AMHERST — Graduate students at the University of Massachusetts are asking for Town Council’s support as they seek a new contract that calls for better pay and more affordable housing options — a cost-of-living campaign that has secured 860 signatures on a petition being circulated.

During public comment at Monday’s meeting, four members of the Graduate Employee Organization, part of United Autoworkers Local 2322, which is in the midst of negotiations on a new contract, made their appeals by contending that the pressure on Amherst’s housing market, and on the supply of apartments in the region, is a UMass responsibility.

“We currently are trying to negotiate with the university to figure out how can we actually have better housing, how we can have affordable housing, how are we not putting this burden back on the town of Amherst,” said Terrell James, a Northampton resident who co-chairs the union.

James said the union is fighting for relief around housing, with much of the housing stock either not afford able or not suitable for living. This, James said, puts a burden on Amherst, as well as Northampton, Holyoke and Springfield, because it raises the rents for everyone else when graduate workers aren’t accommodated by the university with safe housing.

Aidan Khelil, another graduate student, told councilors that Amherst is one of the smallest communities in the country to host a large state school, arguing that UMass is increasing enrollment 3½ times faster than new rental housing units it is providing “And no one else is even close,” Khelil said.

“This has resulted in rent prices exploding in the last several years,” Khelil added.

While Fieldstone Artisan on Massachusetts Avenue, across from the Whitmore Administration Building, is open this fall for graduate students, at $2,085 per month rent for one-bedroom units, that is almost double the fair market rent of $1,100 per month for Amherst, Khelil said. It is also more than what graduate students, whose average salary is $24,500 annually, can afford, he said. Fieldstone Artisan has 200 beds for graduate students.

Because the comments were made during public comment time, councilors were not allowed to respond to the request.

UMass Community Relations provided Town Council a memo with a snapshot of the situation, showing 30,336 total students at UMass, with 14,605 undergraduate beds available. But 4,390 students were studying fully online, and 2,028 part-time graduate students are homeowners and year-round residents who already live locally.

That leaves about 9,300 students living off campus, though some of those students live at their family homes and aren’t taxing the local rental market.

In 2002, UMass had 24,062 total students and 11,108 undergraduate beds.

“UMass Amherst houses one of the largest percentages of students on campus when compared to national peers,” the memo states. “Out of the 209 ranked public universities, UMass Amherst is among the top six in the country for the highest percentage of on-campus students.”

UMass officials also noted the soft rental market: “Off-campus, residential apartment complexes are reporting higher vacancy rates than in previous years. Some management companies are offering major discounts and incentives to draw in new lessees.”

Among the demands in the petition are for a living wage, with a 25% pay bump over three years; alleviation of the rent burden through a stipend that would get to $500 per month next school year; a university guarantee ensuring all graduate students find housing; and an assurance that graduate student housing provided doesn’t cost more than 30% of wages, in rent.

Mark Murdy, a member of the union’s steering committee, said 860 signatures were collected on the petition in late August and delivered to Chancellor Javier Reyes.

Still, graduate student Seth Thibodeau argues that the number of students not housed by UMass is closer to 14,000. Those students then drive up demand and cost for rentals in the area.

“A completely unfathomable amount that is required to find housing elsewhere,” Thibodeau said.

Thibodeau pointed out his own situation. When he came to UMass in 2018 to pursue his doctorate, he was paying $1,099 per month for a 475-square-foot apartment in Sunderland. When rent began rocketing up during pandemic, he could no longer afford it and had to get loans and government assistance programs for food and necessities. Moving out from that apartment, last year he saw that rent there had gone up to $1,650

“This is an issue that not only affects me, the graduate students of UMass, it also affects the greater Amherst area, as the ability for people to live in this area is critical to Amherst,” Thibodeau said. “I believe the university has an obligation to make sure that housing is affordable in this area.

UMass Community Relations stated that for the undergraduate Fieldstone Slate, rental renewal rates have exceeded targeted goals, and at Fieldstone Artisan, for graduate students, almost all studio and one-bedroom units are occupied, with some two-bedroom units available.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.