Hidden Curriculum in Academic Departments

Maybe this is more of a vent than a thought or observation.

The story begins when I show up at the office I share w/other M.S. students to find a Ph.D. student settling in; rearranging desks and so on like it's nobody's business. Enter office/room key-master, stating "surprise! You no longer have an office! Didn't you get an email?" (essentially).  Of course I didn't, and I told him so.  He then told me that, since I was actively using the space I'm being kicked out of, that I would need to move else where.

Long story short, I notified the others (surprise!), and saw floor plans indicating that all graders (masters-level students with little-no funding are to work on the bottom floor. In cubicles, not a shared office. And have them tell it, us masters students were lucky to have an office at all, since we're not technically funded (we're only paid as if it were a regular-paying job).

Now, here's where the  rant begins.  In a program and (former) department where social justice seems to be one of the main foci/staple (making them famous among academic peers, so I've been told), it sure does seem like the layout and treatment of students is hierarchical.  I initially thought the school was innovate in treating M.S. students as pseudo-equals with the office spaces, intermingling with PhD students.  Now it seems that someone is reinforcing the hierarchy and sending out the message that M.S. students are indeed at the bottom, and hardly worthy of much of anything, shown by the office-space type layout in which we now inhabit as less-than-T.A's.

I dunno, for some reason, I find this to be an injustice, researching and 'resisting' existing institutional power structures, yet re-enforcing them within the departmental walls.  Hypocrisy is more like it. Way to rebel against those institutional hierarchies and oppressive structures. Way to stratify and isolate MS and PHD students (well, the PhD students are in more of a cohabitative setting).

I'll make edits to this later. For now, though, this sucks monkey-butt.