From: KT Turner, Richie Thaxton & Zachary Foley
A year ago, the University of Idaho began a $162 million building project aimed at renovating undergraduate housing as well as building new apartments for graduate students and families. With construction wrapping up, the university has released the rent for graduate student housing units, which are as high as 74% of a graduate student’s stipend. A common guideline is that no more than 30% of one’s salary should be spent on rent and certainly not 74%.
Options for the new apartments range from studios ($1,339 per month), one bedroom ($1,432 per month) and two bedroom ($1,154 per bed per month) — not including electricity. These rates are not only out of sync with TA stipends, some of which are as low as $16,295 (for a nine-month academic year contract), but also the broader market rates in Moscow. A two-bedroom apartment should be an economic option, but instead still costs the majority of most graduate student stipends (note that the cost is per bed, not per apartment).
We feel it is important to bring attention to the disconnect between the university’s proposed housing rates and what the university pays its graduate students. Housing built for the graduate and professional student body should be designed to be affordable for those students, but the cost of this new university housing does not align with the current university graduate student stipend. If the university cannot create housing that is affordable on a graduate student stipend, then they should consider updating those stipends to better reflect the current cost of living in Moscow. Affordable housing for graduate students or adjusted stipends that account for the high cost of housing would be a strong tool for recruiting and retaining more graduate students, which is key to maintaining the university’s R1 status. We believe UI’s graduate and professional students deserve better.
KT Turner, MFA – Graduate Student, College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences
Richie Thaxton – Graduate Student, College of Science
Zachary Foley – Graduate Student, College of Science