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UPDATED: May 13, 2022, at 12:45 a.m.

Everything Yousr Dhaouadi earns as a doctoral student at Syracuse University she spends on necessary expenses.

“My entire lab is made up of six or seven Ph.D. students, and they all … can’t keep up with their monthly expenses,” said Dhaouadi, a graduate student in the School of Engineering and Computer Science who currently serves as the president of the Graduate Student Organization.

This past semester, GSO ran a survey on pay for Ph.D. students at SU. Of the 133 students surveyed, the mean monthly stipend was shy of $2,000. In total, SU has 1,400 doctoral students on campus, according to the university’s website. While the university plans to increase the value of doctoral stipends in the fall, Dhaouadi said student funding isn’t enough.

Doctoral students at SU can also receive a stipend over the summer, but among those surveyed, the average monthly summer stipend was 48.5% less than the school-year’s monthly average, Dhaouadi said.

Michael Ammoury, a doctoral student studying civil engineering and a member of the GSO senate, said summer wages were a “big issue” brought up during GSO Senate meetings.

Dhaouadi and members of the GSO senate have elevated the priority of summer funding, Graduate Student Dean Peter Vanable wrote in a statement to The Daily Orange. A portion of COVID-19 relief funding for doctoral students was allocated to provide twice as many summer funding fellowships this year, Vanable wrote.

The current average stipend at SU is also inconsistent with outside factors, such as dependents and cost of living, Dhaouadi added.

According to the National Science Foundation, 55.7% of doctorate degrees awarded go to those 31 or older. In New York state, 49% of new mothers were between the ages of 30 and 39, putting many doctoral students in the age bracket to be having children.

Vanable’s office will be working with GSO on raising funding for summer fellowships and overall stipends, he said. The two groups also plan to finalize a “parental accommodation policy,” which would provide both academic and financial support for graduate students who elect to become a parent while attending SU, Vanable said. Whether or not the policy will accommodate students who are already parents is not clear.

Dhaouadi said the university’s stipends currently do not allow students to grow personally over their graduate years.

SU graduate students, on average, spend $11,136 per year on housing, making up over half of what the university considers “indirect expenses” for students. Other indirect expenses include books, transportation and meals. Dhaouadi said current stipends are not sufficient given Syracuse’s cost of living.

For the upcoming academic year, stipends will increase by an average of 3%, Vanable said.

“Deans are not directed to uniformly increase stipends at a set rate, but rather to provide strategic increases in departments where they are most needed,” he said.

He added that since 2015, the minimum stipend for teaching assistantships for doctoral students has increased by 31%.

While Dhaouadi said stipend raises are helpful, a 3% bump will not make a large impact for her.

“If my increase (in pay) is $30 or $40 a month, I get two paychecks a month, that’s $60 a month,” she said. Rent for some students, she said, can increase by $300. “It doesn’t do much.”

Student stipends also vary greatly between different areas of study. One information management and technology student reported in the survey an average monthly salary of $1,200, while another person majoring in communications received $2,800 in funding.

However, all three students — Dhaouadi, Okanlawon and Ammoury — have had positive experiences with the graduate school.

Both Dhaouadi and Vanable agreed that the partnerships between GSO and administrators have been collaborative. Dhaouadi described the dean’s style as “hands-on”.

Okanlawon, who serves on the GSO’s Diversity Committee, also works with faculty to advocate for international students. He suggested creating a peer mentorship program that connects current international graduate students with incoming graduate students who are from the same regions so they are supported throughout the process of attending school in a different country.

“I’ve always pushed the (committee) to do more than what they have now,” Okanlawon said. “Some of us are coming from this very communal lifestyle, and transitioning into these really individualistic lives where you have to do things yourself.”

Despite the challenges that the graduate students face, the administration offers consistent support, he continued.

“There’s always someone to attend to your emails or complaints and challenges,” Okanlawon said.

Ammoury highlighted the support he received from the civil engineering department, which encouraged him to pursue interests outside his doctoral work, including receiving certificates of advanced studies from the Maxwell School and participating in seminars.

With the support the graduate school has given to students in their efforts to implement change, Dhaouadi said the GSO Senate will advocate for increasing the minimum stipend and push for enhanced summer funding going forward.

“The average received feels like the minimum that should be received,” she said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story listed Michael Ammoury as an architecture student. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this story stated that Yousr Dhaouadi’s rent increased by $300. The statement was an example of a situation doctoral students go through, not Dhaouadi’s own experience

Published on May 12, 2022 at 2:54 am

Contact Stephanie: [email protected]