Florida International University (FIU) is among the largest universities in the United States and has made important strides both as a research institution and as an engine of social mobility. These achievements are the result of not only the efforts of faculty, administrators, and staff, but also to the hard work of the University’s graduate and undergraduate student body.

However, despite the University’s commitment to serving as an engine for social mobility, many of the University’s graduate students are in financially precarious situations. Based on nearly 200 graduate student testimonials that had been presented to administration, Panther Now reported on the situation faced by FIU graduate students in 2019. These included reports of excessive levels of debt, working under the table, physical and mental health crises, and even homelessness. While FIU raised graduate assistant stipends for the 2019-2020 academic year, the raise was the first in over 10 years.

Given these challenges, there are a number of policies that the University could and should implement to allow FIU graduate students to survive the high cost of living in Miami as well as to thrive in their academic and professional pursuits. These include such policies as:

• Progressively raising graduate assistant stipends to levels commensurate with the cost of living in Miami.
• Reducing onerous university fees on graduate students.
• Providing subsidized housing or housing allowances for graduate students.
• Eliminating the de facto additional employment ban on graduate assistants.
• Charging PhD candidates a continuing education fee rather than full tuition while completing their own research/dissertations.
• Waiving out-of-state tuition for all graduate students.
• Providing additional employment opportunities within the university for current graduate students to supplement their incomes.
• Increasing adjunct rates for both graduate instructors and adjunct professors to levels commensurate with experience, education, and time put into a course.
• Lifting summer enrollment requirements for full time student status.
• Providing subsidized health insurance opportunities to students even after student funding expires.
• Basing the duration of graduate student funding on departmental expected time to degree.
• Encouraging the development of an elected Graduate Student Union endowed with the ability to negotiate on the behalf of the Graduate Student Body and Graduate Student Employees.
• Providing graduate student specific access to mental health services.
• Ensuring access to maternity/paternity benefits for graduate students.

The proposed policies not only benefit graduate students financially, but provide long term professional benefits to students and bolster the University’s image both within and outside of the University. The financial situation facing FIU’s graduate students is untenable. While not all of the policies listed above may be feasible nor are these the only policies that would benefit graduate students, we are not asking the administration to reinvent the wheel as many of these policies have been implemented in other universities across the United States. We call on the administration of Florida International University to develop policies and remove barriers that negatively impact the wellbeing of its graduate student body.