TO THE EDITOR:
I’d like to congratulate our chancellor on her recent pay increase. I’m sure this is a happy time for her and her family, as well as the other chancellors in the UNC system who just received pay increases. But while they celebrate this increase, there’s something they should consider about some of the least-paid academic workers of the campus community. Between 2008 and 2013, UNC’s Ph.D. graduate research assistant minimum stipends were stagnant at $14,700 and have grown only 6.8 percent since then.
When you consider the 10.5 percent increase in the consumer price index over the same period, that means the graduate student minimum has effectively dropped 3.7 percent since 2008. For comparison, Chancellor Holden Thorp was hired in 2008 with an annual salary of $420,000, and Chancellor Folt is now be making 35.7 percent more than that. Taking inflation into account, she’s earning 25.1 percent more than Thorp in 2008.
While some departments pay more than UNC’s minimum to their students in order to attract the best talent, I am aware of none that have kept up with inflation over the last 10 years. Many graduate students earn well below Orange County’s living wage of $22,225 before tax, and some take home less than the federal poverty level for a family of two: $15,930.
Scott Neidich
Graduate Student
Nutrition
