Members of the Graduate Student Organization passed a resolution Wednesday to bring an inquiry to Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud about wages for doctoral students and graduate assistants.

GSO’s Graduate Employment Issues Committee analyzed SU’s cost of attendance and a calculation of living wages in Onondaga County from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Based on their analysis, GSO voted that President Jack Wilson and at least one representative from the committee should present a report to the chancellor to discuss university guidelines for graduate student living wages.

Before the report is presented, the committee will create a detailed presentation of its findings. Several GSO members said they wanted to advocate for wages of graduate assistants and doctoral students to at least be a living wage.

The committee said the numbers are not concrete due to inconsistencies in MIT’s calculation, and the GSO Senate also didn’t have numbers from SU that showed a living wage or cost of attendance for graduate students. Since the figures obtained from MIT were just an approximation, some senators were concerned about making claims of graduate students not receiving enough compensation to live.

Other senators argued that advocating for the issue is the only way the university will release records of cost of attendance and living wage.

Vice President of Internal Affairs Nick Mason ended the discussion to lead a vote.  The vote passed.

A second amendment to the resolution said that GSO policy states that all doctoral students and graduate assistants should be paid a living wage.  Since many senators had left the room, the GSO postponed voting on this amendment.

Other business:

• Graduate students are only allowed to purchase Orange After Dark tickets the day of the event, but undergraduates may purchase tickets ahead of time and often leave events sold out. GSO members said they hope to eventually meet with the Office of Student Activities to allow graduate student inclusion.

• GSO passed a resolution to fund half the cost of 50 street signs to be placed on roads with off-campus student housing, and 15,000 safety cards to be placed in buildings accessed by graduate students. With permission from the city, signs will be placed on every street corner of Euclid Avenue and Clarendon Street blocks. The total cost for this project is $2,900, which will be split by GSO and SU’s Student Association. A GSO senator will approach SA on Monday with a proposal to each fund half of the effort.  

Published on November 1, 2018 at 1:09 am

Contact Richard: rjchang@syr.edu | @RichardJChang1