Letter: DGSU Pay Working Group addresses Duke Graduate School administrator's comments

We read with interest the comments made by John Zhu, the Graduate School’s senior public affairs officer, concerning graduate student pay in the Chronicle’s April 25 article, “Grad students ask for $15 per hour.”

We would like to clarify several points. Duke announced last summer that it would become a $15/hour campus by July 2019. The Duke Graduate Students Union’s campaign for higher pay asks the university to make good on this promise for its graduate student workers, many of whom do not make the $31,200 salary equivalent to full-time employment at $15/hour. The comments made by Zhu that graduate student workers make $29/hour is not only patently false but neglects the reality that many teaching and research assistantships require more than part-time or even full-time hours, particularly in STEM fields. More, his comments misrepresent the vast array of graduate student worker funding packages, which vary according to discipline and a student worker’s year in a given Ph.D. program. 

The “recommended” annual Ph.D. stipend published on the Graduate School website ($30,500) simply does not reflect the income that many graduate student workers actually make each year. As one example, not all graduate students enjoy the guaranteed summer funding that this $30,500 figure assumes, and more, even when they do, many still make less than what the Graduate School claims to be a living wage in Durham ($24,800), a conservative number from the start, given the rising cost of living in the city.  

Finally, Zhu’s claim that the Graduate School covers tuition for five years is misleading. In most departments, Ph.D. students take courses for only two years, while also working. The remainder of the degree program is spent conducting dissertation research, which often contributes to the work of a principal investigator, and working as an instructor, teaching assistant or research assistant. The tuition money that the university “covers” for graduate student workers during these post-coursework years is a phantom cost that shouldn’t be used as an excuse not to pay graduate students a living wage.

We have had productive conversations with members of the University administration about improving graduate student pay and conditions. It disappoints us that, on this occasion, Zhu has chosen to respond to our requests in bad faith. 

Sincerely, 

DGSU Pay Working Group