As the current collective bargaining agreement approaches its expiration at the end of May 2026, we, the Graduate Student Union, write to inform you – our PIs, mentors, and advisors – that negotiations with the MIT administration are about to begin. Many of you expressed, during the last round of bargaining, that you wished to be present at the table. We offer here a clear account of the priorities we are advancing – what we believe is necessary to sustain our work and to continue contributing as a central part of MIT’s research enterprise. These priorities emerge not from abstraction, but from the lived conditions under which graduate workers carry out research and teaching across the Institute and a survey in which almost 2000 graduate workers participated.

MIT Must Recognize That Graduate Workers’ Conditions Are Central to Its Research and Teaching Mission

The first contract established essential protections – harassment safeguards, health and safety standards, timely pay, and guaranteed raises – that have already improved the ability of graduate workers to focus on their research and teaching. Yet the broader landscape of higher education has shifted rapidly, and graduate workers continue to face increasing uncertainty. These conditions are not peripheral to MIT’s mission; they define the environment in which its research is produced. Strengthening them is therefore a necessary step in sustaining the Institute’s academic excellence.

MIT Must Align Graduate Stipends with the Cost of Living to Sustain Its Research Mission

Current stipend levels remain significantly below the cost of living in the Cambridge area, even as inflation and housing costs continue to rise. MIT’s own research[1] estimates the living wage for the area to be $67,513, vastly exceeding our current pre-tax compensation of $52,429 ($46,793 for Master’s students), creating a persistent gap between income and basic expenses. For reference, in annual expenditures, average rent for one bed at Graduate Junction is $25,800, groceries are $7,300, and internet and mobile plans are estimated around $2,199. This disparity places graduate workers under continuous financial strain, limiting our ability to focus fully on research and teaching and pushing us further and further away from Cambridge in search of more affordable housing. A leading research institution cannot rely on a workforce that is structurally overextended. Aligning stipends with the real cost of living is essential for maintaining both academic productivity and institutional competitiveness, especially since many peer institutions like UPenn, Princeton, and Brown offer wages more in line with the living standards in their area.

MIT Must Guarantee Stable Funding to Protect Research Continuity in a Time of Federal Retrenchment

The recent termination and freezing of thousands of research grants, alongside large-scale federal funding cuts, has introduced unprecedented uncertainty into graduate education. Graduate workers now face the possibility that their ability to complete their programs depends on factors entirely outside their control. Some graduate workers have reported needing to find full-time work or summer internships outside of MIT due to a lack of funding for an appointment, with others simply going without pay for the summer months. These disruptions extend beyond individual trajectories; they interrupt laboratory work, delay collaborative projects, and weaken long-term research programs. MIT must provide stronger and more consistent funding guarantees, similar to those in place at peer universities like Stanford, UPenn and Boston University, to ensure that research can proceed without avoidable interruption and that graduate workers can complete the work to which they and their advisors have committed years.

MIT Must Remove Structural and Political Barriers Facing International Graduate Workers

International graduate workers, who comprise a significant portion of MIT’s research community, face both institutional barriers and broader political risks that materially affect their work. Administrative inconsistencies around CPT and OPT access limit essential training opportunities, while visa uncertainties and travel restrictions create ongoing instability. In addition, international workers now confront the real possibility of visa revocation, targeting for political expression, or being unable to return to the United States after travel. MIT must respond to these conditions with clear, consistent policies: ensuring full access to federally permitted training pathways, providing protections in the event of immigration enforcement actions, and enabling flexible work arrangements when international workers are temporarily unable to return. These are necessary measures to preserve both the well-being of graduate workers and the continuity of the Institute’s global research enterprise.

MIT Must Ensure Due Process in Decisions That Determine Both Academic Standing and Employment

Graduate workers do not occupy separable academic and employment roles in practice; the two are structurally intertwined. When a student is removed from a program, they lose their employment, and when they lose employment, they often lose the ability to continue their studies. Current institutional practices that treat these domains as distinct limit access to fair process, create uncertainty at precisely the moments when clarity is most needed, and have been confusing in practice to graduate workers, faculty, and administrators. MIT must establish due process protections that reflect the integrated nature of graduate work, ensuring fairness, transparency, and stability for both graduate workers and the faculty who supervise them.

MIT Must Extend Equal Protections to Fellows Performing Equivalent Work

As the Institute increasingly relies on fellowships, disparities have emerged between fellows and other graduate workers performing similar roles. Fellows often lack access to basic protections guaranteed by our contract, including safeguards against harassment, clear compensation standards, and reasonable working conditions, despite contributing equally to research and teaching. This inequity creates inconsistency across departments and places graduate workers in the position of choosing between a prestigious fellowship opportunity and basic protections. MIT must ensure that all graduate workers, regardless of funding mechanism, receive the protections necessary to carry out their work effectively.

MIT Must Act Together with Faculty to Defend the Conditions of Academic Work

The challenges described here unfold within a broader context of political and financial pressure on higher education, including funding cuts, constraints on academic freedom, and shifting federal policies. Addressing these issues requires collective engagement. Graduate workers and faculty share a common stake in improving the conditions under which research and teaching can proceed with integrity and continuity.

We therefore ask for your active support. Support your graduate students within your labs and departments as these negotiations unfold. If collective action becomes necessary, we ask for your understanding when you see graduate workers on the picket line; this is part of a shared effort to secure conditions that sustain our common work. If negotiations escalate, we encourage you to raise these issues within faculty governance spaces, including Institute faculty meetings, where your voice carries weight. We are all engaged in the same enterprise, and its future depends on our ability to act together.

We move forward in this process with the conviction that MIT’s strength lies in that shared commitment – and that the conditions under which graduate workers labor are inseparable from the success of the Institute as a whole.

Ani Adavi and Baltasar Dinis are writing on behalf of the Graduate Student Union’s Executive Board. They can be reached at (contact@mitgsu.org).

References

[1]: https://livingwage.mit.edu/metros/14460 

Back to top