As rents and food prices continue to rise in comparison to our GSAS fellowship allowance, GSAS families are being forced to go without basic necessities including health insurance and appropriate housing. Join with us in asking Dean Carlos Alonso to change the GSAS fellowship cap, making it equitable for families.
What is wrong with the GSAS fellowship policy?
Many of us have worked hard to obtain external fellowships or research grants to help us reach our scholarly goals, only to have our Columbia teaching or research fellowships cut because of the GSAS “top up” policy. (GSAS's fellowship cap limits graduate student income to $30,000 per academic year.) This heavy-handed mode of institutional cost-cutting does not take into account each student's unique personal and family needs. While the “top-up” rule aims for equality among graduate students, it dramatically reduces incentives for students to apply for external fellowships and research grants while hurting the most vulnerable members of the Columbia community: children and dependents of Columbia graduate students.
We can make GSAS policies equitable for students and families.
Recently, graduate students and student-run organizations have successfully mobilized to compel Columbia administrators to update the GSAS maternity/paternity policy to coincide with minimum federal standards. In a similar way, we are asking Dean Alonso to take the minimal steps of allowing graduate students to exceed the current fellowship cap by $4,777 per dependent—the amount currently allowed under Federal student loan laws to determine a graduate student's cost of attendance. (Click here to see how Columbia accounts for family need in its student loans calculations.) When one considers that the highest paid Columbia employee in 2010 received $4.9 million in compensation (guidestar.org), it is clear that all GSAS students also deserve a substantial fellowship increase for the work we do to benefit the university.
By not recognizing the cost of providing for children and dependents in its "top-off" fellowship policy, GSAS makes it significantly harder for graduate students with families to pursue their goals for graduate-level education.
Please join us in petitioning Dean Alonso to change the GSAS fellowship policy to accommodate family diversity.
Have you received an external fellowship or grant only to have your GSAS fellowship cut? For graduate student parents with children, the painful reality of GSAS's fellowship policy is that children and dependents must sometimes go without adequate health care or housing even as Columbia's highest paid employees continue to see their incomes increase well into the millions of dollars (see Columbia's financial statements at guidestar.org).
Over the last year, GSAS parents and parent advocates have shared their frustrations with Columbia administrators over financial aid policies that unfairly treat graduate students with dependents. In response, Rebecca Hirade, GSAS VP for Planning, denied our request for a more equitable fellowship policy, describing the current "top up" formula--which limits all graduate student income to a maximum of $30,000 per year,
regardless of family need--as “equitable."
We seek your signature on the linked petition to help make GSAS financial aid policies more equitable for graduate student families.
Thank you for taking the time to read!
