Chicago Grads Want To Turn the City Into a “Powerhouse of Organizing”
The two unions also hope to set a new floor for graduate working conditions in the city. At both universities, the base stipend paid to graduate workers — $33,000 a year at UChicago and $35,196 at Northwestern — is far below Chicago’s living wage of $40,123. “I know graduate workers who are on food stamps,” says Brianna Suslovic, a social work Ph.D. student at UChicago. “It’s been years since most of us have gone to the dentist because our dental plans are so limited.” Suslovic says inflation has made the cost of living in Hyde Park untenable for many of her colleagues, and in order to survive, most graduate workers are working side-jobs on top of their teaching requirements and regular coursework. “Graduate students should not have to work full-time, in addition to being full-time employees of the university,” she adds.