Purdue University announced plans this week to increase its graduate student wages.
The move comes after students called on the school to grant a living wage to both graduate workers and other campus staff.
In a release, Purdue outlined “major new investments in graduate student stipends” that will raise the minimum graduate stipend to $26,000 per fiscal year.
In 2022, the university raised the graduate stipend to $24,000.
Purdue Provost Patrick Wolfe underlined that the new stipend was the minima and “we expect the average stipend to be much higher.”
In its release, Purdue noted that some departments within the college of engineering would be raising their minimums to $30,000.
Olivia Gearner is with the Greater Lafayette Democratic Socialists of America and a fourth-year Ph.D. student studying entomology. She said the stipend is nowhere close to the $35,000 living wage adjustment graduate students are calling for.
“Based on how far we’ve fallen behind in terms of what the university is paying us versus the cost of living, we really need a giant leap in terms of wage increases in order to get our needs met,” she said.
Gearner said the wage raise at Purdue is a response to their movement, and movements across the country, calling for better graduate student pay.
“I think the Purdue administration is hoping that by raising it a couple thousand that will sort of keep graduate students compliant and happy,” she said. “But $26,000, which is what they’re raising it for students who are on a fiscal year stipend, is not nearly enough to keep up with the cost of living here.”
According to Purdue, the wage increase will impact some 1,840 graduate student workers.
When asked about concerns that the wage increase wasn’t enough, a university spokesperson declined to comment.
