I still remember the days when students were students, and workers were workers.
First, you were a student, and paid tuition to learn.
Then, you graduated into the workforce, and paid off your tuition.
Now students call themselves "student workers" or "academic workers", and treat the PhD like it's a job that's supposed to pay them enough to raise a family.
It's a sign of a failing bureaucracy when the terms start to contradict themselves.
Speaking as a (former) partner of a University of Oregon grad student, what it actually came down to was that folks weren't paid enough to even live in the community they worked and taught in. I was making more at my shitty retail job for $8.50/hr, 25 hours a week, than my partner was making working 60+ hours a week, in a job that required a college degree. I was not contractually barred from taking other work, unlike my partner. And most terms, my partner was expected to teach or TA classes for the university as well as working on their dissertation. This is common for most grad students, and has been for decades.
Based on average cost of living in that community, a $54k Stanford grad student stipend is fair, perhaps low: you shouldn't have to take on an additional $40k a year in debt just to afford the privilege of accepting a "full ride" graduate fellowship.
I believe that’s too narrow of a viewpoint and disregards the nuances of the relationship between graduate students and their universities. In recent times universities have increasingly relied on grad students for teaching and research functions. If you asked a graduate student to describe their experience they will most likely compare it to a job because it has the same responsibilities as one.
Things change. For example, now those students have enough awareness of how they were getting screwed, and ability to organize, that they did something about it.
And whether you think it's fair or not, apparently the UC system needed them enough to strike this deal.
First, you were a student, and paid tuition to learn.
Then, you graduated into the workforce, and paid off your tuition.
Now students call themselves "student workers" or "academic workers", and treat the PhD like it's a job that's supposed to pay them enough to raise a family.
It's a sign of a failing bureaucracy when the terms start to contradict themselves.