graduate student council...

Graduate Student Council

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Family Needs Presentation March 16th, 2006

Family Presentation• Family Subcommittee Participants:

– Shay Artzi– Andréa Schmidt– Pam Smalley– Kelly Smith– Kim Smith

• Administrative Support: – Jennifer Recklet


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Family Needs Presentation

• An assessment of the current situation and needs of graduate students with families at MIT– Family Statistics– Cost of Living Overview– Housing– Child Care– Health Care– Administrative Support/Advocacy– Discrimination– Recommendations Summary


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Family Statistics

• 38% of MIT graduate students are married/partnered

Occupation of

spouses/partners


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Family Statistics (con’t)

• 7% of MIT grad students have children, with an average of 1.6 children per family

• There are about 660-700 children of MIT grad students

• Only 14% of graduate student parents are mothers (28% of graduate students are women)

Occupation of spouses/partners of graduate student parents


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Family Statistics (con’t)


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Cost of Living Overview

1 Child 2 Children 1 Child 2 Children

Stipend $50,904 $50,904 $25,452 $25,452 Annual Housing + Utilities $17,594 $17,594 $17,594 $17,594

Annual Food $9,843 $10,996 $9,843 $10,996

Annual Taxes $7,358 $7,506 ($821) ($2,531)

Annual Health Care Cost $480 $1,320 $2,540 $2,540

Annual Books and Supplies $2,080 $2,080 $1,040 $1,040

Annual Transportation Cost $4,036 $4,836 $3,868 $4,668

Annual Dental Expenses $600 $600 $600 $600

Annual Student Life Fee $400 $400 $200 $200

Child Care Tuition $21,540 $39,528 $0 $0

Child Care Scholarship ($8,814) ($14,076) $0 $0

Total Expenses $55,117 $70,784 $34,863 $35,106

Disposable Income: -$4,213 -$19,880 -$9,411 -$9,654

2 Students with: 1 Student, 1 Spouse with:


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Family Housing• Benefits of Family Housing:

– Affordable housing in proximity of work, day care, medical care, athletics

– Support networks betweenfamilies (e.g. shared babysitting)

– Balancing work and family is difficult for parents; this is even more challenging for off-campus students with long commutes


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Family Housing• Discrepancy in the availability of housing

for single students and families• Available Apartments vs. Demand

– Total # of family apartments on campus: • 413 (19% of on-campus total)

– 203 in Eastgate, 210 in WestgateSource: Housing Office

– Total # of married/partnered students at MIT: • 2388 (38% of all students)Source: DSL Survey, Provost’s Office

• New single students are guaranteed housing; new family students are not


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Housing Recommendations

• What makes building new family housing difficult?– Building regulations for buildings occupied

by children– Difficult to recover cost of building through

rents (e.g. Eastgate 2-bedroom is $1367/month, Edgerton 2-bedroom is $852 per person = $1704/month)

• Eastgate and Westgate level rents could not pay for a new building!


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• Solution:– Build new family housing for couples with

no children only (entirely 1-bedrooms)– Market as newer, nicer housing for couples

who would prefer something more in the style of Edgerton but still affordable

• Edgerton 1-bedrooms are currently $1269/month and 585 square feet – a little bigger, much nicer, and only $123 more than Eastgate corners (the most popular type of family apartment)


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• Benefits:– Families without children are more likely to

want/afford more expensive apartments– This would free up space in

Eastgate/Westgate, which may become occupied primarily by couples with children

• Possibility of guaranteeing housing to new family students

– It would also diversify the family housing market so that incoming families have options


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• Renovate part/all of Tang as Family Housing– Resources (like the playground) can be shared

between Tang and Westgate

• Allow Couples in Some Singles Housing:– 1-bedrooms and efficiencies in singles housing

could accommodate couples– Anonymous inside source says there are about 25

“illegal” couples in S & P and 15 in Warehouse


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MIT Child Care Overview• 121 full-time slots allotted for infants, toddlers, and

preschoolers in Eastgate and the Stata Center– These are shared between the children of faculty, staff,

postdocs, and students– A faculty committee determined in 1999 that in order for

MIT to be competitive, we needed to 150 additional slots – Stata only added 75!

• Tuition: $1274-$1795/month for full time– $15,300-$21,540 per year

• Scholarship available for about 12 students:– eligible families are expected to pay 25% of their income

per child and all scholarship money is taxable! Scholarships can only be used at TCC.


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MIT Child Care - Capacity


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Value of MIT Child Care• Improves the happiness and productivity of

faculty, staff, postdocs, and grad students• Makes MIT more attractive to female grad

students and faculty who have/want families

Family StatusTenured Women

Tenured MenNon-Tenured

Women*

Non-Tenured Men

Single 25% 7% 38% 17%

Dual-career household (spouse/partner works full-time) 65% 29% 62% 42%

Spouse/partner does not work at all or works part-time

10% 64% 0% 45%

* Figures in this column based on 13 responses Source: Faculty Survey, 2001


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Value of MIT Child Care

Why don’t parents look for off-campus child care?

• Dropping kids off at MIT saves time!

• Breast-feeding mothers can visit on-campus child care during the day to nurse

• Parents can have confidence that it is a well-run center (because of its affiliation with MIT)

• Scholarship is currently only useable at TCC


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Child Care Recommendations

• Increase Capacity!!!!!– Build new centers– Buy up “slots” in local child care centers reserved

for MIT parents– Consider collaborations with local companies

(e.g. Novartis)

• Expand scholarship program– Some schools have scholarship programs that

can be used to pay for any legal form of child care


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The Westgate co-op opened in Fall 2005!• Pilot program is toddlers only, with capacity

of 12• Thank you to the many people who worked

on the co-op!• We hope that MIT continues to support

part-time and cooperative child care arrangements

MIT Child Care:Westgate Co-op


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• For the last several years, family health insurance premiums have decreased

Health Care

2004-20052005-20062006-2007Student $1,440 $1,440 $1,440Student and Partner $3,000 $2,800 $2,550Family $4,350 $3,160 $2,660Student and Dependent(s) $2,000 $1,800 $1,550

Student Health Insurance Premiums

• We appreciate these decreases very much – they help mitigate the financial difficulties faced by most families


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Non-discrimination Policy• Last year, we recommended that the MIT non-

discrimination policy be amended to include “married, partnered, or parental status.” Although the idea was well received, the change was never implemented

• Discrimination continues to affect the lives of students with families at MIT

• We continue to urge you to implement these changes so that students, faculty, and staff know that this discrimination is against MIT policy.


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Administrative Support/Advocacy• Most graduate dorms have housemasters and

those that do not had a residential life representative (Gabrielle Abelard) until recently

• Responsibilities include community activities programming, emergency management, and general advocacy

• Representing three graduate dorms is too difficult for a single person to manage

Recommendation: Hire a full-time residential life representative for Westgate and Eastgate, who can advocate for graduate student families


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Recommendations Summary• Housing

– Build newer/nicer couples-only housing to free up spots in Eastgate/Westgate

– Allow couples to live in some singles apartments– Renovate part/all of Tang as family housing

• Child Care– Increase Capacity!!!– Expand scholarship beyond TCC

• Health Care– Keep up the Good Work!

• Discrimination– Reconsider the proposed changes to the non-discrimination clause

• Administrative support/advocacy– We need stronger representation for dorms without housemasters

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