‘THEY WANT TO SCARE US OFF’ IU graduate workers facing fewer doctoral admissions, petition for raise

IU men’s basketball leads in attendance

Matthew Byrne matbyrne@iu.edu | @MatthewByrne1

Indiana men's basketball led the Big Ten in attendance this past season for the first time since the 2013-2014 season, per release Monday. The Hoosiers landed at No. 8 in the nation with 273,721 fans attending Indiana's 17 home games at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in 2022-2023.

“Our program is grateful to the many fans who make up Hoosier Nation,” Indiana second-year head coach Mike Woodson said. “I’ve never wavered from my belief that we have the best fans in the country.

I’ve been a part of this program since 1976 and we are blessed to have one of the most loyal and supportive fan bases in college basketball year in and year out.” Indiana averaged 16,101 fans in those 17 home games. Twelve of those contests, along with two exhibitions, were listed as sold-out crowds of over 17,000 fans.

In Woodson’s first year, the 2021-2022 season, Indiana posted the ninth-highest attendance in the nation.

In back-to-back years, Indiana has been in the country's top-10 programs drawing the most fans ––the first time that’s happened in consecutive years since 2016 and 2017. Since Assembly Hall opened in 1971-1972, Indiana has been within the country's top-10 attendance 39 times. The Hoosiers have led the Big Ten 23 times, including this past year.

By Luke Price lwprice@iu.edu

IU graduate workers are petitioning IU administration for a salary raise to account for the standard of living in Bloomington and will face a reduction in the number of future doctoral student admissions moving forward.

Graduate workers petition for raise

The Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition United Electrical Workers submitted a petition for an 8% salary increase to IU administration March 31. IGWCUE requested this increase based on the estimated cost to maintain a given standard of living in Bloomington. The request comes as inflation nationwide is nearly double its long-term average of 3.28%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the average rent for two-bedroom units in Bloomington increased by 15.76% from 2022 to 2023.

At a Bloomington Faculty Council meeting on April 18, IU Provost Rahul Shrivastav said he did not support the proposed raise due to its potential cost to administration.

Shrivastav said at the meeting the 8% pay increase requested by the IGWC-UE for all faculty, staff and graduate workers would cost the university $200 million and would require tuition to rise 12%.

Shrivastav and the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.

Fewer doctoral student admissions moving forward

According to Rob Potter, director of graduate studies in The Media School, there will also be fewer doctoral student admissions in the future to account for the 46% raise graduate students received last year after going on a four-week strike.

Potter said the university is decreasing doctoral student admission because the available budget for graduate students has not increased to account for last year’s promised raise.

“So essentially their compensation went up, but the general pool of money devoted to funding graduate student compensation remained the same,” Pot-