This morning, graduate students across disciplines at the University of Arkansas sent the follow-up letter below to the Chancellor.

Dear Chancellor Steinmetz,

On Monday, University faculty and staff received an email which linked to an old press release about graduate assistant stipends. The release states a plan for a $15,000 minimum annual stipend for graduate students with a 12-month assistantship. Unfortunately, this benefits very few graduate students. For graduate students with 9-month teaching assistantships, the minimum annual stipend is $11,250.

On July 1, a large group of graduate students across disciplines sent a letter to the Chancellor’s Office asking for a survivable wage. The letter mentioned, among other points, that 47% of graduate students are food insecure during the semester. It’s absolutely disgraceful and inexcusable that the University doesn’t value the people who teach a large percentage of its core classes. We finally received a response to our letter on July 14. The response—which says that “the campus will be undertaking a study to determine where to make strategic investments” to help graduate students—is wholly inadequate. It does not address our concerns. Long-term goals and future plans are not enough. We need definitive action and timelines now. We are struggling now.

As we requested two weeks ago, we would again like to request a meeting with the Chancellor to discuss the University’s poor treatment of graduate students and teaching assistants. We also call on the Dean of the Graduate School Kim Needy to attend this discussion to help her better understand the needs of graduate students. Her response, as quoted in the press release, is woefully inadequate; we hope that after hearing firsthand accounts from struggling graduate students she will be better able to represent the graduate school and advocate for a $20,000 minimum stipend as well as the other benefits laid out in our original letter.

Sincerely,

[names redacted]