Graduate students already living on campus will not be subject to the largest rent hikes planned for this summer, but the 3 percent increase is still concerning for many who live on limited stipends from the university, including Alli Carlise, a member of the UAW 2865 student workers union.
“The university pays us, they know exactly how little they pay us and then they keep hiking up how much they’re charging us for rent and so that margin of how much people have to live on gets smaller and smaller,” Carlise said.
Student workers unions across the UC have been fighting over the past year for a cost-of-living adjustment, which they say is needed for many graduate students currently living at or below the poverty line. A UC student housing association found that UCSD’s campus rents have increased four times faster than stipends for grad students between 2016 and 2019.