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Our Progress

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While affordability is an ongoing challenge, we have made progress in many areas, which are summarized here.

Announced in January 2022

  • Special across-the-board 3% salary increase for regular benefits-eligible faculty and staff, to take effect on 3/1/22
  • Stipend for staff roles requiring fully on-site work in 2022
  • 100% coverage of Cardinal Care health insurance for graduate students supported on assistantships and fellowships, effective September 2022
  • Increased family grant program for graduate students and postdocs
  • Pilot program to provide transitional housing for new postdoctoral scholars
  • One-time grants for early-career, pre-tenure faculty with financial needs
  • Enhancements to faculty housing assistance, including the Housing Allowance Program and the Restricted Ground Lease purchase program.

Review the announcement

Benefits

  • Increased employee short-term disability coverage to eight weeks
  • Created an emergency grant fund for postdocs
  • Increased income eligibility cap for MCAP (Medical Contribution Assistance Plan), from $77K/year to $100K/year, to help pay health care expenses
  • Expanded paid family leave time to fully paid for six weeks
  • Created Employee Emergency Assistance Fund for employees (grants of up to $5K), including a partnership with America’s Charities to accept donations to the fund
  • Enhanced retirement savings plan to allow a distribution (one-time) while working and age 59-1/2

Child Care

  • Increased the family grant for graduate students
  • Began offering dependent backup care to postdocs
  • Introduced a postdoc child care and family grant program
  • Increased number of days of Emergency Back-up Care for staff and for postdocs, used for elder or child care, to 10 days per calendar year      
  • Child care grant changes for benefits-eligible faculty and staff to be implemented in Fall FY21 application cycle will include increasing dependent eligibility to 13 years or younger, increasing household income eligibility to $200K, and modifying household income brackets for expanded annual grant awards.        
  • For all families using child care centers: During Covid, Stanford provided financial support for child care centers to enable them to remain re-open ready during the Shelter in Place, and sustain them during an extended period of low enrollment while keeping child care tuition rates unchanged during this period.   

Housing

  • Increased affordable housing by opening the Cardinal Apartments (175 units) in Redwood City, with priority for staff and postdocs; 37 units are available for low and very low income households
  • Broke ground on the new Middle Plaza rental community (215 units) in Menlo Park
  • Removed the first-time home buyer restriction from loans for faculty, so all loans are available to all eligible faculty, even if they’ve previously owned in the qualifying area
  • Provided financial relief for faculty who receive the Housing Allowance Program: payments in FY21 were frozen and a year added to their payout schedule
  • Provided financial relief for community members living in Stanford-owned rental communities by freezing rents (on May 1, 2020) and reducing rents at Stanford West, Colonnade and Cardinal Apartments
  • Initiated a study of the terms for the Restricted Ground Lease and sale of additional homes on the Restricted Ground Lease, to provide more opportunities for eligible faculty to purchase homes near campus
  • Opened new Escondido Village Graduate Residences (EVGR) allowing the university to provide subsidized, furnished on-campus housing for approx. 7,000 graduate students, including students with children

Graduate Students

  • Committed to 12-month, five-year funding for all doctoral students who are in good academic standing
  • Expanded supplemental need-based support through the Emergency Grant in Aid and Graduate Student Aid Funds to cover unexpected health or travel expenses, including dependent health insurance and for the last year, unanticipated expenses related to COVID-19
  • Increased the Graduate Student Family Grant up to $15,000 per year that students may use flexibly to cover expenses related to caring for dependent children

Transportation

  • Continued the free Pilot GoPass program for eligible postdocs and graduate students through 2021
  • Continued the free CalTrain GoPass for faculty and staff through 2022
  • Began sharing updates from our partnership with the Regional Transportation Planning group