Syracuse University’s Graduate Student Organization is working with the Graduate School to increase the minimum stipend of graduate student employees.

Mackenzie Ess, co-chair of GSO’s Employment Issues Committee, and GSO President Mirjavad Hashemi are in conversations with the Graduate School about how to raise wages without decreasing the number of jobs available to graduate students, Ess said.

A GSO survey conducted in December found that while the average cost of attendance for SU graduate students employees is $22,432, the average self-reported stipend for graduate students is only $18,634.74, Ess said.

“There are graduate assistants on full assistantships who are making as low as $15,840 for their annual stipend,” said Lucas Hann, a member of the GSO Employment Issues Committee. “It is 100% the obligation of the GSO to advocate on behalf of raising the minimum stipend to graduate assistants.

The Graduate School is working closely with academic deans to make graduate student stipends more favorable compared to SU’s peer institutions, Graduate School Dean Peter Vanable said in a statement to The Daily Orange.

SU’s Graduate School introduced nearly $1 million in new doctoral student funding opportunities in fall 2019, Vanable said. These include support for 36 new fellowships and research assistants in 16 academic departments, he said.

The estimated living wage for people in Onondaga County is $22,991, according to a living wage calculator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. GSO’s 2019 survey found the average self-reported yearly cost of living for graduate students is about $19,000, Ess said.

“The administration knows exactly how little graduate students are making and they know that you can’t live on that amount of money,” Hann said.

If graduate employees are not paid enough to cover their living expenses, they may lack reliable access to nutrition or healthcare, which impacts their physical well-being, Ess said.

“Psychological well-being is also incredibly important, especially when we’re being evaluated as graduate students primarily on our ability to perform academically,” Ess said. “Being able to be secure financially and know that we’ll be able to pay rent next month is very important.”

While the average stipend graduate students reported in the survey was $18,634.74, the numbers vary widely, Ess said. This is because many master’s students receive no stipend, Ess said.

Academic departments determine the wages, workload and number of positions available for graduate student employees, Hashemi said. This makes it difficult to negotiate stipend increases on a university-wide level, she said.

Hashemi added that the difference between the wages of graduate teaching assistants, instructional assistants and other graduate employees makes negotiating for better wages complex.

“We are hoping for a good move on this and the graduate school is in the same boat as us. They believe we should work to raise wages,” Hashemi said. “But we should consider how much with accurate data.”

Hann, who is also a member of Syracuse Graduate Employees United, agreed with Hashemi that protecting the availability of jobs for graduate students is a factor to look into. But graduate students are essential to SU’s functions, and they deserve to be paid as such, he said.

Most graduate students balance several responsibilities, which include teaching multiple classes, running the writing centers and scheduling tutoring hours, Hann added.

“We are at a billion-dollar university with a massive budget surplus,” Hann said. “It is a false dilemma to say that if we raise wages we are going to have fewer positions. They have the money to pay us a living wage and hire more people so the workload is more reasonable for graduate students.”

Ultimately, Ess said, the issue of graduate student wages comes down to how much universities prioritize and value their graduate students.

“In reality, research universities depend on the labor being done by graduate students to succeed,” she said.

Published on February 12, 2020 at 9:17 pm

Contact Richard: rjchang@syr.edu | @RichardJChang1