It would have been nice if the article had mentioned how much the stipends are (range, minimum, etc.) Anybody know?

The minimum Research Assistantship at Stanford is $6953.00/quarter.

The minimum Teaching Assistanship at Stanford is between $6953.00/quarter (Course Assistant), $7545.00/quarter (Teaching Assistant), or $7,788.00/quarter (Gradute Teaching Affiliate.

Most graduate students are on research assistanships in the sciences, and only allowed to teach up to one quarter/year. I can't speak for departments outside of the natural sciences.

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/DoR/rph/RAMemo.html

Fortunately, Stanford is addressing this very issue by building new "high-end graduate housing" (Munger Graduate Residences, see the FAQs at http://mungerhousing.stanford.edu/), and eliminating funding for public transit subsidies for grad students.
Oh wait, those actions are creating MORE of a strain on grad student finances, not less.

I plan on inlcuding the following in a letter to the editor, but just taking a general chemistry student's scenario:

According to the Stanford Registrar’s office, a typical unmarried chemistry graduate student’s estimated expenses for 2008-2009 will be $6,698 per quarter, or $25,260 annually. This includes four quarters of the registrar’s estimate for rent ($11,764), food ($7,340), personal items and entertainment ($3,424), transportation ($1,200), and only half of the registrar’s estimated medical expenses ($1,532) since the chemistry department subsidizes half of Cardinal Care health insurance costs.
Like many departments at Stanford, the chemistry department pays the Stanford minimum RA stipend for graduate students, which for 2008-09 will be $27,812 annually ($6,953/quarter for four quarters). This is a surplus of $2,552 over this typical graduate student’s estimated expenses…until you take into account one expense Stanford doesn’t acknowledge – taxes.
100% of a graduate student’s stipend is taxable. Based on the 2007 tax tables, an estimate of how much the typical student will owe in Federal taxes on his or her RA stipend (minus a $5,350 standard deduction) is $2,587, and $898 in California state taxes.
Including taxes, this typical graduate student’s annual expenses are now $29,105, and so his or her annual stipend will fall short of this by $1,293 a year.
Remember, this is actually a pretty good case since the chemistry department does pay half of health insurance costs and this does not include book/education expenses (since most chemistry graduate students do not take classes after their second year). Using the entire Stanford Registrar’s office typical estimated expenses would lead to expenses of $32,671, or a $4,859 annual shortfall (around $1215/quarter or $405/month).

I see the biggest problem is in how they estimate the living expenses for the stipend as being for three quarters when many graduate students live and work on campus for 4 quarters.

Is "unsatisfied" a word? Surely "dissatisfied" would have been more appropriate.

Who would of thought that people would actually want more money without working for it...

Sadly, no one has addressed the tremendous burden of TGR fees.
TGR Fees are a “reduced tuition” graduate students pay after they have fulfilled course requirements but are still conducting departmental research (that is, writing their dissertations). Currently, TGR fees stand at $2,760 per quarter, amounting to at least $7,500 a year for most graduate students.
Most universities charge approximately $1,000 per year. $7,500 per student per year is absurd, especially for someone who is not enrolled in classes.
Once a graduate student has reached TGR status, his/her four to five years of Stanford funding has run dry. For those who are not lucky enough to have been chosen for any number of highly-competitive fellowships, a full or part-time job is necessary. BUT WAIT! Once these grads have reached TGR, they are permitted to work ONLY seven hours a week.
Boston Grad Student:
How much are your TGR fees? And I wonder what the cost of living is where you are compared to the cost of living here in Silicon Valley.
Charles:
Please do include this information regarding TGR fees in your letter to the editor. Stanford Daily has published about these fees before. Take a look: http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2006/5/11/casaRaisesGradIssuesWithGsc
Most Humanities graduates receive five years of funding, but with four years of coursework, one year of university exams, dissertation proposals and fellowship applications, is it really feasible grads will complete their dissertations in that final year of funding? Not likely. I imagine the 60% of graduates who claim graduate education at Stanford is a financial burden are those who know all the facts and simply wait for the numbers to crunch them. And yes, these numbers don't even include that "4th quarter" of living, namely summer.

It would be good to look at other Universities as well- it certainly isnt easy at Stanford but grad students at peer institutions have it far worse. At Harvard, the stipends are not only lower- but the cost of living is far higher. Harvard doesnt offer the housing options or costs that Stanford students have - its tough all around out there. Stanford grads have it comparably very good.

The GSC will be discussing this at their meeting Wednesday.

My one concern about coming to Stanford as opposed to say, the mid-west, for grad school was cost of living. Looks like my concern was justified - thanks for making that decision easy.
P.S. Using one of the links above, 19k/year in Urbana-Champaign translates to more than 40k/year in your area. WOW.

Comparing Boston and Stanford:
Currently being in Stanford, and having done 4 years undergraduate in Boston, then 2 years after graduation, I feel able to make a comparison.
In general, the stanford area is more expensive. Housing is substantially more, believe it or not. Food and gas are both more expensive, as is car insurance ironically. The tax credit for rent in massachusetts doesn't exist worth squat in CA, and CA sales taxes (8.75%) take a chunk of flesh as well.

Case in point. 2 BR Apartment, Boston area, CL, average, $1500. In Silicon Valley: 2 BR Apartment, $2000.

The one area Silicon valley has an advantage: Heating oil.