1,600 Sign Petition to Raise Student Wages

A LIVING WAGE. The Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Automobile Workers called for higher student wages.

BY CAM E. KETTLES CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

More than 1,600 people have signed a petition calling on Harvard to raise student researcher and teacher salaries up to living wage in Middlesex County for members of the University’s graduate student union by July 1. On May 10, more than 100 graduate students rallied in Harvard Yard before delivering the petition to Massachusetts Hall. The petition, created by the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Automobile Workers, began gathering signatures May 1.

According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, the living wage for one adult with no children in Middlesex County is $23.45 per hour. Scaled to an annual salary, graduate students would need to make $48,779 to meet the living wage rate.

HGSU-UAW’s petition comes in response to Harvard’s recent decision to name the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences after Kenneth C. Griffin ’89, a billionaire hedge fund CEO and Republican megadonor who donated $300 million to Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The petition states that graduate students “are kept in the dark about decisions to sell off parts of our university” and have no input about the use of the funds.

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the criticisms levied at the rally and in the petition.

At the rally, organizers argued that the current yearly wage increase of 3 percent does not keep pace with the rising cost of living.

“Harvard has failed to reach that rock bottom standard over and over and over again,” HGSU-UAW organizer Alexandra C. Stanton said at the rally.

Speakers at the rally referenced a flier circulated by Harvard University Health Services encouraging graduate students to attend an informational meeting to “learn more about qualifying for SNAP benefits” as clearly demonstrating the need for higher wages. “We are united here because