Grad student: “The University has failed us, and their priorities aren’t clear”

Continued from page 1 said. “I also hereby ask my fellow students, regardless of your nationality, to show your support for international graduate students by signing a union card today.”

“I speak here as one of the over 1,300 international graduate students teaching and researching,” she added.

Graduate student Anthony Taboni explained how he lost the graduate student housing lottery this past summer and took four months and hundreds of dollars in application fees to find a one-bedroom apartment. He explained that the University should do more to help students having problems finding housing, as “being close to campus allows [graduate students] to spend more time in [their] labs and be available for undergraduate students [and] be active members of this intellectual community.”

“The University has failed us, and their priorities aren’t clear,” he added. Erin Firestone, a University spokesperson, responded to the claims made by the PGSU in an email to the ‘Prince.’

“Dean [of the Graduate School Rodney] Priestley is always available to speak with the Graduate Student Government about student interests or concerns,” she wrote. “He is also available during one-on-one office hours to speak with any graduate student about a student’s own individual concerns.”

Last year, the University announced its largest one-year increase in graduate student stipend rates for the 2022-2023 academic year by an average of 25 percent to about $40,000 for doctoral candidates.

In regards to housing, in the University’s announcement, Cole Crittenden, former Dean of the Graduate School, stated, “We offer University housing to a very large percentage of our graduate students, and when the Lake Campus graduate housing facilities are completed, we will be able to offer housing to any enrolled graduate student who wants it, just as we do to our undergraduate students.” The Lake Campus project has since been renamed the Meadows Neighborhood.

Tang said the University should provide more support to international graduate students and do more to help them with challenges related to immigration. She claimed that only 16 departments offer a