Note: This article was written prior to Fordham University coming to a tentative agreement with the Fordham Graduate Student Workers (FGSW) union.
Fordham University’s Graduate Student Worker (FGSW) union recently voted to authorize a strike, the motion winning by a landslide with 98% of members voting to strike. Their hopes are to receive a well-deserved raise from the university in order to improve benefits such as healthcare and childcare for those who need it and to receive a wage that can effectively allow them to live in New York City.
This is not the first time in their less than three-year existence as an official union that they have gone on strike. On April 24, 2023, the FGSW union walked out on a three-day strike for Unfair Labor Practices. One of the graduate student workers who participated in the previous strike, Anwita Ghosh, reported that her $28,000 annual stipend, which is more than what some Fordham University graduate students make if they are paid hourly instead of annually, is not enough to qualify for an apartment in New York City. In order to qualify for an apartment, there is a requirement for the tenant to earn 40x the rent as well as have good credit. Furthermore, this low stipend is taxed and is only given for the nine months that school is in session. This becomes an issue because the contract FGSW members must sign prohibits them from getting another job, meaning they must do odd jobs like babysitting to still have some kind of income for three months.
As for the current issue at hand, in the 2023-24 academic year, Fordham’s graduate students are expected to receive a full scholarship and a stipend (as well as benefits), which has an accumulated value of $81,500. Still, what these student workers go out into the world with is about the same taxed stipend they saw last year. Along with up to 15% of that going to fees, they cannot comfortably live on their own due to the cost of living in New York City, which is reportedly 78% greater than the rest of the country and 37% greater than the rest of the state. The cost of living for a single person in NYC, not including rent, averages $1,574 a month.
Teachers are famously underpaid in general, which I know from personal experience as someone whose mother was a public preschool teacher in Jersey City, N.J. In NYC public schools, a starting salary for a teacher with no experience and a bachelor’s degree is $64,789. No experience and a bachelor’s degree sounds rather familiar, no? Fordham graduate students, even though they put in 19 hours a week plus additional work that occurs outside of the classroom, are not even receiving half the salary of a public school teacher of the same qualification.
As a first-year, I have yet to see FGSW go on strike, but I have heard much about it, especially from concerned peers going off to colleges where large amounts of their staff were not currently on strike. This is not to say that Fordham is the only school to have issues with their graduate student workers. Where I’m from, North-Central New Jersey, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University have worked together for better wages and benefits for their graduate workers. They even recently voted for and authorized a strike of their own at NJIT this past December. I do not say this to criticize; however, they are already earning more than Fordham’s graduate employees and are still out fighting for more because even around $5,000 more than a Fordham graduate student worker’s salary is not a livable wage in a state where the cost of living is generally lower.
As an incoming Fordham first-year last spring, I also felt a bit apprehensive about coming into the school, as I worried many courses wouldn’t be offered or that their quality would be lessened because of the rather sarcastic and demeaning responses from the university I see online to the graduate workers. I certainly would not want to put in my best efforts if my struggles were reacted to in such a way. My stresses could not have been more easily dissuaded, however, because the graduate student workers I have had as instructors have been the most wonderful to be in class with. They are always accessible outside of the classroom, give engaging and inspiring lectures and know how to communicate effectively with students to make us feel confident in our work. This only furthers my feelings of a need for justice for the FGSW union because they work just as hard as any other professor or faculty member who works towards the upkeep of the university.
I am in full support and agreement with the FGSW union if they decide to walk out after the authorization to strike. Unionizing and strikes have worked in the past and certainly will again because enough people joined together hold immense power.
Caitlin Wong, FCRH ’27 is a psychology and English Major from Union, N.J.
