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Elite Harvard Students on Food Stamps?

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Despite a $53 billion endowment, Harvard University pays its grad students $40,000 a year, making them some of the poorest people in wealthy Cambridge, MA. Bafflingly, to keep their grad students from starving, the wealthy university has suggested the students apply for the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP), better known as food stamps. Adam Andrzejewski reports for Real Clear Investigations:

Even $53 billion isn’t enough for Harvard University to pay for its students’ food. The university with the world’s largest endowment is encouraging its graduate students to apply for food stamps, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Harvard’s Health Services office recently circulated a flier to graduate students, encouraging them to participate in the SNAP program, Yahoo Finance reported. “Fuel your body & stock your pantry. Did you know that grad students may qualify for assistance paying for food & groceries?” the flyer read.

With a $53 billion endowment, Harvard pays its graduate students — who work for the university doing research and teaching classes, while getting their degree — $40,000. That’s often not enough to cover housing, food and other expenses, especially living in Cambridge, Mass, where the cost of living is 73% higher than the national average.

The Harvard Graduate Students Union argued the university should pay its approximately 4,000 graduate students more, so they don’t need SNAP. Average SNAP benefits are $121 per month, per person. If every one of the 4,000 graduate students received benefits, it would cost $484,000.

They have been on strike twice in recent years, in part due to the low pay from the university. A contract signed in 2020 promised graduate students a 2.8% pay raise. Surely a university with tens of billions of dollars can afford to pay its student workers more, instead of relying on the taxpayer-funded social safety net to subsidize its greed.

Action Line: Faculty at Harvard are the first to lecture America’s businesses on living wages (think Sen. Elizabeth Warren who used to teach there). But perhaps they’re throwing stones in glass houses. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter and make yourself a Survivor.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.
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