STONY BROOK

What is it like to try to live on a graduate student stipend at Stony Brook University? This is what we tried to find out in our recent survey on SBU grad student finances, which so far has received 266 responses. We already knew that out of 63 AAU universities, Stony Brook ranks 6th from the bottom in terms of the ratio of our net stipend to the local cost of living. Our findings indicate that the majority of our graduate students are struggling with poverty or extreme financial hardship. In our survey, 85% of the graduate worker respondents said they cannot sustain themselves with their stipends, and 99% said they cannot "live comfortably, and... focus on [their] research, without financial worry and stress." Many of us are struggling to make it to the next paycheck and suffering from the anxiety that comes with living below the poverty line. Our graduate workers shared that they cannot visit family members, start their own families, leave abusive and unsafe living conditions, afford..