Incoming Graduate Workers’ Union leadership aims to address healthcare, Ph.D. funding

For the newly formed Stanford Graduate Workers Union (SGWU), ratifying a contract with the University in 2024 was a victory. However, the union’s recently-elected 2026-27 Local Executive Board has no plans to stop there.

The majority of the elected leadership ran on a campaign titled “Resist. Inform. Strengthen. Empower” (RISE). The platform mainly focuses on consistent quality of medical care under the University’s new health insurance plan, more concrete language guaranteeing five years of funding for Ph.D. students and protections for international graduate students. The team will be sworn in at the SGWU’s general membership meeting on April 9.

In tackling these issues, the board aims to build a strong foundation for upcoming contract negotiations with the University in 2027. According to SGWU president Liam Sherman, a third year Ph.D. student, the union hopes to strengthen its platform and coordinate strong organizing efforts ahead of the bargaining sessions.

“As president, my main goal… is to make sure that every area is built up with the capacity to organize, build up steward networks and set up area meetings so that the executive board can put its whole power behind these initiatives and issues,” Sherman said.

Healthcare and Medical Services

The incoming board’s platform promises to fight for a “continued quality of care” clause in future contract negotiations, which they claim would ensure greater consistency in graduate students’ health benefits during provider changes.

Sherman said the University’s decision to switch Cardinal Care providers from Aetna to Wellfleet in September raised insurance co-pays and caused “a cascade of issues” regarding continued medical coverage. Sherman said these range from large issues — like the inability to afford the same medicine or visit the same doctor — to small, bureaucratic inefficiencies.

According to the new insurance plan, students must obtain a referral from Vaden for any medical care received within 25 miles of Stanford’s campus. Sherman says that this presents a complicated ordeal for graduate students who may live outside the area, like in Oakland or San Francisco.

Incoming financial officer and second year Ph.D. student Molly Corr said explicit contract language protecting consistent health insurance would allow the union to take action on behalf of those struggling to obtain medical care. Corr cited an instance in which a student’s insulin prescription became prohibitively expensive under the new health insurance, making the cost a “significant percentage” of the individual’s income.

“Health care costs are increasing nationally and in the Bay Area; it is unfortunately a widespread phenomenon,” University spokesperson Angie Davis wrote to The Daily. “Stanford invests significant financial resources to keep prices lower than they otherwise would be for students.”

However, for the nearly 72% of graduate students who are enrolled in Cardinal Care, Sherman says the University’s “lack of clarity” regarding the new plan has caused confusion and an increase in reported grievances.

“I think what we’d really like to see in the next contract is more recognition that grad workers are workers — we need health insurance, and some of us have families and kids,” Sherman said.

Ph.D. Funding and Increased Wages

The SGWU aims to win more concrete protections for graduate workers’ job security by clarifying the five-year funding guarantee, a protection enumerated in a side letter to the 2024 contract. The letter states that enrolled PhD students in “good academic standing” are entitled to 12 months of continuous funding during the first five years of their degree program.

However, according to Sherman, there is no base definition of academic good standing and “different departments stretch academic good standing… to mean whatever they need it to mean to not fund grad workers.” He said that union leadership has heard “a number of grievances,” many of which claim that the University has used the clause to cut off funding for Ph.D. students while they are changing advisors.

Incoming Vice President for Membership and second year Ph.D. student Nick Snyder objected to Stanford’s “shifting definition” of what constitutes academic good standing — which may exclude students who are temporarily without advisors.

Graduate students often lean on the five-year guarantee if they need to change advisors, or if they are a first-year and can’t immediately find an advisor, according to Snyder. The University’s refusal to cover this transition funding, Snyder said, “kind of defeats the purpose of having a five-year funding guarantee.”

Davis wrote that the five-year funding commitment predates graduate workers’ unionization, including the stipulation that doctoral students must have an advisor to be considered in “good academic standing.”

Protections for International Students

In a section titled “Meeting the Moment,” the RISE platform denounces police violence and aggressive federal immigration enforcement. The platform pledges to increase organizing efforts to protect international graduate students whose visas may be threatened by government policies.

“We [SGWU elected leadership] want to make sure the union is a space where we can listen to the needs of the international grad workers and respond accordingly,” Sherman said. To do this, Sherman said he and other members of the board hope to expand resources for international graduate students.

“Broadly, I think we want to make sure the union is a place where workers can organize for their betterment, including international workers facing these specific exigent threats from the federal government,” Sherman said.

Looking Ahead: Goals and Challenges for the New Leadership

Both Sherman and Snyder cited the expansion of SGWU’s steward network as a central goal for the 2026-27 leadership board. In Sherman’s view, this diffusion of union leadership across departments would allow SGWU to present a united front during negotiations with the University.

“We want everyone to be at the same level, and anyone to feel like they have the agency to be able to raise issues with anybody,” Snyder said. “And that means we need to have stewards in each area that people feel comfortable talking to or coming to with issues.”

Current SGWU president and fifth year Ph.D. student Orisa Coombs said the union’s specific goal was to reduce the ratio of union members to area stewards from 40:1 to 20:1. Area stewards each serve a subset of union members, providing a point of contact to workers in various academic sectors.

Coombs said that as the first local executive board, the current administration aimed to build a foundation that allows future leaders to pursue more ambitious goals. “I really want to see [the new leadership] shoot for the stars now that all that administrative groundwork has been laid,” she said.

Underlying these goals is a strong community sentiment expressed by union leadership.

“I think in order for [Stanford] to be the best that it can be, it needs to be the best it can be for its graduate workers,” Snyder said.

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