KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Graduate student workers at the University of Tennessee gathered on Tuesday to deliver a petition calling for university leaders to raise the minimum stipend to $24,000 per year.
The rally was organized by United Campus Workers, a local union. They said they launched the petition around a month ago and gathered more than 1,000 signatures. In the petition, they also asked for annual cost-of-living adjustments to graduate student worker stipends. They said around 75 campus workers and students gathered for the rally on Tuesday.
In a release, they said that at minimum, graduate assistants make $14,400 per year at UT. According to UT's Office of Budget and Finance 2021 stipend list, other graduate student worker roles make more.
Graduate teaching associates who work for the entire year can make $21, 600 per year. The nine-month position earns $17,280 per year. Graduate teaching assistants and graduate research assistants make around $18,000 per year, according to the university.
"While working on this campaign, I’ve heard from fellow graduate students who don’t know how they are going to afford rent next year, who have been pushed out of their apartments, who are drowning in thousands of dollars of credit card debt, who are on food stamps or get all their groceries from food pantries,” said Ryan Ackett in a press release, co-chair of the Graduate Committee of UCW.
In the release, they also said that graduate student workers were struggling to pay rent after housing costs rose in Knoxville. According to the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors, the effective rent in Knoxville was expected to reach around $1,355 per month.
After the rally, they said a group of graduate students and campus workers marched to Andy Holt Tower and delivered the petition to Chancellor Donde Plowman's office.
