NCSU Graduate Student Stipend Report

Graduate students do not earn a lot of money. Low pay magnifies the already tremendous stress associated with earning a graduate degree, including teaching and research responsibilities. I was paid on a teaching assistantship prior to earning my fellowship in graduate school. During this time, I was paid just $2 above the threshold to qualify for food stamps in the state of North Carolina. This threshold is pre-tax, and excludes the thousands that I had to pay back to the university each year in student fees. I had to tutor on the side just to cover basic things like rent and groceries.

My experience is not unique. Low graduate student pay is a pervasive issue in American academia. I wanted to help address and bring attention to this issue at NC State. In my second year in graduate school, I served as my program's representative to the University Graduate Student Association (UGSA). The UGSA is a student-led group that represents and acts on behalf graduate students at NC State. Every UGSA representative is required to serve on a committee. I joined the committee for Legislative Affairs and Student Advocacy (LASA) as I felt it to be the most closely aligned with my goal.

During my first year in LASA, we compiled a report on graduate student stipends at NC State. The report combined stipend data from all programs across the university, information about student fees, a section on how NC State compared to peer institutions, and much more. However, the report was ultimately rushed and only came out in May—dangerously close to the end of the semester, when everyone tends to unplug from university issues.

At the beginning of the next academic year, I set out to re-write and substantially expand the stipend report. However, most students from the previous LASA committee cohort had graduated or were no longer UGSA representatives. (Typically, students only serve one year as program representatives to the UGSA.) I was elected chair of the 2023-2024 LASA committee and immediately formed a subgroup of four representatives, including myself, whose sole purpose was writing a new stipend report.

After six months of tireless work and research, we had completed the new stipend report. The new report included substantially more data and even an interactive map of stipend disparities across campus. The final version was released in March and was shared with the Provost, the Chancellor, the NC State Board of Trustees, and the wider UGSA. The stipend report was also circulated through Pawprints, NC State's grad student newspaper. We even returned the next academic year to present the report and our findings to the 2024-2025 UGSA to help continue its legacy. It was at this meeting that I learned some graduate students had used the report to successfully petition for increased pay.

The graduate student stipend report was one of my favorite non-academic products to come out of my time at NC State. It was an incredibly rewarding experience. I owe thanks to many people who helped in making it happen, including the 2023-2024 LASA committee subgroup (Norman Hogan, Deja Perkins, and Benjamin Pulgar-Guzman), the 2022-2023 LASA committee, and Dean Peter Harries. I did not originally think of posting the final report on this website, but a friend convinced me otherwise. Here it is (you might need to disable your adblocker)!