University falls behind other Big Ten schools in graduate, professional students’ salaries, pay

The IU Graduate and Professional Student Organization (GPSO) has released a report comparing teaching assistant salaries at IU with those at other Big Ten universities, ranking IU last in the amount they are paid.

The data, which was compiled in September, indicates average salaries of IU graduate students in the physical sciences compare favorably with the Big Ten average, but suggest IU’s student academic appointees in the social sciences and humanities are paid less on average than their Big Ten peers.

The aim of the report is to collect data on graduate student salaries, tuition waivers and benefit packages. This will allow evaluation of the complete value of graduate student financial packages, reveal a dependable measure of cost-of-living and compare IU’s graduate student salaries with other Big Ten institutions, according to the report.

“The project was initiated in discussion last spring,” said Nick Clark, GPSO moderator. “The idea was primarily one of my initiatives. We often heard both that IU graduate students make less than their peers at other institutions and there was a lot of data on this out there, if we only looked for it. The report was intended to look into both these claims.”

The data reveals a substantial pay discrepancy between graduate students in the physical sciences and the social sciences and humanities.

“There are of course limitations in the data due to differences in variables such as cost of living, benefits and services provided, etc.,” said James Wimbush, dean of the University Graduate School. “Nonetheless, the data collected by the GPSO, along with the data soon to be released by the National Research Council, provides a good indicator of the stipends and benefits received across institutions.”

Clark said the next stage of the project will include a series of surveys and interviews with department chairs and graduate students in the next month. The GPSO Assembly will also vote on a resolution in November to propose a campus-level committee, comprised equally of administration, faculty and graduate students under the provost. They will meet every other year, review comparative salary information and make recommendations on minimum pay thresholds for IUB to the provost.

“I hope the University looks carefully at this data and takes it into full consideration when determining stipends and benefits,” said Langston Wilkins, an associate instructor for IU’s African and African-American Diaspora Studies.