{
"type": "rich",
"version": "1.0",
"provider_name": "Action Network",
"provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org",
"html": "",
"author_name": "United Campus Workers of Kentucky: CWA Local 3365",
"author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/groups/united-campus-workers-of-kentucky-cwa-local-3365",
"title": "Fair stipends for all graduate workers",
"thumbnail_url": "https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg",
"description": "Dear President Schatzel and the Board of Trustees: Graduate workers are integral to UofL, and without our efforts, the entire university system could not function. Despite our essential roles and hard work, we are paid under a living wage for the Louisville area, with some graduate workers earning less than $14,000 a year. We love our work and chose to pursue graduate studies at UofL because we believe higher education is a powerful force in society. However, our low stipends put us in difficult positions, forcing us to make hard choices—like deciding between a medical appointment and basic necessities, risking our student status by taking on additional jobs to make ends meet, and prioritizing our education at the expense of our well-being. Many of us are also parents, caregivers, or have families who rely on our support. The university's current approach to stipends fails to accommodate the diverse needs of graduate workers. We, as members of United Campus Workers Kentucky and the University of Louisville campus community, urge UofL administration to fairly compensate its graduate workers. We are calling on university leaders to ensure graduate workers can move beyond surviving and towards academic excellence by taking the following steps: 1. Pay all graduate workers a living wage. Establish $25,000 as the baseline for graduate workers stipends by the 2025-2026 academic year. Commit to cost-of-living and inflation-based increases each subsequent academic year. 2. Collect and publish relevant financial data to increase transparency and accountability. Collect and publish relevant financial data about stipends by department and program to increase transparency and accountability, aggregating and anonymizing data as necessary to comply with FERPA regulations. 3. Prioritize graduate worker needs by meeting with UCW and other graduate workers. The University of Louisville should meet with elected UCW reps (and any other willing graduate worker groups) at least once per semester to address concerns related to fair pay and treatment. This meeting should be open to all graduate workers at UofL",
"url": "https://actionnetwork.org/forms/equitable-stipends-for-all-graduate-workers"
}