Current graduate student stipends and benefits at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development are not substantial enough to alleviate the severe economic burdens imposed by the increasing costs of living in the city of Nashville. Sign the petition for fair pay at Peabody.
Most Peabody PhD student workers receive $28,000 stipends. This low pay, coupled with inadequate health insurance, and requirements to live and work in metro Nashville, has forced Peabody student-workers to take on multiple jobs, accrue debt, forgo medical care, and accept substandard living conditions and childcare. These sacrifices not only impact Peabody students’ quality of life but the quality of their research, teaching, and scholarship. As inflation rises and the costs of healthcare, childcare, rent, and food all soar, these problems are only worsening. Therefore, Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United is calling on Peabody College to increase the base graduate student stipend to $40,000 per year, provide guaranteed dental and vision insurance benefits to every graduate student, and pay student services fees.
It is specifically important to recognize that approximately 85% of Peabody College doctoral students identify as women, transgender, or gender diverse. Vanderbilt University must consider the message sent by the funding gap for graduate workers at different colleges within the university sends. What does it say about the value of education and human development when it systematically pays graduate students in Peabody less than their peers in other colleges? What does it say about gender equity in academia when it refuses to pay the graduate student workers in women-majority programs equitable wages?