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Graduate Students United — UAW Local 2322Graduate Students UnitedUAW Local 2322 · University of Vermont
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What we mean when we say the math doesn't work.

A snapshot of the wage, the cost of living, the gap, the human stories, and what we're doing about it. Read it in five minutes; share it with one person.

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1 · The wage

What a graduate worker actually earns.

UVM's published 2026-27 minimums. The appointment is 20 hours of work a week, every week — teaching, lab work, research, grading.

9-month appointment

$25,781

≈ $2,148 per month, annualized over 12.

12-month appointment

$34,375

≈ $2,865 per month, annualized over 12.

2 · The gap

The 17.78% the union is asking for.

The Vermont livable wage for 2026, adjusted for the Consumer Price Index, is $21.06/hour. A 17.78% raise on the current minimums gets graduate workers there. Anything less, and the difference comes out of the worker — in credit-card debt, family help, foregone care, or a roommate they didn't want.

9-month appointment

Currently: $25,781Livable wage: $30,367

Gap: $4,586 / year

12-month appointment

Currently: $34,375Livable wage: $40,435

Gap: $6,060 / year

3 · Meet your leaders. Meet the math.

UVM's leadership has built incredible things. We respect that — and the math is still the math.

What follows is not a personal indictment. It is a budget question. UVM has chosen, in the same year and from the same payroll, to fund some salaries at one level and others at another. The gap between the two is what graduate workers carry every day.

Same payroll

What UVM pays — top to bottom.

Approximate annual salaries from public records, alongside the published graduate-worker minimum and the union's proposal.

  1. Richard Page$742,734
  2. Marlene Tromp$575,000
  3. Linda Schadler$360,500
  4. Mandar Dewoolkar$325,000
  5. Linda Prokopy$310,000
  6. Holger Hoock$235,000
  7. Proposed livable wageUnion ask · 12-mo$40,435
  8. GSU current minimum12-mo published$34,375
Highlighted leadershipOther senior leadershipUnion proposalCurrent GSU minimum

President of the University of Vermont (UVM's 28th)

Marlene Tromp

Salary: $575,000 / year (from UVM all-staff salary dataset, 2026)

President Tromp joined UVM in July 2025 after six years leading Boise State University. A first-generation college student raised in Wyoming, she earned her BA from Creighton University, an MA in English from the University of Wyoming, and her PhD from the University of Florida. She is a published Victorian-literature scholar with nine books and decades of peer-reviewed work — not just an administrator, but someone who came up through the faculty.

Before Boise State, she served as campus provost and executive vice chancellor at UC Santa Cruz and as a dean and vice provost at Arizona State University. At Boise State she broke the student-graduation record, the research-funding record, and the philanthropy record year after year, while increasing access for in-state students and integrating the university with the local economy. She left Boise State at the threshold of R1 status, with research expenditures up from $53M to $91M during her tenure.

She arrived at UVM with a stated commitment to listen. Student journalists at the Vermont Cynic publicly noted how responsive she has been compared to her predecessor. She fast-tracked development of a new strategic plan and named the Finnish concept of sisu — "unflappable tenacity in the face of insurmountable odds" — as her guiding principle. She has defended academic freedom under political pressure at Boise State and reiterated that commitment at UVM: "I want to protect people's academic freedom to make those choices, and that's the hill we have to stand on."

Her background as a first-gen, rural student who built a career through the faculty ranks gives her real credibility on access, affordability, and the conditions of academic work. We have every reason to expect her leadership will continue to shape UVM for the better. We respect what she has built. We also need to be honest about the gap between her compensation and what graduate workers are asked to live on.

Dean, Larner College of Medicine · Chief Medical Affairs Officer

Richard L. Page

Salary: $742,734 / year (from UVM all-staff salary dataset, 2026)

Dean Page has led the Larner College of Medicine since 2018, and in September 2025 was appointed UVM's inaugural Chief Medical Affairs Officer — a brand-new university-level role. He trained at Duke (BS and MD), did a research fellowship at Columbia, residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and clinical fellowships back at Duke in cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology.

His career before UVM ran through Duke, UT Southwestern, the University of Washington (where he led Cardiology and held an endowed chair in cardiovascular research), and the University of Wisconsin, where he was professor and chair of Medicine. He has more than 200 publications, articles, and book chapters, served on the American College of Cardiology / American Heart Association Guidelines Task Force, and chaired the FDA's Circulatory Devices Panel.

Under his tenure, Larner has received $90–100 million in annual research funding and the college now carries the R1 Carnegie classification. Most recently he made the call to separate Larner from its long-standing research partnership with MaineHealth, positioning UVM to apply for its own institutional Clinical and Translational Research award.

As Chief Medical Affairs Officer he now oversees medical affairs at the university level — not just the medical school. That makes him a central figure on healthcare, insurance, and campus-wide care, including the very issues at the centre of the GSU negotiations: SHIP, dental, vision, and access to care. We respect what Dean Page has built at Larner and the leadership he provides. We also need to be honest about the gap between his compensation and what graduate workers can afford in the same university.

The math, if we were to fix it

Closing the gap for every graduate worker at UVM costs $3,540,167 a year.

UVM has 658 graduate-worker positions across appointments ranging from 3 to 12 months. Pay is proportional to term length, so the cost of closing the gap for every worker is one monthly figure multiplied by everyone's months on payroll:

2 × 3 mo + 54 × 4.5 mo + 145 × 9 mo + 12 × 10 mo + 4 × 11 mo + 441 × 12 mo = 7,010 position-months
7,010 × $505 / month = $3,540,167

The same payroll already funds Dean Page at $742,734 and President Tromp at $575,000 a year. Phrased in that currency, the cost of paying every graduate worker a Vermont livable wage is approximately:

Equivalent in Richard L. Page salaries

4.77×

The annual cost of closing the gap equals 4.77 Page salaries — or one Page, plus 3.77 more.

Equivalent in Marlene Tromp salaries

6.16×

The annual cost of closing the gap equals 6.16 Tromp salaries — or one Tromp, plus 5.16 more.

Richard L. Page · $742,734 / year

4.77 × Page = a livable wage for 658 graduate workers.

Click anywhere on a portrait to reveal the next square. Squares are sized by their dollar amount; together they tile the entire face. Hover one for the detail.

  1. Richard L. Page, Dean, Larner College of Medicine · Chief Medical Affairs Officer
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    Richard L. Page · click anywhere
  2. Richard L. Page, Dean, Larner College of Medicine · Chief Medical Affairs Officer
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    Richard L. Page · click anywhere
  3. Richard L. Page, Dean, Larner College of Medicine · Chief Medical Affairs Officer
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    Richard L. Page · click anywhere
  4. Richard L. Page, Dean, Larner College of Medicine · Chief Medical Affairs Officer
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    Richard L. Page · click anywhere
  5. Richard L. Page, Dean, Larner College of Medicine · Chief Medical Affairs Officer
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    Richard L. Page · click anywhere

5 portraits · 305 deferred-care squares packing every Page salary across the gap. Total payroll cost: $3,540,167.

Marlene Tromp · $575,000 / year

6.16 × Tromp = a livable wage for 658 graduate workers.

Click anywhere on a portrait to reveal the next square. Squares are sized by their dollar amount; together they tile the entire face. Hover one for the detail.

  1. Marlene Tromp, President of the University of Vermont (UVM's 28th)
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    Marlene Tromp · click anywhere
  2. Marlene Tromp, President of the University of Vermont (UVM's 28th)
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    Marlene Tromp · click anywhere
  3. Marlene Tromp, President of the University of Vermont (UVM's 28th)
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    Marlene Tromp · click anywhere
  4. Marlene Tromp, President of the University of Vermont (UVM's 28th)
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    Marlene Tromp · click anywhere
  5. Marlene Tromp, President of the University of Vermont (UVM's 28th)
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    Marlene Tromp · click anywhere
  6. Marlene Tromp, President of the University of Vermont (UVM's 28th)
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    Marlene Tromp · click anywhere
  7. Marlene Tromp, President of the University of Vermont (UVM's 28th)
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    Marlene Tromp · click anywhere

7 portraits · 394 deferred-care squares packing every Tromp salary across the gap. Total payroll cost: $3,540,167.

4 · The pantry

UVM's graduate students have their own food pantry.

It's on the third floor of Given. Run by the Larner Graduate Student Council, stocked by donations from staff and faculty. It exists because graduate workers need it.

Hand-lettered sign reading LCOM Graduate Student Food Shelf — Help yourself! Please take what you need, being mindful to leave some for others in our community. Operated by the Larner Graduate Student Council.
“When prospective students walk past the graduate student food pantry on the third floor of Given, they see it. They know what it means. They do the math. And then they look at me.”
— Anonymous, Graduate Student Employee

5 · The voices

Four of twenty-six.

These four span the categories: healthcare you can't skip, the absurdity of the position, what it does to recruitment, what it forces graduate parents to defer. The full set lives at testimonies.

6 · One more thing

At the table, UVM is also fighting to make discrimination protections unenforceable.

Both sides agree the contract should have a grievance procedure. UVM's counter quietly carves out Non-Discrimination — so the protections exist on paper, but no neutral arbitrator can ever enforce them. Eleven peer unions already have what we're asking for.

First three rows of the side-by-side

UVM-only path

What UVM is proposing

Union path

What we're bargaining for

  • Who makes the final call
    ✕UVM alone.
    ✓A neutral outside arbitrator.
  • Fixed timelines at each step
    ✕None — investigation runs at UVM's discretion.
    ✓Guaranteed at every step of the grievance procedure.
  • Union representative with you
    ✕No.
    ✓Yes, from Step 1 onward.
See the full breakdown →

7 · What this page is for

You're now informed. Three things you can do in the next two minutes.

  • 01

    If you're a grad worker — sign on.

    Adds you to the membership list. Unlocks members-only updates and votes. Two minutes.

    Open the sign-on form ↗

  • 02

    Email UVM administration.

    Pre-filled letter to the Provost, the VP for Graduate Studies, the VP for Faculty Affairs, and the President. Edit it however you like.

    Send the email →

  • 03

    Share this page.

    One link. One scroll. The whole picture. Send it to a faculty member, a colleague, a friend, a parent.

    Copy the link →

Or just bookmark this page and come back when you have ten more minutes for the longer reads at stipend, no-carveout, bargaining, and testimonies.