Change To Stipend Pay Schedule Leaves Many Graduate Students Struggling

Upper West Side NY

05 August, 2021

5:03 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY ABBY MELBOURNE AUGUST 4, 2021 An email from University administration announcing an unexpected change to stipend pay schedules has left many graduate student-workers reeling. As stipend payment timing is modified to align with normal payroll distribution, many students will begin the fall term with less funds than they had prepared for, especially given the short notice. The change affects teaching fellows, preceptors, and research fellows in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School of Architecture, and School of International and Public Affairs, as well as teaching assistants in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Before the change, graduate students on a nine-month contract would receive half of their yearly stipends at the beginning of the fall semester and the remaining half at the start of the spring term. While the total annual compensation paid out to students has not changed, the altered stipend distribution timeline has resulted in nearly a 75 percent—or $8,000—reduction in stipend funds previously available to graduate workers at the start of the academic year. Graduate student-workers receive compensation through two forms: a stipend that covers two-thirds of their support package and a semimonthly payroll that covers the other one-third of the package. Starting this fall, once an advance payment of $2,600 is issued before Labor Day, stipend payments will no longer arrive in lump sums and instead will be on the same semi-monthly payroll schedule as students' wages for their work appointments. The July 26 announcement from Dan Driscoll, vice president of human resources, and Jane Hojan-Clark, associate vice president of student financial services, emphasizes that the amount of compensation has not changed and that the change was made to create "uniformity" with the payment calendars of other graduate populations at the University. A later University announcement states that the change will "eliminate a discrepancy" between how Columbia and peer universities pay their graduate workers, spread payments out to align with living expenses, and put the "small subset" of affected students on the "same footing" as their peers. Many of the affected graduate students are worried that with spaced-out payments, they will be unable to afford early semester expenses. Calculations done by the Student Workers of Columbia, the union formerly known as the Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers, estimate that based on the New York City cost of living, students relying on the old stipend timing will end up in debt by the end of September. Johannah King-Slutzky, a third-year doctoral candidate in English and comparative literature, notes that some students already go into debt to cover the costs associated with the break in payments over the summer and startup costs of returning in the fall such as book purchases, moving expenses, rent, and travel to campus. "There are a lot of startup costs [at the beginning of the semester]. … None of that has been accounted for," King-Slutzky said. "Some graduate students are already on a system similar to this, but the big difference is that they knew that … when they matriculated here. We have been given four weeks for this major change to our pay, and that's part of why we're caught off guard and are not able to handle it." Some members of SWC believe the change was made in anticipation of a likely strike in the fall. During the spring strike, pay associated with research and teaching duties was withheld, a tactic that could not be used with student-works from schools that dispersed stipend funds in a lump sum at the beginning of the semester. The University holds that workers "are not entitled to ... stipend portions" while striking and advises administrators and faculty to avoid "making a promise of benefit or threat of reprisal" that "could be construed as coercing" graduate students to return to work. Pushback from the graduate worker community has been swift, with a SWC petition demanding a policy reversal that has amassed 900 signatures over the last nine days. The SWC has also established a hardship fund for adversely impacted workers, particularly international, low-income, or disabled students. International students, for example, could be at risk of losing their visa status. Graduate students living in University housing can be barred from registering for classes if they are behind on rent payments, putting their "actively enrolled" status—a requirement to maintain their student visas—at risk. Matthew Johnston, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in English and comparative literature, typically lives at home in the U.K. in the summer, subletting his apartment during that time to "avoid hemorrhaging money." Given the decline in the number of students and interns moving into the city, he was unable to find a subletter. Johnston also noted that even for those students who are able to move home for the summer, the return to campus is often a moment of immediate financial need. "When I moved here in 2018, I didn't have any U.S. credit obviously, so the apartment that I did find wanted me to pay three months up front … which is to say I put myself in quite a lot of debt," Johnston said. "I needed a big influx of money at the start of the semester. … It's phenomenally expensive moving countries and that's even without the pandemic." Meg Zhang, a second-year doctoral candidate in English and comparative literature, spent her first year at Columbia at home in Ontario due to the pandemic. She anticipates significant travel and moving expenses as she moves to New York for the first time. "One huge issue was to do with payment," Zhang said. "Columbia didn't outline any kind of plan as to how they were going to pay first-year [graduate] students living abroad who had never studied in the U.S., so they didn't have a U.S. bank account. They didn't really know about the tax situation. [And] as an international student, you're worried about the additional financial costs, you're worried about upholding the F1 visa, and just really making sure you can be financially secure because [it's very difficult] to get external work in the States." The University states that in accordance with its "standard practice," the impacted schools' financial aid offices are prepared to issue advance funds to students that they may later pay back through their student accounts. Despite this, frustration with University administrators remains high among graduate workers. "The University said, 'We're going to make it really easy for students who are displaced by the pandemic to come back and join campus. We're going to take care of you,'" King-Slutzky said. "What they're actually saying is, 'We are going to take away $8,000 with no notice. We know you have additional costs, and we're not going to help you meet them at all. We're going to make it harder for you.'" Deputy News Editor Abby Melbourne can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @abby_melbourne. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.