EC Survey Presentation
Graduate Council May-19 Minutes
Liveblogging the Open Forum on Graduate Support
The Open forum on graduate support is starting in a packed classroom in the GSB. Presenting the report are Martina Munsters, Deputy Provost Cathy Cohen, Vice President and Dean of Students Kimberly Goff-Crews, and the Student representatives on the graduate funding group.
I’ll be liveblogging the event and a student government secretary, Mariana Lo is putting together professional minutes of the event to give a better overall statement of the proceedings.
Martina Munsters is giving an overview of the process that the body went through to arrive at the recomendations that are being presented today.
Written by Matt
Munsters: Summer fellowships, and dissertation fellowships are all at issue.
The most complex recommendation is one where the faculty in particular departments would be able to admit one or two fewer students, and the money not used could be used over time to support current students.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 5:15 pm
More than fifty students are here to hear the report.
The students who were on the committee are explaining moving past a competitive funding model towards a more equitable model.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 5:22 pm
“I’m Cathy Cohen!” Dep. Provost for four weeks has taken the floor with VPDOS Kim Goff-Crews. Ms. Cohen has been a Dep. Provost for four weeks-since the beginning of the quarter.
Discussing the timeline.
Hope to implement the recommendations by the beginning of 08-09 school year.
Process: charis of the Humanities division last week, this week this, science division next week, committee on the council on the fifth, and then regroup.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 5:25 pm
Budgetary concerns are going to restrict the implementation.
Where’s the money from?
-Different places: Divisions, Admin, Delay other projects. Cohen: Can’t bash the administration anymore, I’m part of it!
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 5:26 pm
Q: Differences in student need: restrict the pool of applicants for dissertation and summer fellowships. Index of need?
A: Cohen: Focus on those students with greater need. e.g. Students with previous fellowships would not be eligible, perhaps.
Goff-Crews: This will not fully address many of the problems of international students. We are starting to look at these initiatives now.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 5:29 pm
Q: International students need more attention. This sounds vague and that there are no specific recommendations.
A: Cohen: “Where are we headed?” Committee; the report recommends a new study. We have information now about teaching compensation compared to peer institutions.
Q: Not adverse to committees, but: examples–classes with few TAs get high salaries. Where does this money come from? Professional schools can lend people money in a way that the divisions can’t do.
A: Goff-Crews: We’re looking on it in the professional schools.
Q: Yale has something where they lend at the same rate as the federal gov’t.
A: Goff-Crews: We will try to get good rates.
Cohen: we were both at yale. they have $$$$$.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 5:34 pm
Q: Much of this is based on raising new money. How is raising money going?
A: Cohen: $500,000 to endow one dissertation year fellowships. This is a serious fundraising effort. You’re right. It isn’t currently fully funded. This is not easily funded by outside donors. Many good donors from the college, but from the grad divisions they don’t make that much money. Need to find donors.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 5:38 pm
Q: How much $$$$ is on the table in terms of planning to be spent on this initiative. $50 million mentioned for new project. What’s on table for proposal we’re talking about. 2) When will report become public. 3) When will you have another forum.
A: Cohen: I’m happy to meet whenever, except I have a two-year-old at home. There aren’t plans currently for more meetings. We want to make fast decisions. We don’t want to be seen as stalling. Should the Provost be at one of these meetings? We can make it happen.
When we met with representative bodies we presented the executive summary of the report. We want to present this at the same time as the Provost’s response.
We want to have a way to publicize the set of options available.
The amount of money that we have available: $.5-1 million. We want to find more money and look at different possibilities.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 5:42 pm
Q: We want equality.
A: Many different problems. Student on the committee: we want to foster a collaborative community. We were constrained imaginatively to think within ballpark of budgetary constraints. Provost said that initiatives would be more likely to be adopted if they looked beyond current students. We were dismayed.
Cohen: Pushing back–Want to make sure that students trying to make progress towards a degree, we want to make sure that they are able to bring them somewhere better within financial constraints. We can’t get this to $19,000
Q: This bothers me!
Student on the Committee: We got departmental data, and it is a mess to get! We were originally in favor of bringing everyone up through AR1. That alone would cost twice the amount the provost told us to imagine. a significant portion of that would go to a very very small number of students who came without excepting any aid.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
Q: There isn’t a desire to put together a group to find the money to do this in the way there was to get $50 million for new grad students.
A: Cohen: “I totally hear that!” BUT: this administration came in and said–without a set of donors–that we have to do something because we have fallen so far behind. We are so far behind our peers.
BUT NOT ON US!!!!
Cohen: There are some faculty who would say no! This group of people came here understanding what they were offered and they came anyways. This administration isn’t hearing one voice, it is a complicated picture. How do we find some money for the students who are here.
Goff-Crews: We ARE trying to find more money that was initially laid out. We get it that you were not happy.
Q: When will the Provost make a decision?
Cohen: By the end of February.
Goff-Crews: We want an impact immediately.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 5:53 pm
Q: 1) In the constituencies you mentioned, the Div school wasn’t mentioned.
A: Cohen: it is complicated. It was an oversight in a way–students were invited here. Also, Div. School not included in the $50 mil package. We are in negotiations and want to include them in the graduate aid initiative.
Q: We had been asking too much, but there were reasonable parts of the proposal. They seemed to be reasonable, now I hear mid six figures, low seven figures, I gotta wonder about the genuine posture of Provost and President in addressing these concerns.
A: Cohen: The committee was looking at what was available.
Q: Development does not seem to have been included yet.
A: Cohen: We need proposals before we can go to foundations or individuals. They want to know exactly what they are funding or endowing. The Business School can raise money. Doesn’t transfer over.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 6:00 pm
Q: We are talking about responsibility. Responsibility for its students. Also for employees–don’t even get me started! What started the fight–er-conversation was trying to save the brand name, recruit new students. There has been criss-crossing going on here.
A: Munsters: we want to as an institutions recruit and maintain the best and the brightest. There are variations–departments can look as an option at cash slots issue. Do we give up a student to help students?
Q: This is making is something smaller. The departments are part of the University. Will the University except responsibility for its students who live on tuna cans?!
Student on the Committee: Resources scarce and we saw this as less than ideal.
Cohen: This is the central admins money, and they have taken responsibility.
Q: Time warping the problem. There is no compromise with poverty!
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 6:06 pm
Anthony: Food is here!
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 6:07 pm
Q: We are talking about responsibility of the University of an employer. There is no COLA. This is where the buck stops! The rent is up! Stipend salary, renumeration are all constant.
A: Cohen: We haven’t done what we need to do in terms of compensating graduate students work in classrooms. This is on my agenda. Part of the notion of the committee to think about teaching is to think about a way to standardize increases based on inflation, need, etc.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 6:09 pm
Q: Let’s be honest. The proposal about getting departments to slim down the number of admitted students is a way to pass the buck.
Q: I fail to see how this will devolve the problem. Many departments admit students with no funding.
Q: Before all they said was “this seems broadly reasonable”
A: Cohen: It will be so much more than half a million.
Q: This feels like a corporate cover-up. We want to feel good will. People told me not to go because they said this would happen.
A: Cohen: Forget the Half million. That is my understanding that that was one figure thrown out at the committee. The Provost is currently looking at these recommendations. Given what we can raise and our commitments.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
Q: Equity! Looking at a $6 billion endowment. It is dis-ingenuous to say that we can’t put total equity on the table.
A: ~$54 million dollars a year or so.
Q: We are less important than a building.
This violates some moral standards and dare I say CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE.
We are not as good of an investment as a building. The University has made a choice on this.
Goff-Crews: I don’t know what to say.
Q: Someone is selling this to you!
Cohen: “We’re fine! It’s not personal”. Buildings are crumbling.
Q: This is a stop-gap solution.
Cohen: We care about the University.
Q: I love this place. The resources are great. I want to tell people to come. But we don’t feel like we are being included seriously.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 6:22 pm
Q: I want to represent some of the people who are here who are willing to accept that the University is not a villainous institution that views grad students with respect.
A: Cohen: We want an account from the University about the endowment.
Q: When you talk about Dissertation year fellowships, are you talking about just write-up year fellowships?
[Cohen Nods]
OK. There is a giant year where I can’t afford the year I need to live here and go to the Reg. That gap in funding will push me back two years. That fifth-year drop is terrifying.
Q: Past year six, seven, you are ineligible.
Cohen: We want to structure this so students who are not covered by aid initiatives will have different year requirements.
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 6:27 pm
Many questions about the process…but we are more or less out of time and I need to leave. Thanks for reading, and I hope that it gives some insight if you weren’t able to make the meeting. Minutes will be posted within a few days.
Cheers!
Comment by Matt — January 28, 2008 @ 6:28 pm