Binghamton University graduate students crowded into a Fine Arts lecture hall on Wednesday night to make their voices heard about announced stipend increases for incoming graduate students.
Provost Donald Nieman and Graduate School Dean Susan Strehle attended the meeting in order to hear what students had to say. The meeting lasted for over an hour, and students took turns posing questions to the administrators and expressing their concerns.
In order to compete with other universities, BU has allotted $600,000 to go toward stipends for those serving as teaching assistants (TAs) and graduate assistants (GAs). However, the money will only increase the salaries of students coming next fall, and current students will receive the same compensation moving forward.
“Our goal is to assure that we make a significant increase in stipends that will allow us to compete with our peers for the best students,” Nieman said. “To get there, we must invest $600,000; if we spread this out amongst new and current students the investment would be modest, and would not move us ahead far enough to make us competitive.”
For many students like Kyle Gowen, a first-year graduate student studying anthropology, giving money only to new students does not seem fair.
“I find it completely disrespectful that you think that somehow I am of less caliber than someone who would come here next year,” Gowen said. “I came here to get a good education, and now you’re telling me that I am not the caliber student that you wanted.”
Strehle replied that this was not the case, and that they were concerned with strengthening the program as a whole by bringing in more students.
“I don’t feel that way about you, and I don’t feel that way about any student in this room or any graduate student on this campus,” Strehle said. “What we feel actually is that you need young companions coming in who are the people right for the program that you’re in.”
David Spitzer, a first-year graduate student studying comparative literature, voiced an opinion that was echoed by many others in the room. He proposed that instead of worrying about the numbers, the University should distribute the funds evenly among graduate students. This, he said, would in turn cultivate a community of graduate students who were proud of their school and would help recruit more students.
“If you’re taking this sort of action, you’re merely reproducing some very terrible conditions,” Spitzer said. “There is an alternative, which is to make a cultural gesture, and then you would be able to promote yourself according to a different set of principles. What we’ll have is something that values a community of scholars.”
Despite this sentiment, Nieman reiterated the reasoning for the unequal distribution of stipends.
“If we distributed the stipends equitably, that is we just took the $600,000 and spread it over all of our graduate students, it would be about $1,000 dollars per student,” Nieman said. “And that is not raising the bar.”
By the end of the meeting, students were still unhappy with the lack of a resolution to the problem. Toivo Asheeke, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate studying sociology, asked Nieman and Strehle to stop merely voicing their understanding of the problem, and take an action toward solving it.
“If you actually really do care as much as you are saying, then why are people upset?” Asheeke said. “We need to hear from you something that you are trying to do to concretely help us, because that is what people are asking for.”
While they were unable to give a concrete answer, they did respond that they will review the proposal that the Graduate Student Organization (GSO) submitted before they meet again next week.
Ben Marley, the vice president of the GSO and a third-year Ph.D. candidate studying sociology, said that while students are still frustrated, Wednesday’s meeting was a step in the right direction.
“It was good to get the student’s perspective,” Marley said. “I think they listened, I think there’s real concerns and I think they’re going to take into consideration these concerns.”
Sarah Glose was formerly misquoted in this story, and the quote was replaced by Ben Marley’s. Pipe Dream regrets the error.