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Good Morning!
On Friday, Princeton Graduate Students United (PGSU) announced that a majority of graduate students had signed union cards. One of PGSU’s core demands calls for affordable housing through graduation, with essential accommodations like air conditioning. Aditi Rao GS, in a statement on behalf of the PGSU, states “The effort (monetarily and emotionally) expended by most graduates to make sure they can be on campus when they need to be is a chronic stressor and impacts our day to day as workers for this university.”
These concerns do not exist at Princeton alone. Alex Diaz-Hui, a third-year graduate student in the English department and Program in Latin American Studies at Princeton, wrote in a guest contribution to the ‘Prince’ that as a graduate student at Oregon State University, 85 percent of his stipend went to rent.
The expense of housing in the local area, and Princeton's role in it, has been noted in the past. In 2021, Graduate Columnist Matt Mleczko wrote: "By subsidizing mortgages for faculty and upper-level staff – members of the University community with likely the lowest need for housing assistance — Princeton University likely helps inflate local housing costs."
The University highlighted a January 2022 increase in graduate student stipends and the construction of the Meadows Housing Complex which should enable them to guarantee housing for all graduate students.
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Analysis by Jimmy Bement
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