I'm really happy they are doing this. As an anecdote, I got into USC's grad program with a 45k per year salary, which was great! But, the person who was running the lab actually emailed me saying that I really should think about entering a PhD program after working in the industry. The quality of life decrease is so huge when going from 6 figures to sub 50k. I couldn't stomach it and decided to stay in industry, even though it's something I think about everyday. In the end, I'd rather have some amount of stability and comfort taking on the burden of having such a low salary in a high cost of living area. It's especially frustrating because my job in the industry is so much easier but I make so much more money. It's extremely unfair for these students to be paid so little.