diff --git a/integration-tests/test_hub.py b/integration-tests/test_hub.py
index a056f62..fa5415d 100644
--- a/integration-tests/test_hub.py
+++ b/integration-tests/test_hub.py
@@ -346,12 +346,12 @@ async def test_idle_server_culled():
             )
         ).wait()
     )
-    # Check every 10s for idle servers to cull
+    # Check every 5s for idle servers to cull
     assert (
         0
         == await (
             await asyncio.create_subprocess_exec(
-                *TLJH_CONFIG_PATH, "set", "services.cull.every", "10"
+                *TLJH_CONFIG_PATH, "set", "services.cull.every", "5"
             )
         ).wait()
     )
@@ -364,12 +364,12 @@ async def test_idle_server_culled():
             )
         ).wait()
     )
-    # Cull servers and users after 60s of activity
+    # Cull servers and users after 30s, regardless of activity
     assert (
         0
         == await (
             await asyncio.create_subprocess_exec(
-                *TLJH_CONFIG_PATH, "set", "services.cull.max_age", "60"
+                *TLJH_CONFIG_PATH, "set", "services.cull.max_age", "30"
             )
         ).wait()
     )
@@ -388,25 +388,50 @@ async def test_idle_server_culled():
         assert pwd.getpwnam(f"jupyter-{username}") is not None
 
         # Check that we can get to the user's server
-        r = await u.session.get(
-            u.hub_url / "hub/api/users" / username,
-            headers={"Referer": str(u.hub_url / "hub/")},
-        )
+        user_url = u.notebook_url / "api/status"
+        r = await u.session.get(user_url, allow_redirects=False)
         assert r.status == 200
 
-        async def _check_culling_done():
-            # Check that after 60s, the user and server have been culled and are not reacheable anymore
+        # Check that we can talk to JupyterHub itself
+        # use this as a proxy for whether the user still exists
+        async def hub_api_request():
             r = await u.session.get(
-                u.hub_url / "hub/api/users" / username,
+                u.hub_url / "hub/api/user",
                 headers={"Referer": str(u.hub_url / "hub/")},
+                allow_redirects=False,
             )
-            print(r.status)
+            return r
+
+        r = await hub_api_request()
+        assert r.status == 200
+
+        # Wait for culling
+        # step 1: check if the server is still running
+        timeout = 100
+
+        async def server_stopped():
+            """Has the server been stopped?"""
+            r = await u.session.get(user_url, allow_redirects=False)
+            print(f"{r.status} {r.url}")
+            return r.status != 200
+
+        await exponential_backoff(
+            server_stopped,
+            "Server still running!",
+            timeout=timeout,
+        )
+
+        # step 2. wait for user to be deleted
+        async def user_removed():
+            # Check that after 60s, the user has been culled
+            r = await hub_api_request()
+            print(f"{r.status} {r.url}")
             return r.status == 403
 
         await exponential_backoff(
-            _check_culling_done,
-            "Server culling failed!",
-            timeout=100,
+            user_removed,
+            "User still exists!",
+            timeout=timeout,
         )
 
 
@@ -429,12 +454,12 @@ async def test_active_server_not_culled():
             )
         ).wait()
     )
-    # Check every 10s for idle servers to cull
+    # Check every 5s for idle servers to cull
     assert (
         0
         == await (
             await asyncio.create_subprocess_exec(
-                *TLJH_CONFIG_PATH, "set", "services.cull.every", "10"
+                *TLJH_CONFIG_PATH, "set", "services.cull.every", "5"
             )
         ).wait()
     )
@@ -447,7 +472,7 @@ async def test_active_server_not_culled():
             )
         ).wait()
     )
-    # Cull servers and users after 60s of activity
+    # Cull servers and users after 30s, regardless of activity
     assert (
         0
         == await (
@@ -471,27 +496,24 @@ async def test_active_server_not_culled():
         assert pwd.getpwnam(f"jupyter-{username}") is not None
 
         # Check that we can get to the user's server
-        r = await u.session.get(
-            u.hub_url / "hub/api/users" / username,
-            headers={"Referer": str(u.hub_url / "hub/")},
-        )
+        user_url = u.notebook_url / "api/status"
+        r = await u.session.get(user_url, allow_redirects=False)
         assert r.status == 200
 
-        async def _check_culling_done():
+        async def server_has_stopped():
             # Check that after 30s, we can still reach the user's server
-            r = await u.session.get(
-                u.hub_url / "hub/api/users" / username,
-                headers={"Referer": str(u.hub_url / "hub/")},
-            )
-            print(r.status)
+            r = await u.session.get(user_url, allow_redirects=False)
+            print(f"{r.status} {r.url}")
             return r.status != 200
 
         try:
             await exponential_backoff(
-                _check_culling_done,
-                "User's server is still reacheable!",
+                server_has_stopped,
+                "User's server is still reachable (good!)",
                 timeout=30,
             )
-        except TimeoutError:
-            # During the 30s timeout the user's server wasn't culled, which is what we intended.
+        except asyncio.TimeoutError:
+            # timeout error means the test passed - the server didn't go away while we were waiting
             pass
+        else:
+            pytest.fail(f"Server at {user_url} got culled prematurely!")
diff --git a/tljh/installer.py b/tljh/installer.py
index 7e9948d..ac49086 100644
--- a/tljh/installer.py
+++ b/tljh/installer.py
@@ -121,14 +121,13 @@ def ensure_jupyterhub_package(prefix):
     conda.ensure_pip_packages(
         prefix,
         [
-            "SQLAlchemy<2.0.0",
-            "jupyterhub==1.*",
-            "jupyterhub-systemdspawner==0.16.*",
+            "jupyterhub==3.*",
+            "jupyterhub-systemdspawner==0.17.*",
             "jupyterhub-firstuseauthenticator==1.*",
             "jupyterhub-nativeauthenticator==1.*",
             "jupyterhub-ldapauthenticator==1.*",
             "jupyterhub-tmpauthenticator==0.6.*",
-            "oauthenticator==14.*",
+            "oauthenticator==15.*",
             "jupyterhub-idle-culler==1.*",
             "git+https://github.com/yuvipanda/jupyterhub-configurator@317759e17c8e48de1b1352b836dac2a230536dba",
         ],
diff --git a/tljh/requirements-base.txt b/tljh/requirements-base.txt
index 1985db7..ba9ff85 100644
--- a/tljh/requirements-base.txt
+++ b/tljh/requirements-base.txt
@@ -5,20 +5,15 @@
 #          the requirements-txt-fixer pre-commit hook that sorted them and made
 #          our integration tests fail.
 #
-# For JupyterHub 1.x SQLAlchemy below 2.0.0
-SQLAlchemy<2.0.0
 # JupyterHub + notebook package are base requirements for user environment
-jupyterhub==1.*
+jupyterhub==3.*
 notebook==6.*
 # Install additional notebook frontends!
 jupyterlab==3.*
 nteract-on-jupyter==2.*
-# Install jupyterlab extensions from PyPI
 # nbgitpuller for easily pulling in Git repositories
 nbgitpuller==1.*
 # jupyter-resource-usage to show people how much RAM they are using
-jupyter-resource-usage==0.6.*
+jupyter-resource-usage==0.7.*
 # Most people consider ipywidgets to be part of the core notebook experience
-ipywidgets==7.*
-# Pin tornado
-tornado>=6.1
+ipywidgets==8.*