A faculty push for increased graduate student stipends may be on the horizon after the LSU Faculty Senate meets Tuesday.
The Faculty Senate is scheduled for a final reading of a resolution focused on increasing graduate student stipends. The resolution, sponsored by kinesiology professor Arend Van Gemmert, was tabled Oct. 11 after the meeting ran short on copies of the legislation.
The tabling followed faculty criticism of language comparing graduate students’ needs to those of traditional single-person households. Other faculty members raised concerns about reviewing graduate student finances and the possibility of graduate students possessing income from outside sources.
Under PS-21 — the University’s current graduate student employment policy — graduate students are contractually obligated to devote full-time work to their studies and graduate assistantship. If a graduate student wishes to take on outside employment, the student’s graduate adviser or the dean of the Graduate School is required to give express permission.
The policy also states graduate students’ workload should be limited to 20 hours per week, although several professors noted students routinely exceed that limit.
Graduate School Dean Michelle Massé said academia typically equates the lifestyles of graduate students to those of starving artists — students go through several lean years while working an assistantship before graduating and beginning a successful career.
This is rarely the case today, she said. The needs of graduate students are much different from 50 years ago, and an increasing number of graduates enter post-secondary programs with undergraduate debt.
In Louisiana, 51 percent of students leave college with undergraduate debt, with a statewide average of $26,865 per borrower, according to the Institute for College Access and Success. Accumulated debt often leads students to reconsider attending graduate school due to concerns surrounding affordability, Massé said.
Massé, a first generation college graduate, said the affordability of post-secondary education is crucial to ensure key demographics aren’t excluded from admission. Providing access to impoverished applicants, minority students and first generation students is important to building a strong future, she said.
“I sometimes fear that we’re going back to not even 50 years ago, but 100 years ago, when those who go on to graduate school are those who can afford it because they have families that can afford it … and not the first generation students,” she said.
Increasing graduate student stipends is an important step in making sure the University keeps pace with peer institutions, Massé said.
The University took an important first step when LSU president F. King Alexander announced a 3 percent increase to all graduate student stipends for 2016-2017. An additional 1.4 percent was provided to each college to support students specifically in need, Massé said.
The increase equates to $324 when calculated using the University’s current minimum for graduate student stipends, $10,800. In January, the administration also declared a strict observance of the minimum pay rules, Massé said.
Though few academic departments pay their graduate students below the minimum $10,800 stipend, some did as of spring 2016, she said. Even students in higher paying departments, who receive $20,000-$25,000 stipends, struggle to meet financial obligations.
The average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Baton Rouge is $800, and average utilities cost $165, according to data Van Gemmert cited from the cost of living database Numbeo. When students have to find additional work to support themselves, it takes away from their graduate studies, Massé said.
Ensuring graduate students are supported is key to building a strong University foundation, she said.
“Graduate students are our pride and joy,” she said. “They are the ones who carry on the research, who are the next generation. As a flagship, producing an educated citizenry is paramount to our existence.”