Stony Brook Worker Editorial

May 5, 2022

Members of the Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU) on May 1, 2019, protesting the increase in their fees. Credit: Emma Harris/The Statesman

In the fall of 2020, graduate student workers here at Stony Brook University—one of the largest and most prestigious public universities in the country, and the flagship university of the SUNY system – won an important victory against the university’s administration and its fees policy. Even though graduate workers at Stony Brook provide more than half of the labor required for teaching and grading, the university has for years charged graduate student employees an array of what they call ‘broad-based fees’ every semester. These fees are vaguely defined and non-transparent. As part of this fee package, for instance, grad student employees were forced to pay line items such as an ‘Academic Excellence Fee’ or a ‘College Fee,’ which, put together, amounted to over a thousand dollars each semester, without any tangible information as to what these fees pay for and why they are levied in the first place. The total tally of these broad-based fees stood at around $700 per semester in 2013, but in recent years – due to alleged budget deficits, and in keeping with the general neoliberal trend of further commodifying higher education – the university had consistently increased these fees every semester, to the point where they had spiraled out of control and had become untenable for generally underpaid and overworked graduate student employees. 

The Net Stipend to Cost of Living Ratio for the Association of American Universities (AAU) as of October 21, 2020. Since the fee scholarship, Stony Brook’s graduate worker stipend has moved up in rank to be sixth to last. 

In the fall semester of 2020, when the economic effects of the global COVID pandemic were felt by so many working people, the fees for grad students averaged roughly $1,200 per semester, or $2,400 for the academic year, depending on a grad student’s individual situation. For most grad student employees, this represents about one tenth of their annual income, or the equivalent to nearly three full paychecks, which they essentially had to pay back to the university, in some cases before they were even able to assume their duties. If this sounds like a form of wage theft or a pay-to-work scheme, that’s largely because it is. It seems that, in attempts to recoup some of the alleged budget shortfalls, Stony Brook University had increasingly relied on raising broad-based fees to generate additional revenue on the backs of its graduate student workforce. 

In a recent turn of events, however, Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis’s Office announced on October 28, 2020,  that, “[b]eginning in the Spring 2021 semester, the university will provide scholarships to cover the broad-based fees of all students on graduate tuition scholarships in terminal degree programs.” For the vast majority of Stony Brook’s graduate student employees, this would mean that the broad-based fees will finally be a thing of the past. But make no mistake about this. What sounds like a gracious move on the part of the university’s administration is actually the culmination of years of hard work and organizing by both leadership and rank-and-file members of the Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU), a unique sub-division of the Communications Workers of America, Local 1104, which represents all Graduate Assistants and Teaching Assistants at Stony Brook. 

May Day March Rally for fees on May 1, 2019.

This victory, while not necessarily anticipated, is hardly surprising given the Graduate Student Employees Union’s vehement and vigorous opposition and mobilization against Stony Brook’s unjust fees in recent years. In fact, the GSEU has quite a history of organizing and pushing back against injustices, including various attempted cutbacks and cost increases at Stony Brook. In 2017, for instance, students, faculty, and union members came together for a ‘March for Humanities,’ which the GSEU had organized to protest the administration’s plans to cut funding for liberal arts programs and even entire departments. As a result of this protest and the organized pushback across campus, the Hispanic Languages and Literature department, a particular target in those proposed cutbacks, was subsequently saved.

Since then, GSEU leadership and rank-and-file membership have become even more active and committed to the material welfare of graduate student workers. In the Spring of 2019, GSEU had organized a huge campus-wide protest against yet another fee hike, and against the university’s fees policy overall. Then, in the summer of 2019, GSEU members organized a trip to Albany where they lobbied New York state legislators to pass a bill that would eradicate broad-based fees for graduate student workers entirely. The bill passed the NY State Senate unanimously, and it was on track to be included as a rider amendment in the New York state budget for the past three years, but unfortunately it was defeated every time, either because of budgetary constraints or because of the effects of the COVID pandemic.

Car poster from the Abolish Fees Car Rally on September 9, 2020

In the fall semester of 2020, when the economic effects of the global COVID pandemic were felt by so many working people, the fees for grad students averaged roughly $1,200 per semester, or $2,400 for the academic year, depending on a grad student’s individual situation. For most grad student employees, this represents about one tenth of their annual income, or the equivalent to nearly three full paychecks, which they essentially had to pay back to the university, in some cases before they were even able to assume their duties. If this sounds like a form of wage theft or a pay-to-work scheme, that’s largely because it is. It seems that, in attempts to recoup some of the alleged budget shortfalls, Stony Brook University had increasingly relied on raising broad-based fees to generate additional revenue on the backs of its graduate student workforce. 

In a recent turn of events, however, Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis’s Office announced on October 28, 2020,  that, “[b]eginning in the Spring 2021 semester, the university will provide scholarships to cover the broad-based fees of all students on graduate tuition scholarships in terminal degree programs.” For the vast majority of Stony Brook’s graduate student employees, this would mean that the broad-based fees will finally be a thing of the past. But make no mistake about this. What sounds like a gracious move on the part of the university’s administration is actually the culmination of years of hard work and organizing by both leadership and rank-and-file members of the Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU), a unique sub-division of the Communications Workers of America, Local 1104, which represents all Graduate Assistants and Teaching Assistants at Stony Brook. 

Excerpt of a graduate student fees testimonial made into an Instagram post.