2008 Woodie Awards
Strategic plan to raise stipends
Ben Penn
Issue date: 5/6/08 Section: News
The graduate studies program is celebrating the university's efforts to raise the graduate student stipend and bolster the graduate school's resources in an attempt to become a top research university.
The University Senate added pro-graduate education changes to the strategic plan late last week, shedding light on issues graduate students have unsuccessfully tried to address in recent years.
The university offers lower minimum stipends for its graduate students than do other top institutions, and students have long complained the stipends do not cover basic living costs.
While Graduate Student Government President Laura Moore said she is encouraged by parts of the strategic plan, she sent a letter to the strategic planning committee April 28 outlining areas she believed the plan's draft failed to address, asking for a more comprehensive grievance procedure for graduate students and a policy to allow part-time students to enroll as doctorate candidates.
Moore and other graduate student leaders throughout the state have lobbied for the past few years to allow graduate students to unionize, which Moore said would allow them to negotiate better pay, help create the much-needed grievance policy and fight for better housing options.
The university currently lags behind the nation's top institutions in the minimum stipends it offers for graduate assistantships and the completion rates for graduate students, which the university hopes to improve through a list of options outlined in the strategic plan, namely raising the minimum stipend.
The minimum stipends for graduate assistantships, which Dean of the Graduate School Charles Caramello said is a key incentive to attract top students from around the country, recently increased slightly to $14,772 for a nine-and-a-half month assistantship.
The plan calls for stipends to increase to at least $18,000.
Caramello said the graduate studies program must receive more funding to properly implement the plan's strategies, specifically the increased stipends.
"We're always looking for additional funding for graduate students on campus and additional funding to support the initiatives that are in the strategic plan," Caramello said.
Devin Ellis, GSG chief of staff, echoed the administrators' desire to raise the stipends, saying the current level "certainly isn't sufficient to maintain the cost of living in the [Washington] area."
Moore said the graduate school faced low completion rates in part because too many students were competing for too few resources. The plan includes a provision to decrease the number of doctorate applicants accepted into the program.
But she also blamed the low rates on inadequate funding.
"The difficulty should come from the academics, not, 'Can I pay my rent? Can I buy food?'" she said.
penndbk@gmail.com
The University Senate added pro-graduate education changes to the strategic plan late last week, shedding light on issues graduate students have unsuccessfully tried to address in recent years.
The university offers lower minimum stipends for its graduate students than do other top institutions, and students have long complained the stipends do not cover basic living costs.
While Graduate Student Government President Laura Moore said she is encouraged by parts of the strategic plan, she sent a letter to the strategic planning committee April 28 outlining areas she believed the plan's draft failed to address, asking for a more comprehensive grievance procedure for graduate students and a policy to allow part-time students to enroll as doctorate candidates.
Moore and other graduate student leaders throughout the state have lobbied for the past few years to allow graduate students to unionize, which Moore said would allow them to negotiate better pay, help create the much-needed grievance policy and fight for better housing options.
The university currently lags behind the nation's top institutions in the minimum stipends it offers for graduate assistantships and the completion rates for graduate students, which the university hopes to improve through a list of options outlined in the strategic plan, namely raising the minimum stipend.
The minimum stipends for graduate assistantships, which Dean of the Graduate School Charles Caramello said is a key incentive to attract top students from around the country, recently increased slightly to $14,772 for a nine-and-a-half month assistantship.
The plan calls for stipends to increase to at least $18,000.
Caramello said the graduate studies program must receive more funding to properly implement the plan's strategies, specifically the increased stipends.
"We're always looking for additional funding for graduate students on campus and additional funding to support the initiatives that are in the strategic plan," Caramello said.
Devin Ellis, GSG chief of staff, echoed the administrators' desire to raise the stipends, saying the current level "certainly isn't sufficient to maintain the cost of living in the [Washington] area."
Moore said the graduate school faced low completion rates in part because too many students were competing for too few resources. The plan includes a provision to decrease the number of doctorate applicants accepted into the program.
But she also blamed the low rates on inadequate funding.
"The difficulty should come from the academics, not, 'Can I pay my rent? Can I buy food?'" she said.
penndbk@gmail.com
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