Yale to Give 20 Percent Raise In Stipends to Ph.D. Candidates
NEW HAVEN, Conn.
Yale University is raising the stipends almost 20 percent for doctoral candidates next year amid an attempt by graduate students to unionize.
The stipend given to humanities and social science students was increased from $11,500 to $13,700. Some larger stipends will be offered to science students.
Stipends help cover living expenses for graduate students, most of whom teach undergraduate courses while they pursue their degrees.
“This year’s unusually large increase is motivated by our desire to remain competitive with other leading institutions that have substantially increased financial aid for doctoral study over the past two years,” Susan Hockfield, dean of the graduate school, said in a letter to students and faculty.
The Graduate Employees and Students Organization has been trying to unionize Yale’s approximately 2,200 graduate students for several years, citing long work hours and low pay.
Yale has argued that they are students and not employees, and should not be able to form a union. In November, however, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate students at New York University and other private colleges have the right to form unions.
Graduate student organizers say the raise was a standard tactic employers use to try to prevent unions from forming.
A Yale spokesman said the university increases stipends regularly and that the increase was not an attempt to stop the union.
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