I think there could be more direct action between the government funding groups and the students themselves.
Most of the funding right now seems to be done through the university, then allocated to a research group and then allocated to a student. That's not to say anything negative about my research group, professor or university, but I think between professors not necessarily seeing the actual financial need a lot of students have.... There's some degree of “lost in translation”, as I referred to before, with funds that are allocated not being used at all.
If there were more direct communication between graduate students and these funding bodies, the funding could be used better. More of the existing funding could be used more effectively.