The Graduate Student Council (GSC) discussed last night approaching the University to increase graduate stipends amidst concerns that the stipends are not keeping up with changes in the economy.

GSC parliamentarian Adam Beberg, a Computer Science doctoral candidate, gave a presentation to the council highlighting how the weakening of the dollar and rises in commodity prices have reduced the value of the graduate stipend through increases in the cost of living.

According to Beberg, stipends are adjusted by the consumer price index, which has risen by about 3 percent annually over the past two decades. Based on changes in the value of the dollar relative to the value of consumer goods, he claimed that the stipend is only worth 70 percent of what it was worth in the year 2000.

“You can’t buy as much gas as you could,” Beberg said. “If you just converted your stipend into gasoline in 2000, it’s a third less now if you converted it. Milk, grain, red meat, rice, corn, all these things, they went up 90 percent in the last year alone, and that’s a UN figure. As far as our food buying power, we’re making 40 percent of what we were.”

The financial insecurity of graduate students, many whom are trying to work and take classes at the same time, was noted by the GSC. Citing a recent survey of graduate students, Beberg said that of the 20 percent of graduate students with jobs, 45 percent of them rated money as a “significant worry.” From the same survey, over 50 percent of graduate students with children rated money in the same way.

Stipends at Stanford are determined by particular schools and departments within the University. Graduate stipends in the School of Engineering are derived from research grants. In the School of Humanities and Sciences, the process is somewhat different. GSC co-chair George Bloom said the minimum stipend is determined from each department’s budget. Changes in the sources of funding, like grants, often lead to budgetary constraints within departments.

“When I started four years ago, we had a two thousand or eighteen hundred research budget,” Bloom said. “That was cut immediately, I think now it’s five hundred. You come in thinking that it’s a part of your income, that’s a significant reduction, actually.”

GSC co-chair Kristina Keating, a geophysics doctoral student, suggested that an alternative approach to advocating for stipend increases would be pushing for reductions in the cost of living expenses like housing, energy and food, although she noted that it was difficult for the University to control those costs.

Annual increases in tuition, which are usually around 6 to 7 percent, were noted by the GSC as a target to equal for stipend increases. Past attempts at stipend raises have been successful.

“The years we actually did this, we got six percent raises, and the years we didn’t, we got 3 percent raises,” Beberg said.

The GSC plans to approach the University in late February for a stipend increase. Beberg informed the GSC that limited sources of funding, including cuts in federal funding by the Bush administration, are putting a greater strain on the University.

“It’s going to be a hard fight,” Beberg said.