The Basic Facts
A two-bedroom in the new Graduate Tower at Site 4 will run $3,410 per month, 63% more than comparable Westgate units.
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Incoming couples and families who would have lived at Eastgate face 48-59% higher rents at Site 4, thus heightening Westgate competition among those seeking on-campus affordability.
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Even with the offered discount, Eastgate residents will still face estimated hikes of 25-35%, and have been given only three weeks to decide whether they will accept this deal.
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MIT’s own data shows 75% of graduate students report cost of living as a source of stress and 71% see it as an obstacle to academic progress.
Beyond Site 4, the administration has proposed an average rent increase of 3.7%, with some units going up by 5.5%.
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MIT provides faculty with a housing subsidy, in addition to the equivalent of $100,000 annually for President Reif to live in the mansion.
Cost of living and rent are major burden on MIT grad students
By the administration's own estimate, a typical graduate student pays more than half of their income in rent, qualifying graduate students as severely rent burdened by federal standards.
International students and families already struggle more finding housing,
depend disproportionately on MIT housing, and face some of the most dire financial circumstances among graduate students.
Black and Latinx students, often systematically deprived of the cushion of family wealth, are underrepresented in graduate schools. At MIT they are just 7% of graduate students
MIT’s leadership is planning their housing like a profit motivated developer
The administration is trying to quite those justifiably upset by the massive rent hike by making concessions for individual residents, specifically offering subsidies that require confusing paperwork with opaque financial indicators to perform their poverty.
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Additionally, they are trying to plaquate students with the family and hardship grant, but this family subsidy is only a one year program and is significantly less than what our peer institutions have offered for years and even decades (less than half of Stanford’s, a third of Princeton’s, and a quarter of UMich’s)
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To grad students, the highest priorities for housing are rent, proximity, and community, not luxury amenities that MIT seems to prefer
The housing stock in Eastgate could have been renovated to preserve much needed housing stock, instead it is being turned into commercial development for corporate research
Affordable housing, coupled with adequate economic support, is an opportunity to build our community, right social injustices, recruit talent, invest in the next generation of scientists, and combat the mental health crisis
Potential Demands
We recommend providing graduate students the same transport subsidies as staff, partnering directly with landlords to eliminate brokerage fees, and subsidizing off-campus housing as Stanford does
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Our childcare subsidy should be extended permanently into the future and must be comparable to those given by our most generous peer institutions to remain competitive for talent and to do right by our student well-being
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Renovate Eastgate housing instead of tearing it down, so we can expand our housing stock
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Drop the price of the new luxury development at Site 4 to make it affordable for MIT grad families