According to a Faculty Senate ad hoc committee formed at the end of last semester, the University lags behind other institutions in providing funding for graduate students, which leads to recruiting and retention problems.
The committee is trying to "explore as many ways as we can find" to improve graduate students' funding and benefits, Faculty Senate Chairwoman Patricia H. Werhane said.
"Graduate student funding is one of our highest priorities," former Faculty Senate Chairman David T. Gies said.
One of the committee's primary purposes is to compare the University's graduate student funding with that at other universities.
The committee found that, in many departments in the various schools at the University, the funding provided falls behind that of other institutions, Werhane said.
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Obtaining sufficient graduate student funding is a problem faced by many institutions because "it is expensive and the payoffs are not direct nor quantifiable, in ordinary terms," she said.
But "it is critical to keep universities and intellectual research alive," Werhane added.
The packages the University is able to provide graduate students "are, in many ways, not as competitive" with peer institutions, Gies said.
Because of the lack of funds, various departments reported losing graduate students, which is a dilemma that needs to end, Werhane said.
In addition to having lower stipends than other schools, the University now does not offer health insurance to graduate students, she said.
Students have the option of paying for insurance out of their stipends. But University stipends generally are not competitive in most departments with peer institutions, Werhane said.
Gies said despite being one of the highest ranked Spanish departments in the United States, the department has "great difficulty recruiting the top students, who choose better financial packages from Berkeley, Princeton, the University of North Carolina, Duke, Johns Hopkins" and other schools that compete with the University.
Another goal of the Faculty Senate is to obtain more money for graduate student research projects, Werhane said.
To remedy the funding shortage, the Faculty Senate plans to work for additional state funds and private gifts, Gies said.
The ad hoc committee aims to have a report prepared by April 1 to present a concrete proposal to potential donors through the Development Office, Werhane said.
Aaron Mills, chairman of the ad hoc committee, could not be reached for comment.
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