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GROW and PGSG win transit subsidy for fall 2025 semester.

August 1-18, 2025

After another long summer battling for free transit, Purdue partly subsidized CityBus passes for the fall 2025 semester. Beginning August 18th, Purdue-affiliated riders can purchase a $49 CityBus pass through EZFare, with the full instructions provided by CityBus.

Without any communication from Purdue procurement or auxiliary services staff throughout the summer, and knowing that April marked a point when no off-campus transit was planned, GROW takes this as a victory, won by campaigning efforts during the summer and petitioning passed along to PGSG staff.

Partly subsidized is not free, and Purdue has no guarantees for a transit subsidy in the spring 2026 semester. Therefore, GROW will continue to campaign for free off-campus transit through CityBus subsidies.

GROW and PGSG win transit reimbursement during summer 2025.

May 20-31, 2025

With the help of GROW, PGSG obtained $10,500 of funds to reimburse up to 250 eligible grad students for $42 of CityBus pass costs.

These funds were granted shortly after after PGSG's May 20th transit listening session. At the session, GROW members explained the long-running battle for free transit extending back to spring 2024, cleared the air on misunderstandings, and presented 278 anonymous testimonies from Purdue riders about what they'd lose without free off-campus transit.

To continue fighting for free off-campus transit in fall 2025-spring 2026, GROW members collaborated with attendees of the listening session to develop an info packet and slides to bring to their respective academic departments, explaining the need for a subsidy.

GROW hosts the Town Hall for Transit 2.

May 10, 2025

Community members met with GROW and CityBus manager of customer experiences Lon Lucas to discuss the future of CityBus transit for Purdue-affiliated riders. None of the invited Purdue administrators attended the event. Lucas announced that negotiations were ongoing, and that CityBus and Purdue were still on good terms, but there was nothing ready to be announced.

This reflected an April 16th SP+ listening session, in which Purdue procurement staff admitted there were no plans to subsidize off-campus transit at that time. Although GROW members used ridership data and personal testimony to advocate for immediate attention to this, the administrators deflected these concerns toward an SP+ survey, meant for on-campus service only.

The battle for maintaining off-campus transit starting in spring 2024 has been extended by Purdue's negligence. GROW is gearing up to continue campaigning during the summer.

GROW rallies for ROW unionization effort, earning concessions.

February 10-15, 2025

At the turn of 2025, Purdue resident assistants launched an effort to unionize as ResLife Organized Workers (ROW). In desperation, administration cornered ROW leadership into a closed-door meeting with less than 24-hours notice. ROW called upon its allies on campus and in the community to join them before the meeting in solidarity, to counter Purdue administration's intimidation. GROW members attended and spoke at the event.

While ROW met with administration, supporters were visible through the window, and their organized chants and speeches carried loud and clear, enough to be heard from within Smalley Center's West Conference Room. In the meeting, ROW leaders shared testimonies about overflowing resident counts, being forced into rooms with their own residents, losing private spaces, lacking mental health resources, facing inequity in parking, laundry, and severance provisions, all of which received no progress when reported to supervisors in formal channels. Administration had no immediate response, aside from asserting that they would not meet openly with resident assistants, as that would be considered bargaining.

On February 15th, the first concession was made, ending the practice of resident assistants sharing rooms with their residents in upcoming semesters.

GROW and CityBus win full free transit subsidy from Purdue.

August 16, 2024

GROW and CityBus pressured Purdue to fulfill their pledge for affordable transportation, earning Purdue riders completely subsidized CityBus passes for off-campus transit from fall 2024 through spring 2025.

At the end of March 2024, Purdue failed to meet CityBus's needs at the tipping point of a fiscal cliff. CityBus announced that they would charge Purdue riders $99 per semester for off-campus bus passes if Purdue would not subsidize those routes. Purdue's vague promise for an affordable solution developed only behind closed doors, with no updates for months.

Finding this unacceptable, GROW invited decision makers from both Purdue and CityBus to participate in the Town Hall for Transit, in order to publicize these discussions and set the record straight. The day before, Purdue rushed a decision to the Board of Trustees: Purdue would subsidize a portion of the passes, leaving $25 per semester to be paid back to Purdue. Bryan Smith, CityBus CEO, attended the Town Hall for Transit to answer questions and explain the preemptive, rogue nature of Purdue's plan. GROW provided printed brochures to educate the community on the current state of affairs at the town hall event, and petitioned Purdue affiliates, CityBus employees, and Greater Lafayette community members to sign in favor of free transit.

CityBus dragged Purdue back to the table, blocking their underhanded move and finalizing the earlier agreement that Purdue would fully subsidize passes for 7% of enrollment, with additional passes to be paid for by CityBus. Purdue riders were granted their free transit passes through Token Transit.

GROW stands in solidarity with student protesters.

April 27, 2024

GROW stands in solidarity with students exercising their constitutional right to freedom of speech at Purdue and other campuses across this country, especially with our friends and comrades at Indiana University who are experiencing extreme and unjustifiable police repression. We strongly condemn the violent and dangerous actions taken by police at IU and many other universities, including assaults, arrests, and the use of snipers who aim their rifles at unarmed, peaceful student-protestors. We demand that all arrested protestors be released immediately, that IU restore access rights to arrested student-protestors banned from campus and that IU’s administration cease their repression of students’ rights to both freedom of speech and safety on campus.

Purdue graduate students join statewide coalition.

April 19, 2024

GROW along with the Purdue Living Wage Coalition hosted the union organizers from Indiana University (IGWC-UEW) for a rally on Purdue’s campus last week, 4/12/2024. IGWC organizers shared how they won a union at IU and shared the wins they have secured for their graduate workers, including fee waivers and increased base wages. Purdue graduate workers discussed our shared struggles and what getting paid a living wage would mean for us.

In solidarity with IGWC, GROW plans to travel to Bloomington, IN today, 4/19 to support their 3 day strike for a living wage. Our membership is actively building coalitions with graduate worker leaders on campuses across the state. GROW stands in solidarity with IGWC’s fight for union recognition and fair pay; a win for IU’s graduate workers is a win for Purdue’s graduate workers and graduate workers statewide.

As IGWC Organizing Coordinator Zara Anwarzai said, “We all are facing a shared struggle, against universities which are looking less and less like educational institutions and more like corporations. Graduate researchers and instructors produce world-class research and do a significant portion of the teaching labor at these schools. All the while, graduate workers are going into debt and selling their blood to make ends meet. Graduate workers across the state deserve their fair share and are preparing to fight for it alongside us.”

Graduate students say new pay policies insufficient.

December 7, 2023

Purdue University administration announced new policies related to wages, including a university-wide pay raise for grad workers on Fiscal Year (FY) contracts to a minimum of $28,000/yr. We are happy to see a slight increase in graduate student wages, especially after dropping off our Petition for a Living Wage at the April 2023 Purdue Board of Trustees meeting. The administration would not have made this move if it were not feeling pressure from graduate student unions in Indiana and around the nation, and groups like the Living Wage Coalition here at Purdue.

Unfortunately, however, while we welcome any rise in pay, the changes made yesterday represent just “one small step.” In order to ensure that all grad workers make a living wage, what we need is a “giant leap.”

MIT University calculates a living wage for the Greater Lafayette area at $34,517/yr: the new minimums are still far below this level. Furthermore, the university has allocated funds for special awards which would raise a very limited number of students’ pay by $10k/yr. This is unacceptable: every Purdue worker is entitled to a living wage in return for the work they do. Is a chemical engineering student’s ability to make rent more important than an engineering education student’s, or a biologist’s, or a sociologist’s?

Additionally, Purdue has not committed to give raises to grad workers on academic year (AY) contracts, who make far less than FY workers and are more severely impacted by the low pay offered by Purdue University.

GROW supports UAW strikes.

October 6, 2023

The United Auto Workers (UAW) is currently engaged in contract negotiations with the managements of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler), and with a number of factories out on strike since September 14. This fight represents an effort to enhance the economic security of the working class and against the proliferation of inequitable tiered employment systems, deskilling, outsourcing, and downsizing. These are issues faced by workers across many industries, including academia. UAW’s demand for the right of workers to strike against plant closures represents a recognition of the interlinked destinies of workers, good working class jobs and thriving local communities like our own in the Greater Lafayette area. Additionally, UAW represents a large number and variety of university workers, are the largest union of graduate student workers in the US, have laid out an agenda for organizing in higher education aligned with those of many of West Lafayette’s residents and have actively involved university workers and graduate students in its current efforts.

A just transition towards Electric Vehicles (EV) is an important part of a climate mitigation strategy and UAW is currently demanding good union jobs for EV manufacture. This is important as many of the new green jobs that are replacing the traditional manufacturing jobs are not unionized and typically have lower wages. For example, Stellantis recently built a non-union EV plant in Kokomo, IN, a town with three UAW-unionized plants. A clean energy transition is critical for fighting climate change, but cannot come at the cost of fair pay and benefits for workers.

UAW is also fighting for transformative demands, such as a 4 day work week, which would dramatically improve the quality of life for the workers the union represents. Just as the labor movement of the early 20th century won American workers an 8 hour work day, the new labor movement represented by the UAW strike and Red Hot Labor Summer is ushering in a new era of workplace reforms.

Graduate Rights and Our Wellbeing at Purdue stands in solidarity with UAW's contract campaign and hails their struggle as a critical role in improving the lives of millions of workers in Indiana and across the US.

Restless in the housing crisis.

2021

GROW has been involved in the fight to secure affordable housing for graduate workers and their families, as part of a larger campaign to secure a living wage for graduate workers. GROW was at the forefront of protesting the demolition of Purdue Village and along with other organizations, ensured the provision of transitional housing for displaced Purdue Village residents. In addition, we continue to campaign for stipend increases that are critical to guarantee graduate workers can live and support their families.

Prioritizing health and safety in the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020

GROW demanded and contributed to the attainment of stronger safety protocols on campus, including mask requirements, free quarantine housing, and the provision of free personal protective equipment for graduate workers. In collaboration with student organizations, GROW contributed to the hiring of additional therapists of color at CAPS. Furthermore, GROW has raised public attention and pressure around the negative implications that switching healthcare providers would have on those seeking mental health care in the community, leading to the negotiation of fairer conditions for mental health care providers coming into the new network.

GROW battles payroll changes.

2019

GROW created awareness around the financial hardships imposed on graduate workers by the poorly-executed and poorly communicated switch from monthly paychecks to biweekly paychecks. Our campaign helped hold Purdue’s administration accountable and resulted in pay corrections for a number of graduate workers, increased emergency loan amounts and repayment times, and the creation of new emergency grants at the college and department levels.

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