The Graduate Program
Graduate students play a critical role in the life of a research university. Engaged in both teaching and research, they support the core mission of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. They serve as instructors in introductory writing and foreign language classes, in discussion sections for large survey courses, and in instructional laboratories. As researchers, they contribute to the development of new knowledge and, especially in the sciences, are integral contributors to sponsored research. To advance the mission of Arts & Sciences across the entire curriculum, we must invest significantly in graduate student support and continue efforts to enhance intellectual exchange in the graduate student community.
Increasing Basic Support Packages
Over the past decade, competition for recruiting the best graduate students has become increasingly fierce. The Virginia 2020 reports document deficiencies in graduate funding in both of the disciplinary areas that were subjected to detailed consideration (the sciences and the fine arts). The problem is even more acute in the humanities and social sciences, where competition for the best students is especially keen and (unlike the sciences) few outside resources are available for graduate support. At the best schools, annual stipends often reach $20,000 in the humanities and even higher in the sciences. In order to compete with these schools, we need to be able to offer similar support packages. We must also continue to offer students opportunities for summer support, travel grants, and other resources that promote productivity and shorten the time to degree.Goal: Bring the base stipend for all graduate students in Arts & Sciences up to $20,000 per year by 2008.
Raising Our Top Awards
Our best graduate student support is offered through the President’s Fellowships program. Early in the recruiting season each year, our departments nominate their best students for these awards. In 2006-2007 the program will offer 3 years of support to 40 students with a $16,000 stipend. In order to be competitive, the program needs to be able to offer higher support levels for at least four years. Moreover, with thirty graduate programs in Arts & Sciences, forty Presidential Fellowships are insufficient to ensure competitiveness in our recruitment across the school. Our departments are strong, and with competitive support packages, we will be able to recruit the best graduate students in the world.Goal: Increase President’s Fellows to $25,000 per year for five years and increase the total number awarded to 50.
Targeting Graduate Enrollments
As undergraduate enrollments continue to grow, so too will demand for graduate teaching assistants. Graduate enrollments were deliberately cut back during the 1990s. Many Arts & Sciences departments now have difficulty identifying enough qualified graduate students to serve as teaching assistants. In other departments, for want of sufficient resources, entering student class sizes are so small that a critical mass cannot be established for graduate seminars. Our plan for increasing the overall size of the faculty will intensify pressure for more graduate students as well, because of the direct role they play in supporting the research enterprise, especially in the sciences. To meet the demand for teaching and research assistants, and to ensure the viability of our smaller graduate programs, we need to make modest, targeted increases in the numbers of graduate students in Arts & Sciences.Goal: Increase the total number of graduate students by 20 percent over ten years.
