Raise in minimum for graduate student stipends also raises concerns at Purdue

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. − In response to Purdue University's announcement on Monday that, starting July 1 this year, the minimum fiscal-year stipend for graduate students will rise to $26,000, the Instagram page for Purdue GROW posted a less-than-positive reply.

Purdue Graduate Rights and Our Wellbeing — GROW — is described on its Instagram page as a "labor organization at Purdue University by (and) for grad workers."

On April 3, Purdue Today, a daily newsletter, announced that the university will be making new investments into graduate student stipends. According to the announcement, these investments will consist of five actions, verbatim:

• To help recruit the best and brightest students in disciplines that align to the university’s strategic priorities, starting with the ongoing admissions season, Purdue is launching 150 new “Presidential Doctoral Excellence Awards” each year to provide $10,000 (over four years) to each incoming PhD student receiving the award.

• For PhD students already at Purdue, the university will also co-fund Presidential Doctoral Excellence Awards based on proposals from departments and colleges submitted by May 1 and effective July 1, 2023.

• Effective July 1, 2023, the university-wide minimum fiscal-year stipend will increase to $26,000. Approximately 1,840 current graduate students will benefit.

• Individual colleges and departments have their own minima and are encouraged to raise those according to each discipline’s needs. For example, some departments in engineering will raise their minimum to $30,000, and all departments in science are adding another $500 to all stipends.

• Sponsored program proposals submitted to external funding agencies after April 30, 2023, will have an FY minimum of $26,000, and those after April 30, 2024, a minimum of $28,000, raising stipends even further for thousands more current and future graduate students.

The introduction paragraph to this announcement stated that these investments come from a place of "recognizing that graduate students are the engine that powers Purdue’s research and teaching missions."

Patrick Wolfe, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity, provided comment in the announcement.

“We are enormously pleased to announce this substantial elevated and continuing investment in our graduate students. We know it is absolutely instrumental in reaching the goal we all share of being recognized as a top five U.S. public research university,” Wolfe said.

Purdue GROW's response

In response to this announcement, the Purdue GROW Instagram page posted an image with a quote from the Purdue Living Wage Coalition.

"While we welcome any rise in pay," the quote reads, "the changes made yesterday represent just one small step. In order to ensure that all workers make a living wage, what we need is one giant leap."

Furthermore, the caption to this image read, "Yesterday, the Purdue University administration announced new policies related to wages, including a university-wide pay raise to grad workers to a minimum of $26,000/yr. The administration would not have made this move if it were not feeling pressure from graduate student unions around the nation and groups like the Living Wage Coalition here at Purdue.

"...MIT University calculates a living wage for the Greater Lafayette area at $35,655/yr: the new minimums are still far below this level. Furthermore, the university has left additional pay raises up to departments, and has allocated funds for special awards which would raise a limited number of students' pay by $10k/yr. This is unacceptable: every Purdue worker is entitled to a living wage in return for the work they do.

"Is a chemical engineering student's ability to make rent more important than an engineering education student's, or a biologist or a sociologist? To leave such a basic right up to the whims of individual departments or awards committees serves only to divide grad workers from one another, and will leave many workers unable to meet basic needs."

The Purdue Living Wage Coalition ended its post by calling on all Purdue workers to "rally around our demands for living wages for everyone who makes our university run."

Those listed demands include $17 an hour now and $20 per hour by 2026 for all workers on all of Purdue's campuses; a $35,360 minimum yearly salary for all Purdue graduate student workers; union labor on all campus construction jobs; and an end to the university's contract with Aramark "as soon as possible."

A Purdue graduate student's response

A graduate student at Purdue, who wished to remain anonymous, questioned the timing of the announcement.

“I find it funny how this week is supposed to be graduate student appreciation week, and it’s this week they decide to raise our wages," the graduate student said. "Like ‘Wow feel good you got a raise.’“The raise is only raising the minimum, not even a livable wage. Instead they are looking at the department to also offer raises, without any additional funds. So now departments are forced to find cuts in their programs as well as hire new graduates students.

“And one of the biggest reasons why this wage was increased is because Purdue had one of the lowest pay of graduate students in the Big 10 schools. And they did not like that bad press. So now they care about our graduate students because they don’t want to look bad.

"It’s all theater.”

A March 1 article from the Purdue Exponent stated, "None of the 10 graduate students who spoke with The Exponent about their salaries reported making more than $28,000 before university fees and taxes, with some even reporting making as low as $18,000."

This was in reference to a 2022 Purdue pledge to invest $50 million to increase graduate student stipend minimums.

"However, this still leaves the majority of graduate student staff at a sub-living wage, which is classified as $32,375 per year pre-tax for West Lafayette by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator," the Purdue Exponent article said.

The Journal & Courier reached out to Purdue requesting a response to both its initial announcement of the pay raise as well as the feedback from Purdue GROW. The university, in its replay, referred the Journal & Courier to the original announcement of the pay raise with no specific comment on Purdue Grow's post and demands.

Margaret Christopherson is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email her at mchristopherson@jconline.com and follow her on Twitter @MargaretJC2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: A raise in Purdue graduate student stipends received a response from Purdue GROW