Last week on Sept. 9, 2024, graduate students gathered at the senior administration open office in the Feldberg Lounge to advocate for fair wages and the negotiation of a fair graduate student worker contract.
There are nearly 2,000 graduate students on campus, most of them full time, who also have various other jobs to help out around campus, such as positions as teaching assistants, research assistants and tutors, all of which are crucial to the functioning of campus.
“I can’t afford to take care of myself, how could I possibly do my best teaching?”, said an anonymous grad student at the protest. While trying to complete rigorous post-graduate studies, these graduate students are negatively affected by the fact that they don’t have access to basic resources to take care of themselves.
Graduate students also conduct the ground-breaking research that helps Brandeis maintain its R1 status. However, graduate students feel as though their contributions to the school are undervalued, and despite being the backbone of this university, they struggle to make ends meet.
At the demonstration, graduate students held up signs stating “I helped Brandeis maintain R1 status and all I got was underpaid” and “Brandeis punches above its weight by punching down on workers”. One graduate student told the senior administrators, “In my time at Brandeis I’ve brought in five grants to the university, three individually and two as part of a research team. Despite that, I work three jobs.” Many Brandeis graduate students voiced their inability to afford living costs on their current contract, with some having to rely on free food from on-campus events and forfeit medical and dental care just to make ends meet.
Listening to the concerns of graduate students at the open office hours were Stewart Uretsky, the Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration, Dr. Shelby Harris, the Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Eitan Marks, Presidential Fellow.
“These are issues that all of our staff has been facing. I recognized this when I began at Brandeis eight years ago: the importance of paying all our workers a fair wage.” said Uretsky, who received $558,337 in compensation plus an additional $30,500 during 2023, according to Brandeis’ publicly available tax documents (propublica.com). Despite being the most senior person in finance and administration at Brandeis, Uretsky said he is “not directly part of these negotiations and I can’t share specifics” and that he would “be happy to share what’s been shared with us to the people who do make decisions.”
At other points, the messaging from administration has been more clear. On Mar. 14, 2024, President Ronald D. Liebowitz, Provost Carol Fierke and Uretsky sent an email to the student body about upcoming financial changes. This email directly acknowledged the problem at hand, stating that budget deficits “brought on by declines in enrollment in our master’s degree programs, and rapidly-growing expenses due to inflation and other changes in the economy” had resulted in financial shortfall.
This email also directly acknowledged the impact of inflation and the increasing cost of living, stressing the need for “forward-looking decisions” and orienting towards “the institution’s highest priorities: excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, enhancing the student experience, and elevating our founding value.”
These graduate students feel that the university’s efforts to “enhanc[e] the student experience” would include adjusting graduate student worker wages; however Brandeis University stands out among most Boston-area private universities in its failure to increase graduate student wages to keep up with inflation. At the protest, one graduate student noted “Last year my rent went up $800, this year another $400. It’s just not possible. We need a new contract. Now.”
Multiple Graduate students at the demonstration pointed out the contrast between Brandeis and peer institutions. One student asked “From 2015-2023 we saw Boston College and Tufts increase their graduate enrollment. Brandeis did not. Is Brandeis concerned that low pay for graduate students will lead to low enrollment going forward?” Concerningly, another graduate student shared their experience “I went to a conference and other Boston area grad students were shocked when we told them that we make $10k-12k less than them.”
At the end of last semester, an anonymous Hoot article noted that cultural clubs had their funding cut by at least 50 percent. So for all the cultural events we know and love, Culture X, Lunar New Year, Rice Wars and others, the organizers barely have enough money to buy plates and cutlery, much less pay for the catering. University administration has been abundantly clear about priorities, “excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, enhancing the student experience, and elevating our founding value”. But, graduate students can’t afford the cost of living, the undergraduate experience has become more expensive, cultural club funding has been significantly reduced and research funding is down. All of this is on the back of a 4.25 percent increase in endowment spend rate and the tuition, room and board rates just a few months ago.