Dear ...:
I appreciate your concern and your taking the time to write to me about it.
There are several characteristics of TF stipends that I believe you need to take more seriously into your analysis of this situation.
First, the University budget does not contain regular provisions for stipend increases (unlike tuition scholarships, which we increase annually as tuition rises). We had not increased stipends for several years, and had no funds budgeted for this purpose. Hence, there was no element of "budget cutting" affecting your stipends.
Second, there is already a discrepancy among TF stipends in that you and the other TF's in the sciences receive larger stipends than those in the humanities. This is not because your work is regarded more highly, or because your living costs are higher, but because market conditions require that, to be effective, financial aid packages in the sciences need to be larger than in the humanities. That is, it is entirely a recruitment issue.
Third, for this same reason (recruitment) we increased the stipend offers made to applicants, as an aid to the departments in making their offers more competitive. Thus, the disparity to which you refer is the result of market factors, simply a fact of life.
Finally, I remind you that TF stipends are part of financial aid awards, not salaries for duties performed. Your aid package has increased in the tuition area, and has remained constant in the stipend area. This is the same situation that has occurred to TF's in the Graduate School during the past several years. Incoming students have higher stipends, and will likely also experience level stipends during their time as TF's.
I regret that we do not have funds sufficient to increase all stipends each year. On the other hand, our expectation for TF's in the sciences is that they will move rather quickly onto grant-funded positions as RA's, for which the stipends are typically much higher.
I hope this enables you to better understand our policy. Again, thank you for writing.
Sincerely, Dennis Berkey Dean
cc: Scott Whitaker, Associate Dean