In Fall 2019, after years of campaigning by the Living Stipend Movement (LSM) in tandem with the Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU), the College of Arts and Sciences within the University at Buffalo set a $20,000 stipend baseline for full-time funded PhD graduate workers. In June of this year, more campaigning by GSEU and LSM led to broad-based fees being covered by UB university-wide for full-time funded PhD graduate workers, saving many TAs, GAs, and RAs as much as $3,000 per year. Both these decisions brought graduate workers a bit closer to earning a living wage by Buffalo standards, but they also left significant gaps in their wake.

As of right now, graduate workers in Masters programs, in departments outside of the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as many others employed by non-academic departments and centers (such as the Counseling Center), are still paying broad-based fees and earning much less than $20,000 as stipend, in some cases as little as $14,000. In many cases, these GAs are working alongside non-graduate workers who make x3 or x4 what they do, while doing the very same work. This has left many of us in a grossly vulnerable position with regard to yearly income. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the cost of living in Erie County is nowhere near $20,000 per year: for a one person-household, the cost of living is $35,000 per year, which is a $15,000+ gap.

While we recognize that being paid anything less than the cost of living is a clear economic injustice, we also do not want to create further inequities within the graduate worker community, and we’re seeking a $22,000-floor for all. This would allow us to take a unified step toward earning a living wage.

All graduate workers, whether you are a TA, GA, or RA, a Masters or PhD student, fully or partially-funded, contribute equally to make sure that UB continues to function at the best of its teaching and research potential. This financial inequality among graduate workers, which leaves many of us living paycheck to paycheck or barely scraping by under financial and emotional duress, is utterly unacceptable. As the leading public university in New York, we expect more than poverty wages from UB.  

Therefore, we the undersigned call upon President Satish Tripathi to ensure:

- a $22,000 stipend baseline for all graduate workers (TAs, GAs, and RAs), regardless of their program, funding-status, or place of employment on campus.

- the abolition of broad-based fees for all graduate workers (TAs, GAs, and RAs), regardless of their program, funding-status, or place of employment on campus.