Graduate students fight for unionization amid upcoming stipend increase

By MAdi Olivier News Editor

Elijah Ullman’s (25G) mom has stage four cancer. She lives in Colorado, leaving over a thousand miles between her and her son, who is a Ph.D. candidate at Laney Graduate School.

Living on a graduate worker’s check, Ullman explained that he can barely scrape enough money together to visit his mom. He said that out of his monthly stipend from Emory University — which totals around $2,300 after taxes — about half goes to housing, followed by food and medical bills. He then has to pay for the phone in his pocket and the gas in his car.

This pushed Ullman to help reignite the movement to recognize EmoryUnite!, a graduate worker union based out of Laney, as a majority union under the National Labor Relations Board on Aug. 25, 2022. A majority union includes over half of the employees in a workplace.

Though EmoryUnite! has yet to form a majority union, the organization has helped create recent change, EmoryUnite! organizer Isaac Horwedel (17T, 23G) said. After continued pressure from students, the University announced on Feb. 13 that most Laney doctoral students’ stipends will increase by 6% starting in fall 2023. The stipends averaged to $34,595.63 during the 2022-23 academic year. With the increase, that average will rise to $36,637.53.

Additionally, business program stipends will increase by about 8%, from $37,000 to $40,000. Students in the biomedical engineering program, which is affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology, will continue to receive $34,500 without an increase.

“Increasing the stipend is a key priority for LGS and we continue to maximize our ability to support our students every way we can,” Assistant Vice President of University Communications and Marketing Laura Diamond wrote in an email to the Wheel. “We appreciate the dedication, commitment, and excellence demonstrated by our graduate students across programs at Emory.”

Ullman explained that although the increased stipend is beneficial, it still falls about $3,000 short of the living wage in Atlanta — which is about $39,375 for one adult without children — leaving Emory lagging behind some other institutions. For example, Washington University in St. Louis will offer graduate students a $37,000 stipend, falling above the city’s $33,571.20 living wage for one adult without children. Additionally, the University of Pennsylvania’s stipend also covers Philadelphia’s living wage.

“It's going to be harder for them to bite the financial bullet of coming here,” Ullman said. “They're still meeting a failing grade in that regard.”

However, some of Emory’s peer institutions also fail to pay Ph.D. students above living wage, including Vanderbilt University (Tenn.) and the University of Chicago.

EmoryUnite! goals

EmoryUnite! Organizer M Wu (27G) said that unionizing is the only route to truly impacting graduate students’ stipends.

“There's only so much you can do working within the department that you're a part of,” Wu said. EmoryUnite! is currently gathering signatures from Laney students who support unionization through their card drive. Once 30% of Laney students sign the card, EmoryUnite! can file a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board, which would decide if the group qualifies for an election day. If more than 50% of voters express support for unionization in the election, EmoryUnite! would become a recognized majority union, requiring