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Syracuse University will increase stipends for masters and PhD students by approximately 18% and 30% respectively beginning in the 2023-24 academic year, according to a Friday news release.

In addition to the raise in stipend levels, SU has also committed to guarantee four years of funding for PhD students, as well as increase funding and stipends for graduate students conducting summer research, said Gretchen Ritter, SU’s vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer, in the release.

Currently, the minimum stipend for both masters and PhD students per academic year is $16,980. Beginning in the fall, the minimum stipend for masters students will increase to $20,000, and the minimum for PhD students will be set at $22,000. Summer fellowship stipends will also increase from the current $4,000 to a base amount of $4,500.

While the increases are a start, Graduate Student Organization President Yousr Dhaouadi said, many students won’t see much of a difference, because they were already receiving a stipend above the set minimum.

“Not a lot of students are receiving that really low minimum (stipend) before, but this kind of sets the tone to deans who determine funding allocations that … you need to start thinking about setting wages that meet the minimum if not higher.”

While graduate assistantship stipends are set to increase by around 5% in all of SU’s schools and colleges, Dhaouadi said the priority going forward should be on ensuring the students aren’t just scraping by with the amounts they receive.

“We’re going to continue pushing for more increases, especially to the average, and so it could benefit more students across campus,” Dhaouadi said. “This has just set the standard that we should be thinking about stipends as a living wage.”

In the city of Syracuse, the standard yearly living wage for one adult working full-time is around $34,000, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator. For GSO Secretary Abiodun Adeoye, ensuring students have access to the financial resources they need is essential.

“Something I want to see go forward is a raise that meets the baseline standard of living in Syracuse, and any other methods and avenues that the university can use to ensure that graduate students are not just barely making it, living in Syracuse,” Adeoye said.

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Specifically, Adeoye said, the university has a responsibility to provide a living wage because graduate students’ academic work often prevents them from acquiring other sources of income.

“For many graduate students, taking a second job is either impossible with the stipulations in the agreement for the research assistantship or it’s literally unfeasible, because if you take another job, you’re going to be working so much that you’re not going to have to have a social life,” Adeoye said. “You’re going to be barely catching up on schoolwork. You definitely would not be getting enough sleep or whatnot.”

One change that could help graduate students satisfy living expenses would be a shift to 12-month stipends, Dhaouadi said. As of now, she said, stipends which work on a nine-month basis mean summer stipends and funding are insecure.

In an email to The D.O., SU Graduate School Dean Peter Vanable, wrote that an area the university is focused on is increasing the percentage of students who are working on federally funded research grants and providing resources to help graduate students secure externally funded fellowships.

Vanable wrote that SU is committed to working with graduate students and organizations like GSO in order to address students’ evolving needs and be “responsive to their changing priorities.”

While working on SU’s Academic Strategic Plan last semester as a member of the Research and Creative Excellence working group, Dhaouadi said she pushed for the inclusion of summer months in stipends based on the positive impacts it could have on the research itself.

“For research to be successful, you need to address the fundamental needs, like living wages and working conditions for students who conduct actual research,” Dhaouadi said. “So our push is to get the school to prioritize making sure there is funding for PhDs just for the whole year just because of the nature of research. It kind of has to continue, you can’t just take a pause and come back to it.”

In addition to across-the-board increases like these, Adeoye said he wants to see stipend packages that make graduate education accessible to parents who have more time constraints and a higher cost of living. According to the same living wage calculator, the average annual cost of living in the city of Syracuse for an adult with one child is over $68,000.

“(A tailored package) would account for the actual cost of raising a child while working as well. If you have a kid and you’re … working two jobs, three jobs, taking classes as a full-time student is a nightmare,” Adeoye said. “So whatever adjustment can be made to make sure that parents can take care of their children and meet basic needs without having to work two or three other jobs (and that the) money they’re making is up to par with the likely demands of being a parent financially.”

According to the news release, in recent years and months, SU has taken steps to accommodate students who are parents by raising financial support per child under the age of 6 for qualifying graduate students from $500 to $1,000. Currently, the maximum subsidy per family is $2,000.

Vanable also wrote that a future initiative intends to provide an accommodation period of up to eight weeks for graduate students who become a parent in order to enable students to maintain their academic status while providing time for adjustment to parental responsibilities and bonding.

Following the new increases, Adeoye said he hopes this accessibility for parents will increase, as well as expand to include other groups and people whose circumstances might make graduate education unfeasible.

“This step is great, and I think we should see more steps in the future that help bridge the gap between students with disabilities, working parents and students within a wider spectrum at the graduate school to make stipends a lot more accessible and a lot more equitable for people without financial means.”

Published on January 16, 2023 at 1:28 am

Contact Jana: [email protected] | @JanaLoSeal