Independent graduate-worker campaign · University of Toledo
A tuition waiver doesn’t pay rent. On UToledo’s posted Math PhD stipend, fees and the student health plan take back 25.7% before the first grocery run.Graduate work should fund a life.
POSTED MATH PHD STIPEND · FALL + SPRING 2026–27 · 9 CREDITS / TERM · NATURAL SCIENCES & MATHEMATICS
LEFT TO LIVE ON
$12,129.40
$1,010.78 / month if stretched across 12 months. No summer pay assumed.
Tuition remission is non-cash and not counted. No optional charges, one-time charges or penalties included.
Posted Math PhD stipend · 2026–27 fees, health plan and parking · income taxes modeled on 2026 rules.
The film · 1:22
Campaign video for the University of Toledo Graduate Workers Funding Campaign. Length 1:22.
There is no narration or dialogue. Every word in the video appears as on-screen text, listed below in the order it appears. Visual descriptions are included where the picture carries information the text does not. The soundtrack is original instrumental music and ambient sound; changes are noted where they mark a shift in the video.
Visual: A dark building at night, seen up close. One by one, three windows light up: a person writing equations on a chalkboard, a person grading papers under a desk lamp, and a person working at a lab bench with glassware. The camera then pulls back to show a whole campus at night beside a river, with windows lighting up across every building.
Sound: A quiet building hum. Each window lights with a soft glass chime.
On-screen text
Visual: The camera moves back toward the window of the person grading.
On-screen text
Visual: The camera moves into the grading window. Its glass is a grid of 10 rows of 10 small panes, and the panes turn to blank, glowing paper. The window now stands for one stipend. The dollar figure counts up from zero.
On-screen text
Visual: A paper receipt prints beside the window, one line at a time. As each fee prints, its share of the panes turns coral, filling row by row from the top left, until about 11 panes are coral. When the health plan prints, about 15 more panes turn gold.
Sound: Receipt-printer chatter with each line, and a small tick as each pane changes color.
On-screen text
Visual: The coral and gold panes go dark one by one, and specks of light drift up out of the frame. About a quarter of the window is left dark.
Sound: A falling run of chimes as the panes go dark, then a deep low hit.
On-screen text
Visual: The dark panes light up again, so the whole window is lit. Thin drafting lines then extend the window’s frame to the right, outlining an opening about 40% wider than the glass. A color bar above the opening is divided into the four budget categories; the housing and food segment alone is slightly wider than the glass. The part of the opening the glass does not fill stays empty and is hatched in coral. Brackets underneath mark the glass and the empty gap.
Sound: A low thud when the gap is marked, under a tense, unresolved chord.
On-screen text
Visual: The camera pulls back out through the window. The person who was grading stands, turns to face the window, and aims the desk lamp outward. The lamp flashes twice. A window one floor up answers: someone stands and raises a light, which flashes twice. A coral line is strung between the two windows.
Sound: The music falls to near silence. Each lamp flash sounds a chime, and the answering flashes chime back higher.
On-screen text
Visual: The camera pulls back over the whole campus. The signal spreads from window to window across every building, and coral lines connect them. Lit windows begin to pulse together in rhythm.
Sound: Chimes multiply as more windows answer, over a warm swelling chord.
On-screen text
Visual: The camera rises above the roofs. Five dark, distant skylines stand along the horizon, labeled from left to right INDIANA, BOWLING GREEN, OHIO STATE, OHIO UNIVERSITY and SUNY. As each place’s story appears, coral lines rise to it from UToledo windows and its windows light up.
Sound: A steady beat comes in, then a bright bell melody and handclaps; the music builds through the section. Each skyline lights with a chime and a soft hit.
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0:43 · Bowling Green
Visual: The Bowling Green skyline lights about halfway, and some of its windows keep flickering on and off.
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0:46 · Ohio University
Visual: The Ohio University skyline lights exactly 10% of its windows, then more come on until 60% are lit. A label above it counts up as the windows light.
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0:50 · Ohio State
Visual: The Ohio State skyline goes from dark to fully lit as its label counts up.
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0:54 · Indiana
Visual: The Indiana skyline lights fully.
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0:58 · SUNY
Visual: The SUNY skyline lights fully. All five skylines are now lit.
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Visual: The whole horizon glows, and every connecting line brightens.
Sound: A roll of claps and a rising swell.
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Visual: The camera dives down into one window of a tall UToledo building: a warm room crowded with people, seen as silhouettes, with a paper sign on the wall behind them. One after another, they raise lights over their heads; others rest a hand on a neighbor’s shoulder.
Sound: The beat drops out, leaving a held chord and a soft heartbeat pulse. A rising chime sounds as each light is raised.
On-screen text
Visual: The camera pulls back. The crowded room is one window among hundreds in a tall building. That building’s windows switch on and off together until the lit windows spell a word. Two more buildings beside it do the same, one after another, so the three words stand side by side in lit windows. Each demand appears beneath its building.
Sound: The full music returns, with a deep hit as each word lights.
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Visual: The camera rises. REMIT, COVER and PAY stay lit in the three buildings at the bottom of the frame while more windows across the campus switch on.
Sound: The music settles on a final held chord, with scattered chimes as new windows light, then fades out.
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01 · The take-back
Fees to stay enrolled in the job. A health plan priced for a student, not an employee. Both come out of pay before rent does.
Posted $17,500 Math PhD stipend · two 9-credit terms in Natural Sciences & Mathematics · university health plan
02 · The university’s own yardstick
The university publishes what it expects a graduate student to spend. Its own posted stipend doesn’t reach it. It doesn’t even cover housing and food.
03 · A choice, not a law of nature
It does it for a few fellows. Other Ohio public universities, under the same state law, pay most or all of the health premium.
UTOLEDO · UNIVERSITY FELLOWSHIPPolicy record
SUNY · AUGUST 2026
$2,000average annual savings reported
New York announced completion of a four-year phase-out for graduate student workers at state-operated campuses. The announcement explicitly credits CWA advocacy and legislative collaboration.
COLORADO STATE · 2023 → 2026
Eligible contracted graduate assistants now have mandatory fees covered, while keeping the services those fees support.
TENNESSEE KNOXVILLE · 2025 → 2026
$26,496 → $28,134nine-month minimum · 50% appointment
Successive increases use the university’s graduate living-expense budget as the benchmark. The latest announcement raises the minimum again for 2026–27.
04 · Institutional memory
05 · What we’re asking for
Stop taking stipend pay back through the recurring mandatory fees every assistantship requires.
$1,889a year back in the stipend, in our example
Full demandMake individual health coverage part of the job, with the student premium paid by the university.
$2,600a year back in the stipend, in our example
Full demandSet the minimum gross stipend at UToledo’s published non-tuition cost of attendance, and raise it automatically.
+$7,122to reach UToledo’s own budget, in our example
Full demandWhat it would cost
Even if 1,150 assistants needed both, the cost would be $5.16 million a year: about 0.43% of UToledo’s announced ~$1.2B FY2026–27 financial plan.
Fund the work. Keep the positions.Not by cutting assistantships, existing stipends, or the services fees support.
Read the full demands →COST ESTIMATE
TO: THE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO
RE: DEM-001 FEE REMISSION + DEM-002 HEALTH PREMIUM
Share of UToledo’s ~$1.2B FY2026–27 plan
0.19%–0.43%Headcounts are assumptions, not an audited count. Costs vary by college and existing coverage. The plan total shows scale; not all of it is free to spend. Stipend floor (DEM-003): not costed until we have UToledo’s assistantship headcount and pay data.
06 · Build this with us
Start small. A short email is enough. We’ll write back, hear what you’re seeing, and ask whether you’d like to talk one-on-one.
Email is not anonymous. Leave out student IDs, addresses and medical details. Nothing you send is published without your permission. What happens after you write · Privacy
07 · Where this gets decided
Graduate Council has listed stipend benchmarking as a priority this year. The budget for next year starts taking shape in January.
Every verified date →Graduate Council
Meeting
Ohio law
New version of ORC 4117.01 takes effect
Graduate Student Association
General Assembly
6–8 p.m. · Collier 1050 or Teams
Graduate Council
Meeting