The second movie has Dr. Dukosky, the highly respected founder of the Nameless Hero's field of study, who takes the time to strike up a friendly conversation with him and offers him advice.
• Scott all but disappeared from the storyline after he broke up with Cecilia.
• Played for Laughs with Gerard, the token Humanities student, who was told by the PHD Comics management that he should either change his major or leave the comics altogether. He was then forced to attend a hearing to justify his existence, and had not appeared ever since.
• Creative Closing Credits : The first film overlays the credits on top of academic paperwork, accompanied by sketches of the cast and crew in the art style of the comics.
• Cuteness Overload : Most of the campus faculty practically melts at the sight of Mike's baby daughter, Sophy. He exploits this to distract them while he steals food from associations he doesn't belong to.
• Demoted to Extra : In the first film, Mike and Tajel were important supporting characters who gave guidance to the Nameless Hero and Cecelia respectively. In the second film, their roles are diminished, only getting some token lines and scenes that for most part don't directly affect the main plot.
• Divergent Character Evolution : In the earlier strips , all the University professors were portrayed as a collective group of sinister, faceless Hive Mind who goes out their way to make the students' lives more difficult, especially during Quals. Now, they're mostly given distinct appearance and personalities: Professor Smith is still the mean Stern Teacher , Professor Jones tries to be helpful but is often scatterbrained, Professor Rivera is very flippant and easygoing, but doesn't really pay attention to what his students are doing.
• Education Through Pyrotechnics : The machines used for experimental research frequently blow up in people's faces.
• The Faceless : Most of the research advisors don't get drawn in the comic panels, at least in the earlier strips. No longer the case since the 2003 strips.
• Failure Is the Only Option : To keep going, the series needs the characters to remain grad students, meaning they have to postpone the completion of their respective theses indefinitely. Mike ultimately subverts this; having been the oldest grad student for several years, he finally manages to finish his dissertation after years of procrastination and graduate, but stays anyway as a member of the teaching staff.
• Fourth-Wall Observer : Tajel takes this role in the movies. She addresses the audience at the end of both films, and refers to herself as a "secondary character" in the first movie.
• Gag Series : The main point of the strips are to make jokes about the life (or lack thereof) of a grad student, and make fun of the research advisors and Academia in general. When the strips go for more detailed plot and character development, some readers actually complain.
• Ignored Aesop : A Smithmas Carol ends with Smith reflecting on his life's journey and concluding with this: Prof. Smith: Eh, who cares? I've got tenure.
• Limited Wardrobe : Probably justified considering how cash-strapped the characters are. In any case, they are almost always depicted in the same outfits.
• Living Prop : Discussed in-universe regarding the status of grad students. Apparently, the faculty would be more likely to notice an actual missing furniture than they would a missing student.
• Meta Guy : Gerard, the Humanities student Recurring Character , only exists to represent another Grad School department apart from engineering. He's definitely aware of this, and most of his appearances have him address the readers in some way.
• Misery Poker : A humorous variation took place during the PhD widows meeting between Scott and Jenny as they ranted on their respective partners, Cecelia and Mike. Scott: Cecelia seems to have lost her way... She has a lot of work ethic but lacks purpose. Jennifer: My husband, on the other hand, has a baby on the way, but his work is pathetic and slacks on purpose.
• Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher : Cecelia's teaching style has shades of this in the first movie; she prepares baked goods for her students and comes up with an interpretive dance (complete with props and rhymes) to introduce the course material to them. She is eventually discouraged from doing this by the undergrads' seeming apathy, but returns to it enthusiastically once she gets out of her funk.
• Named by the Adaptation : In the movies, the Nameless Grad Student's name is given as Winston.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat : Faced by Mike when submitting his thesis (he has to come back because the layout isn't in perfect conformity with university rules), by Tajel when applying for a visa, and by the main character when trying to get reimbursed for travel.
• Promoted to Love Interest : The second film pairs up Cecelia and Winston (the Nameless Grad Student), though this is only revealed to the audience at the end .
• Recurring Character : Scott. He's Cecelia's boyfriend, but since he's not a Stanford student, he is actually featured less frequently than the nameless Living Props that are the Engineering Grad students. Lampshaded by Tajel when he suddenly shows up after a long absence. "Scott? I feel I haven't seen him in years
• Relationship Reveal : Throughout the second film, Cecelia and Winston (the Nameless Grad Student) are both shown receiving texts from an unrevealed party. It is revealed at the end that they had been texting each other and are romantically involved, following a Ship Tease at the end of the first film .
• Rhymes on a Dime : A lot of the comics' punchlines come from characters bantering with each other in rhymes. One example is the Misery Poker mentioned earlier, and another is the following exchange between Cecelia and her advisor. Cecelia: I have to reference... without deference? Prof. Jones: That's the preference.
• Rhyming Title : Several strips have titles such as "Webcam Labcam" and "What is... a Thesis?"
• Right in Front of Me : Upon meeting Khumalo, Tajel starts chatting him up without realizing that he's her new professor.
• Running Gag : π/2
• Sequel Hook : Near the end of the first film, Mike learns that his wife is pregnant. A sketch of their baby daughter is shown in the end credits, with "Sequel!" written next to her. She does end up appearing in the second film, though only for a brief moment in the opening montage.
• Skewed Priorities : Mike can remember "important stuffs" like who is the colorist for a particular X-Men issue, but forgets to take Quals, which he needed to graduate.
• The Slacker : While several characters are slackers to some extent, Mike Slackenerny stands head and shoulders above the rest in this regard. An eternal student, he's the PhD answer to Doonesbury 's Zonker Harris.
• She also accidentally spurts her drink on Scott when the latter mentioned that he had a job offer in London.
• Starving Student : All of the students, who live off instant ramen, and spend a lot of their time scavenging for free food.
• Mike finally graduated from his Ph.D, but he continues to stick around the campus as a Post-Doc whose activities mostly involve sleeping, napping and scavenging for free food.
• Prof. Rivera left Stanford for a position in another University, but continues to serve as Tajel's adviser. Since he barely communicate with his student or give her useful advice anyway, his departure has no virtually effect to her thesis.
• Still Got It : Prof. Smith when he finds out he can still take a nap balanced on a chair, as he used to do as a grad student.

• Though the supposed take that at Mythbusters makes it abundantly clear that he's never actually watched it and doesn't think about what the actual purpose of the show is (not to prove that something always happens, but to prove if it could happen somehow).
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue : In both films, there's a scene in which Cecelia and the Nameless Grad Student receive the same advice simultaneously from different parties at a pivotal moment. In the first film, the advice is respectively given by Tajel and Mike. In the second, it's given by the emeritus professor on Cecelia's thesis committee and Dr. Dukosky.
• Vague Age : No one really knows how old any of the characters are, since most of them are grad students who have spent countless of years in their program and not showing any signs of graduating soon, despite their constant lament that they're getting older and older as the years goes by. And given that Mike's baby daughter visibly ages over time, the setting probably doesn't run on Comic-Book Time .
• PhD - Episode 1 is based on The Phantom Menace .
• What is... The Thesis? is from The Matrix .
• Raiders of the lost dissertation is Raiders of the Lost Ark .
• Yank the Dog's Chain : During the credits of the second movie, a montage is shown of Mike's attempts to land an industry job during the conference. He is eventually offered a position... only for the employer to retract the offer when Mike starts gratuitously celebrating on the spot.

Alternative Title(s): Piled Higher And Deeper , Piled High And Deeper

• Webcomics Long-Runners
• Sluggy Freelance
• Slice-of-Life Webcomics
• Pixie and Brutus
• Penny and Aggie
• School Stories
• Rain (2010)
• Ojisan And Marshmallow
• Rooster Teeth Comics
• Short Titles
• Aroused by Their Voice
• ImageSource/Webcomics
• Eating Lunch Alone

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

Advertisement:

• Jorge earned his Bachelor's of Science from Georgia Tech.
• In 2009, he was awarded the 2009 NSF/AAAS International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge First Place in Informational Graphics with his collaborator Dwayne Godwin, a professor of Neuroscience at Wake Forest University. Their comics about the brain appeared in Scientific American Mind from 2010-2017.
• In 2011, PHD Comics was adapted into a feature-length film called " The PHD Movie ", which screened at over 500 locations worldwide, including all 7 continents. A sequel titled, " The PHD Movie 2: Still in Grad School " was produced in 2015 and also screened worldwide. Nature Journal called the movie " Astute, funny " while the New York Times wrote, " Well, Postdocs think it's funny. "
• To date, he has delivered over 400 invited lectures internationally on his experiences in academia and being an independent artist and science communicator.
• The PHD Comics website has been visited by over 60 million visitors in the last 10 years.
• Six book collections of his comics have been published (available in stores and online ).
• " We Have No Idea ," his book co-written with physicist Daniel Whiteson was published May 2017 by Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House and was a Der Spiegel Best-Seller. The book won the Wenjin National Book Award in China.
• His animated explanations of the Higgs Boson and Gravitational Waves went viral and have been viewed millions times.
• He was the subject of a question in a British Quiz Show .
• He lives near Los Angeles, CA with his family.
• He was named one of Los Angeles' most interesting people of 2013.

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• CAREER FEATURE
• 03 May 2024

Hunger on campus: why US PhD students are fighting over food

• Laurie Udesky 0

Laurie Udesky is a freelance journalist in San Francisco, California.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

You have full access to this article via your institution.

An on-campus food pantry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison helps students with insufficient money for food. Credit: M. P. King/Wisconsin State Journal/AP/Alamy

Jen Cruz’s life as a PhD student is a world away from her childhood. Although not a member of the tribe, she grew up on Yakama Indian reservation land in Wapato, Washington.

Cruz, a first-generation university student, remembers how families, including hers, would often work for local farmers or fishers in exchange for food to supplement the food stamps and free school lunches that most people on the reservation relied on to get by.

Collection: Career resources for PhD students

But once at university, Cruz found that the give and take and sense of community that had helped people to survive just didn’t exist on campus. She relied on food stamps issued by the state during her master’s degree in public health at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “I also took out loans and worked several jobs,” she says. “When the stamps ran out, I’d go to the food pantry.” These are distribution centres where people facing hunger can receive donated food, akin to food banks in other parts of the world.

Now four years into a PhD in social epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, Cruz no longer thinks of herself as food insecure — unable to count on having enough food to be active and healthy — but things are still tight in a city where the cost of living requires a single adult to earn US$62,500 annually to support themselves.

In addition to working full time on her dissertation, she does 20 hours a week as a researcher for a faculty-member colleague, and also teaches to supplement her $37,000 stipend (Harvard will be raising PhD student stipends to a minimum of $50,000 in July). She shops at a discount farmers’ market where she can buy a week’s worth of produce for $10, and she shares accommodation with two other people to minimize housing costs.

Hard evidence

A study published in February revealed that food insecurity at Harvard is not just anecdotal ( N. M. Hammad and C. W. Leung JAMA Netw. Open 7 , e2356894; 2024 ). Commissioned by the dean’s office at Harvard’s School of Public Health, the survey found that 17% of the 1,287 graduate students who responded and 13% of the 458 postdoctoral responders had experienced food insecurity — figures that were on a par with or exceeded those for the general US population (13%).

Respondents reported having to skip meals, cut down their portions and fill up on foods with little nutritional value. Some also reported feeling anxious that they wouldn’t have enough to eat. Food insecurity also correlated with respondents feeling that their housing was at risk because of difficulties with rent or mortgage payments

Widespread issue

The struggle to find enough food is a problem not just at Harvard. Food insecurity on campus is widespread in the United States and elsewhere, with one study reporting that 42% of US undergraduate students on average are unable to feed themselves what they need to stay healthy ( B. Ellison et al. Food Policy 102 , 102031; 2021 ). To lessen the struggle faced by hungry students, some 750 campuses across the United States have set up food pantries. Research is lacking on food-access issues affecting UK graduate students and postdocs, but a study of 161 UK universities found that food insecurity was “off the scales”, says developmental psychologist Greta Defeyter, who led the work, which is yet to be published. It affected 57% of first-year undergraduate and foundation-year students.

Postdocs celebrate 24% pay boost in one of the world’s most expensive cities

Food insecurity affected 20% of PhD students, “which is much higher than the UK average” of 6–10% of the general population, says Defeyter, who directs the Healthy Living Lab, a food-poverty research group based at Northumbria University in Newcastle.

A 2016 report about food insecurity at the ten campuses of the University of California (UC) system found that 25% of graduate students and 48% of undergraduates didn’t have enough to eat (see go.nature.com/49dedjx ).

“We started producing the data to go to the state and say, we have a problem and we need to do something about it,” said Suzanna Martinez, a health-behaviour epidemiologist at UC San Francisco. Martinez led the research in her previous role at the university’s Nutrition Policy Institute in Oakland, California. “Since 2016, the UC system has published updates on food insecurity and actions to address it on its campuses,” she adds. These reports can be accessed online through the university’s Basic Needs Initiative (see go.nature.com/4begaus ).

Social stigma

As well as lowering academic performance and increasing the risk of depression, food insecurity is associated with social stigma.

Gwen Chodur, now a postdoc in nutritional biology at UC Santa Cruz, was a key player in the fight for food security while a graduate student in nutrition at the UC Davis. Chodur’s monthly pay in 2016, her first year as a graduate student, was just under $1,700. A first-generation university student who hailed from ‘coal country’ in Pennsylvania, she often skipped lunch as an undergraduate at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. Despite taking on a couple of jobs while there, she says, “I was always one unanticipated expense away from not being able to finish my degree.”

When she started at UC Davis in September 2016, she explains, she didn’t get her first cheque until November, which forced her to get creative with dried beans and rice, or stock up on cans of spaghetti hoops for dinner. “It was very clear to me that higher education wasn’t designed for students like me, and that was very obvious from the first day that I set foot on campus,” she says of the deep-seated sense of impostor syndrome she felt.

PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

Chodur soon learnt that many other graduate students had similar struggles. Bolstered by this knowledge, she joined others to launch a separate food pantry, located in the Graduate Student Association office, for colleagues who felt uncomfortable going to the one on campus. “They were saying things like, ‘If I see my students there, that could undermine my authority in the classroom and it would be embarrassing,’” says Chodur.

Safyer McKenzie-Sampson spoke out about the location of the weekly free food market at UC San Francisco. McKenzie-Sampson, who was then a PhD student researching racism and adverse maternal health outcomes in Black communities, says having access to the market was helpful after spending half of her pay on rent. But a return trip to the food market took one hour from the Mission Bay campus, where she lived and worked. “There’d be a group of us with our big green bags collectively doing the walk of shame to the shuttle bus,” she says. Raising the issue repeatedly with her mentor resulted in a second food market opening at the Mission Bay Campus. “She was able to have the right conversations with the right people,” McKenzie-Sampson says.

Even so, McKenzie-Sampson still did not have enough to eat, and often had to track down free food provided at campus meetings. “I don’t know if you have heard of the example of ‘having sleep for dinner’. Well, there definitely were many nights when I had sleep for dinner,” says McKenzie-Sampson, who is now based at Stanford University in California, where she researches racism and ethnicity. She hails from Canada and, like other international students, would at that time have been ineligible for food stamps provided through the state version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Legislation introduced in California in 2021 broadened eligibility for food stamps in the state’s undergraduates. But food insecurity in graduate students rose by 14 percentage points between 2021 and 2023, after a fall of 5 percentage points between 2016 and 2021.

“At the end of the day, it’s still the dollar amount that impacts graduate students,” says Martinez, noting that their stipends are too high for them to be eligible for food stamps.

Martinez, who advises on basic necessities operations on UC campuses, also attributes the jump to cost of attendance and increases in the cost of living. She says that the 2023 Basic Needs Initiative survey on food insecurity might have been done before pay hikes for graduate students, which took effect after a long-standing and ultimately successful strike over pay and conditions ended in December 2022. According to the university’s latest report on basic necessities, between 2020 and 2023, the US consumer price index rose by 19% and food prices ratcheted up by 24%.

Meanwhile, researchers at Harvard are in the next phase of investigating food insecurity on campus, taking a deeper dive into the details of how graduate students and postdocs are weathering it and what they need. Nour Hammad, a PhD student who researches public-health nutrition and is lead author of the study, says a food pantry is planned. The research continues, she adds, “to see how food insecurity impacts academic performance, their physical and mental health, their relationships — just their whole experience”.

Until recently, Cruz was part of those efforts as leader of the Harvard Chan Alliance for Low Income and First Generation Students Organization, an advocacy group that campaigns for better food access for students in need and serves more broadly as a support system. Group chats announce where on campus students can find free food — usually leftover pizza, sandwiches and fruit from meetings.

“I would say all of us PhD students have Tupperware containers at our desks, so if there is food, we can take extra home,” says Cruz. On the day she spoke to Nature , she had scored some cooked chicken breasts: “I was like, that’s going to be my protein for the week.”

Nature 629 , 489-490 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01279-y

Related Articles

Training: Getting an academic research position

How I fled bombed Aleppo to continue my career in science

Career Feature 08 MAY 24

Illuminating ‘the ugly side of science’: fresh incentives for reporting negative results

US National Academies report outlines barriers and solutions for scientist carers

Career News 02 MAY 24

My PI yelled at me and I’m devastated. What do I do?

Career Feature 02 MAY 24

How I’m supporting other researchers who have moved to Lithuania

Spotlight 01 MAY 24

Introducing meat–rice: grain with added muscles beefs up protein

News 14 FEB 24

Eat less meat: will the first global climate deal on food work?

News 08 DEC 23

These brain cells could influence how fast you eat — and when you stop

News 22 NOV 23

Assistant Scientist/Professor in Rare Disease Research, Sanford Research

Assistant Scientist/Professor in Rare Disease Research, Sanford Research Sanford Research invites applications for full-time faculty at the rank of...

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Sanford Research

Postdoctoral Fellow - Boyi Gan lab

New postdoctoral positions are open in a cancer research laboratory located within The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The lab curre...

Houston, Texas (US)

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Experimental Radiation Oncology

Assistant Professor

Tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the Cell and Molecular Physiology Department at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Maywood, Illinois

Loyola University of Chicago - Cell and Molecular Physiology Department

Chief Editor

We are looking for a Chief Editor to build and manage a team handling content at the interface of the physical and life sciences for the journal.

London or Berlin - hybrid working model.

Springer Nature Ltd

Junior and Senior Staff Scientists in microfluidics & optics

Seeking staff scientists with expertise in microfluidics or optics to support development of new technology to combat antimicrobial resistance

Boston, Massachusetts (US)

Harvard Medical School Systems Biology Department

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

May 14, 2024

Winnipeg 10° C , Cloudy with wind

Full Forecast

• Advertising Contact
• Send a Letter to the Editor
• Staff biographies
• Submit a News Tip
• Subscribe to Newsletters
• Notifications
• Create Account
• Compact View
• About the E-Edition
• Winnipeg Free Press
• Community Review East
• Community Review West
• All Arts & Life
• Celebrities
• Environment
• Food & Drink
• Life & Style
• Science & Technology
• All Business
• Agriculture
• Personal Finance
• Manitoba’s Top Employers
• All Opinion
• Editorial Cartoon
• Letters to the Editor
• Auto Racing
• Blue Bombers
• High School
• Horse Racing
• Winnipeg Jets
• Manitoba Moose
• Reader Bridge
• Free Press 101: How we practise journalism
• Advertising
• Carrier Positions & Retailer Requests
• FP Newspapers Inc.
• Internships
• Job Opportunities
• Local Journalism Initiative
• Retail Locations
• Staff Biographies
• Terms and Conditions
• All Free Press Community Review News
• East Edition
• West Edition
• Classifieds
• All FP Features
• Business Hub
• Drink & Dine
• Health & Wellness
• Whiskers & Wings
• Sponsored Articles
• Credit Cards
• Credit Score
• Personal Loans
• Real Estate
• Side Hustles
• Property Listings
• Featured News
• Renovation and design
• Resale homes
• Newsletters
• Niigaan and the Lone Ranger
• Photo and Book store
• Become a Patron
• Privacy Policy

© 2024 Winnipeg Free Press

Quick Links

• Publications
• Sponsored Content
• Employee Code of Conduct Policy
• Supplier Code of Conduct Policy
• Report on Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains

Ways to support us

• Pay it Forward program
• Support Faith coverage
• Support Arts coverage

Replica E-Edition

Arts & Life

• Photo Galleries

Canstar Community news

Notification Settings

This browser doesn't support push notifications at the moment. Check browsers features, update your browser or try to use one from the list of recommended to manage your notifications settings:

• Firefox (27+)
• Google Chrome (30+)
• Safari ( MacOS 13+ with browser 16.1+ and iOS 16.4+ ) / Note make sure Push API support enabled under Settings > Safari > Advanced > Experimental Features
• Microsoft Edge

If you wish to manage your notification settings from this browser you will need to update your browser's settings for this site. Just click button below and allow notifications for this site

Note Safari 16.4+ working on iOS devices also need this site app to be installed at device's Home Screen for Push Notifications to work

Notifications are blocked for this site. If you wish to manage your notification settings from this browser you will need to update your browser's settings. Usually you'd need to click on site options icon to the left of address bar and change notifications preferences/permissions from there

Breaking News

Urgent and important stories

Recommended Reads

Noteworthy news and features

Advertisement

Learn more about Free Press Advertising solutions

Representing Gaza: Artists are using social media-based comics as resources and resistance

Advertise with us

This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site.

Read this article for free:

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Monthly Digital Subscription

$19 $0 for the first 4 weeks *

• Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
• Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
• Access News Break, our award-winning app
• Play interactive puzzles

*No charge for 4 weeks then billed as $19 every four weeks (new subscribers and qualified returning subscribers only). Cancel anytime.

Read unlimited articles for free today:

Author: Amy Mazowita, PhD Candidate & 2023-2024 Public Scholar, Concordia University

Comics and graphic narratives have long been used to document the events of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both by people visiting and reporting on the region, as well as by Palestinians and Israelis.

Prominent texts include comic book artist and journalist Joe Sacco’s Palestine, a detailed and visually chaotic account of the artist’s visit to Gaza and Sarah Glidden’s How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, a travelogue detailing the cartoonist’s experience as a Jewish-American tourist in Israel.

There is also Guy Delisle’s Jerusalem, a story about living in Israel as a French-Canadian ex-pat, Palestinian artist Leila Abdelrazaq’s Baddawi, a historical and familial retelling of life in a Lebanese refugee camp and Palestinian political cartoonist Naji al-Ali’s A Child in Palestine, a collection of political cartoons featuring a now-iconic child named Handala. Israeli comic book artist Rutu Modan’s Exit Wounds recounts a love story set against the backdrop of a suicide bombing.

My previous writing explored how How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less reflects the artist/author’s complicated journey of self- and cultural discovery. As a Jewish American woman embarking on an Israeli-funded Birthright Trip, Glidden faces the violence enacted by the Israeli state. The book highlights Glidden’s quest for an authentic representation of Israeli and Palestinian lived realities, and her journey towards self-acceptance.

Personal memory and reflection — whether about identity versus culture or lived experience versus political unrest — has been a common thread across many graphic representations.

Comics and illustration can be powerful forms of witness in their capacity to juxtapose text and image. While some illustrators or cartoonists have replicated antisemitic, orientalist and anti-Arab stereotypes, taking up the long-established visual negative stereotypical tropes, others seek to document, educate and empathize with victims. The use of negative visual tropes is not limited to graphic representations of Israel and Palestine, but a widespread phenomenon that manifests in various dehumanizing and hateful iterations across the visual arts. In this article, I focus not on the stereotypes we might find in comics related to Israel and Palestine, but instead prioritize how they are acting as networked resources.

Here, I discuss how creators have recently taken to social media to share short comics about what many experts say is the Palestinian genocide in real time.

Evocative illustrations

Palestinian artists such as Mohammad Sabaaneh (@sabaaneh on Instagram), author of Power Born of Dreams: My Story is Palestine and Palestine in Black and White, offers regular updates about events in Gaza while highlighting the artist’s criticism of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In one post, Sabaaneh illustrates the word “Gaza” as if it were carved from large stones, and the word “genocide” spelled out across a series of rockets.

Sabaaneh’s evocative illustrations have been featured in the Washington Post alongside the work of other Palestinian and Israeli cartoonists who are similarly sharing their critiques of the ongoing violence.

Sabaaneh, along with other Palestinian artists, are joined by western illustrators who are similarly using their social networks to draw attention to the IDF military incursion and its deadly effects.

Networks of care

These digital comics are circulated among platform users and provide an accessible outlet for processing emotion, showing solidarity and disseminating knowledge.

This is in line with media and communication scholar Fredrika Thelandersson’s research on mental health and social media, which argues that platform users “leverage platform affordances to create networks of care based in mutual experience.” It is also reflective of my work on how social media-based comics are operating as alternative mental health resources.

While the comics I point to in this article allow artists to process their feelings towards the conflict, they are also a crucial form of resistance to the ongoing attacks on Gaza and surrounding areas.

Cartoonist Lynda Barry, who uses the handle @thenearsightedmonkey on Instagram, has consistently used Instagram to showcase her protest, sharing what the artist calls “Ceasefire Balloons.” In these drawings, Barry uses balloons to represent the growing death count of Palestinian children. UN experts say 14,500 children have been killed by Israel’s military since early May following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed at least 33 Israeli children.

Barry’s posts are often met with messages of support and empathy from followers. Her activist work has also translated into a fundraising project, with paintings of “Ceasefire Balloons” being sold on Etsy in support of the Middle East Children’s Alliance.

Montréal author and illustrator Sandra Dumais has also taken up a practice of creating comics that reflect her response to the ongoing attacks while simultaneously spreading messages of awareness and solidarity.

In her March 4 post, Dumais shares a single panel comic that reflects on the privileged realities of life in the West against the backdrop of what is happening in Gaza. Dumais has also leveraged her artwork as a means of raising funds.

Witnessing from afar

Artists like Barry and Dumais share their responses to the Palestinian genocide from a privileged western perspective that is secondary to the experiences of the Palestinian people who are living through it. These artists and others use the juxtaposition of text and image to represent the emotional toll of witnessing from afar, while also sharing messages that denounce the actions of the IDF.

By doing so, these webcomics join global calls for a ceasefire and serve as a means of virtual activism by way of community-enacted resistance. Artists and platform users interact with and take up each other’s work as a way of creating a digital social movement.

‘Being together alone’

This is reminiscent of what social media scholars studying mental health communities, such as Natalie Ann Hendry, refer to as “being together alone,” where people working through experiences find community, solidarity and support in popular online spaces.

I point to these western artists as an example of how comics and social media are working as a conduit for amplifying the experiences of marginalized communities across geographical borders.

Comics not only show what is happening in Gaza through illustration, but also provide an alternative to mainstream perspectives. This means two things: these webcomics are functioning as emotional outlets for the artists, as well as intentional acts of solidarity and resistance. ___

Amy Mazowita’s research is by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. ___

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/representing-gaza-artists-are-using-social-media-based-comics-as-resources-and-resistance-226881

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Featured Local Savings

Opinion | Crucial, not cruel and unusual: The Supreme…

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Opinion Columns
• Guest Commentary
• Letters to the Editor
• Editorial Board
• Endorsements

Opinion | Crucial, not cruel and unusual: The Supreme Court weighs homelessness regulations

The class action lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of anti-camping ordinances in a small Oregon town, but the impact of the Justices’ ruling will be especially strong here in California. More than 123,000 Californians  don’t have shelter – nearly half of the total unsheltered population in the US.

While the challengers in Grants Pass argue that camping bans effectively criminalize homelessness, public officials contend that these ordinances are a critical tool to address public safety issues that arise from homeless encampments. About 30 California cities and counties, as well as the League of California Cities, have filed amicus briefs  supporting Grants Pass.

San Francisco and Sacramento, like Grants Pass, have been under injunctions from federal courts that prevent or delay enforcement of anti-camping laws based on the 2018 Martin v. Boise decision. That ruling asserts that arresting or citing people for sleeping on public property violates the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause if the individuals have nowhere else to go.

The Martin decision has left municipalities with few options to address encampments if shelter availability can’t be confirmed on the spot. This, of course, is a nearly impossible task for public safety officers given that the number of open shelter beds is constantly in flux. But many public officials, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed  and Governor Gavin Newsom , argue that prohibiting local governments from clearing encampments is neither a workable nor compassionate policy for addressing homelessness.

In our 2022 Hoover Institution  report on the state of homelessness in California, we highlighted that law enforcement plays a crucial role in addressing the challenges faced by the unsheltered. Finding practical solutions has only become more relevant as the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness continues to grow.

Encampments can be serious safety and environmental hazards, as well as hotbeds for criminal activity  like drug dealing  and violence . San Francisco firefighters responded to over 680 encampment fires  in the first 300 days of 2023 alone, and earlier this year a Los Angeles fire captain was injured by an explosion  while battling an encampment fire.

Opponents of camping bans argue that they perpetuate a cycle of interactions with the justice system, but this ignores the reality that these ordinances are key tools used by law enforcement to motivate homeless individuals to accept social services. In fact, many camping ordinances require advance warnings and multiple citations before any arrests can be made.

The Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on Grants Pass will be a monumental one for California officials struggling to end homelessness. Californians know well that solving homelessness requires an expansive toolbox, and anti-camping ordinances are a key lever for encouraging people to get the help they need.

The court should give the power to address homelessness and maintain public safety back to the municipalities who deal with these issues firsthand, rather than constitutionalizing a right to vagrancy from the bench.

Joshua Rauh is the Ormond Family Professor of Finance at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Jillian Ludwig is the research program manager for the Hoover Institution’s State and Local Governance Initiative . They are authors of “ Homelessness in California: Practical Solutions for a Complex Problem “

• Newsroom Guidelines
• Report an Error

More in Opinion

Opinion | The American labor market: Fact vs. Fiction

Opinion | Tackling California’s high cost-of-living: A roadmap to affordability

Opinion | Inland Empire school districts are doing the right thing in upholding parental rights

Opinion | Newsom’s proposed spending cuts spur backlash from affected California groups

                          PIZZA Cheese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6.99 | $10.99 Pepperoni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   $6.99 | $10.99 Sausage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    .      $6.99 | $10.99 Supreme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    .   .     $16.99 | $18.99 Carnivore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    .   .   .   $16.99 | $18.99 1 Topping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6.99 | $10.99

                appetizers fries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2.50 cheese fries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3.50 chili cheese fries . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3.99 onion rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $5.99 nachos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    $6.99 bbq nachos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7.99 fried green tomatoes . . . . . . . .    $5.99 fried mushrooms . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $5.99 fried pickles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .         $5.99 cheese bites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    $6.49,     burgers & sandwiches               (served with fries) hamburger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $9.99 cheeseburger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     $9.99 bacon cheeseburger . . . . . . . . . . $10.49 smokehouse burger . . . . . . . . . . . $10.49 texas toast burger . . . . . . . . . . .   .    $8.50 philly cheese steak . . . . . . . . . . .  .    $9.99 grilled chicken sandwich . . . . . .     $9.99 fried chicken sandwich . .  . . . . .      $9.99 bbq sandwich . . . . . . . . . . .   .    . . . .     $9.99,                  hotdogs classic dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5.99 chili cheese dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7.99 chicago dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $7.99,                  deserts ice cream cup . . . . . . . . . . . . .   . . . . $3.99 brownie sundae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5.99 cookie sundae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5.99  , m           l,            wings & tenders               (served with fries) 6ct boneless w ings . . . . . . . . . . . .   $8.99 10ct boneless wings . . . . . . . . . . . $10.99 6ct bone-in wings . . . . . . . . . . . . . $9.99 10ct bone-in wings . . . . . . . . . . . . $15.99 3ct tenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7.99 6ct tenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $11.99   wing sauces mild ,   ​ hot ,   bbq ,   tangy gold ,   lemon pepper ,   mango habanero ,   boom boom,                 kids meals                (served with fries) mini corn dogs . . . . . . . . .   . . . . . . .    $5.99 chicken rings . . . . . . . . .   . . . . . . . .     $5.99,                beverages coca-cola products . . . . . . . . . . .     $1.99 sweet & unsweet tea . . . . . . . . .    $1.99 coke float . . . . . . . . . .     . . . . . . . . . . .    $3.99 root beer float .     . . . . . . . . . . .    .     . .    $3.99, jupiter cafe.