BFC to review graduate student wages

The Bloomington Faculty Council approved a resolution on March 24 to create a committee to review stipends given to student academic employees, according to a press
release sent out Monday. Stipends will be reviewed every other year.

The Graduate and Professional Student Organization presented the resolution because they wanted a way “to review differences between the stipends of graduate students in the different programs at IU and their peers at comparable programs at other institutions,” according to the resolution. It also states the committee will recommend minimum amounts of pay for student academic employees.

BFC President Herb Terry said there is no set wage for assistant instructors and that each school determines what they pay their student academic employees.

“This is not a new problem,” Terry said. “The issue of adequacy of salaries of graduate employees, for all our employees, never goes away.”

The committee will begin in the fall of 2009 and will be chaired by the dean of the University graduate school. Terry said the committee will have a gradual effect, but passing the resolution shows what can happen when a group recognizes an issue that needs to be solved.   

“I think it’s an example of the willingness of faculty to listen to outsiders, and when they identify a problem, to address it,” Terry said.