stoly@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I think you may be taking this wrong. The problem is that universities are severely underfunded and always have been. They simply don’t have the money to pay a living wage to grad students. When forced to do so, some universities have simply dissolved student positions as a response.
The problem isn’t the university or this professor. The problem is why we aren’t funding these better so that they can pay a reasonable wage.
grindemup@lemmy.world 2 months ago
BussyCat@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s an endowment, they can’t just empty that pool of money they take around 4% of the money each year that they get from investments which ends up being around 10% of their budget
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That’s still 1.4B a year. They get $1.1 B in tuition a year. That’s $2.5B. They have 2300 professors. At $200k salary that’s only $0.4B of the $2.5B.
BussyCat@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They also have 12.8 square miles of campus to maintain… which requires a lot more than just the 2300 professors. They also have adjunct professors, lab managers, researcher techs, facilities, and a ton of other expenses that are required from an R1 research university.
The grad students while they don’t get a “livable wage” do get their tuition comped and get a housing stipend. Like we can always do better but undergrad students are being done much dirtier than grad students as they are going into huge amounts of debt to try and even afford tuition
grindemup@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That’s great, these sound like basic details that their budget should take into account when considering how many people they can employ!
meyotch@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
This statement is not based on any facts.
glimse@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You’re right, we need to continue concentrating the salaries in the administration department!
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You have to understand that the teaching assistants can’t teach effectively unless the Dean gets his $50k/year mortgage paid for by the university along with a new car.
glimse@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Good point!!
MotoAsh@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The problem is definitely all things mentioned.
Univ3rse@lemmynsfw.com 2 months ago
Stanford is private with an endowment over $35 billion and charges $25 grand per semester for graduate programs. I’m not interested in my tax dollars funding a private college primarily for rich assholes.
stoly@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Billions of your tax dollars already go there to fund research. That is how universities work, public or private.
Univ3rse@lemmynsfw.com 2 months ago
I’m aware, that doesn’t mean I agree with it or support more money being siphoned from the working class to the elite.
stoly@lemmy.world 2 months ago
lol elite. Most students are just surviving