UNC Students Call to Raise Graduate Student Pay

 

Facing an affordability crisis in Chapel Hill, graduate students are calling for a change. UNC’s graduate and professional student government leaders are stepping up their efforts to raise the graduate student pay. 

Tuition stipends are currently valued at a minimum of $17,000 a year, which does not cover the cost of attending UNC. 

Theodore Nollert is the president of UNC’s graduate and professional student government and a Ph.D student in English and Comparative Literature.

“The point is, $17,000 is too low and there’s a lot of people for whom $18,000, $19,000 and $20,000 is still too low. UNC has data on their website — very helpful data — about the cost of attendance,” Nollert said. “[It] is about $25,000 once you take out things that are covered at all of our peer institutions like tuition, fees and health insurance.”

Nollert said graduate students are asking UNC to raise their tuition stipend to a $25,000 minimum to cover the attendance fee. He also said they suggest a $2,000 or $3,000 flat raise for people who would not be affected by the $25,000 minimum. 

“Let’s say you’re at $24,000 right now,” Nollert said. “We [shouldn’t] have those departments get a $1,000 raise and [have others] asking why a whole bunch of other people are getting so much more.”

Nollert said compared to peer public institutions, Carolina is ranked last in its flat stipend rates. 

“If you adjust that slightly for the cost of attendance and cost of living, because obviously Berkley, California and Chapel Hill, North Carolina don’t cost the same to live there, we’re 11 out of 15. These changes would really kick us up the rankings — according to the adjusted data, we would move to 4 out of 15 on that list,” Nollert added. 

Nollert said affording rent, groceries and medical bills or unexpected emergencies is a challenge for many graduate students, but the proposed $25,000 minimum could aid in covering the cost of their expenses.  

Chapel Hill has several housing and affordability challenges which graduate students also have to face. 

Nollert said the stipends would not only help graduate students, but would also bring more money to the local economy.

“So if they get more money, it’s not going to disappear into some sort of massive investment conglomerate somewhere — they’re going to be spending it on goods and services in Chapel Hill,” Nollert said. 

Nollert most recently shared comments to the Board of Trustees during a committee meeting on September 29. UNC Undergraduate Student Body President Talijah Vann also voiced her support for raising the stipends to the full board the following morning. 

Vann said she believes many graduate students are highly underpaid and either live below or at the poverty line across the United States. She said in order to maintain UNC’s nationwide reputation, Carolina should fairly compensate its graduate students.

“To me, that means we have an obligation to put up the best funding to find the resources to ensure our graduate and professional students have the ability to meet their basic living needs here,” Vann told 97.9 The Hill. 

Vann said she believes UNC does an excellent job of offering resources to its undergraduate students. She feels the university has the same responsibility to provide those for its graduate department as well. 

“Graduate students, when they return or enter the job market — many of them are working right now — they go into the job market after they leave UNC and it’s to our benefit to make sure they have incredible opportunities when they get there,” Vann said. “But it’s much more difficult for you to finish out a program at UNC and then use all the incredible education that you just received to bolster the economy and the system overall in North Carolina if you can’t make it through the program because you can’t afford to be in it.”

Vann said she plans to collaborate with Nollert throughout the year to focus on increasing stipends for graduate students. 

UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said he will too. He voiced his support at the September Board of Trustees meeting.

“Provost Clemons and I have been in conversations over the past two or three months on this — I talked to Dean White last Friday about a strategy to increase those graduate student stipends,” Guskiewicz said. “I just want to be clear we’re committed to taking on the challenges and making this a campus community and environment we can all be proud of.”

Nollert said he believes the Board of Trustees, provost and chancellor are excited for the opportunity to aid students and maintain the university’s prestige. 

“We’re the oldest public university in the country, so this is something they care about and they’re going to help us get there,” Nollert said. 

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