When I was in graduate school, I made between 10 and 15 thousand dollars a year. The money came to me, a lowly student of history, thanks to a few years of fellowship funding, many semesters as a teaching and research assistant, and a few other odd jobs on campus. It still wasn't enough, so I developed tricks. I attended talks based on whether there might be food. I developed a fine repertoire of peasant cooking (rice and beans, cabbage soup, potatoes, cheap noodles) to stretch the dollar. I played Irish music in pubs on weekends to make ends meet, counting on free dinners to feed my body and the copious amounts of whiskey bought by happy patrons to nourish my soul. Somehow, I covered the cost of books, clothes, and housing. I even occasionally had cars with working heaters (useful in Minnesota). What I didn't have to do was pay tuition or worry too much about taxes.
For those who have never struggled for a living wage while in graduate school, here's how it works: Along with a fellowship or assistantship, you get a tuition waiver. This means that the university still charges you tuition, but the department then "pays" for it. No money actually changes hands. But as of last week, the Republican Congress has decided to take that imaginary tuition and treat it as income, taxing it, and crushing graduate education in America as a result. The GOP has declared a (class-based) war on graduate school.
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