Graduate student stipends have remained relatively flat for decades, in part because the size of grants has. When I was a PhD student in San Diego a decade ago, my stipend was $1800 per month for the last 4 years and $2500 per month for the first two years. Everyone had to have roommates and pennypinch to make it work, and every peer who had kids really struggled unless their spouse had a real income. Being a single parent would be very rough under graduate student income constraints.
While increasing dollars allocated to grants is hard and requires changing grant agencies, having TAs make much more than RAs would not really be feasible. I'd like the universities to greatly increase the amount of (greatly) subsidized housing available for graduate students, which would go a long way toward addressing the problem.
While increasing dollars allocated to grants is hard and requires changing grant agencies, having TAs make much more than RAs would not really be feasible. I'd like the universities to greatly increase the amount of (greatly) subsidized housing available for graduate students, which would go a long way toward addressing the problem.