In an effort to reward graduate students for their contributions to the University, the Faculty Senate and the College have created a Fellowship Program to honor outstanding graduate students.
"Graduate education as a part of University life" is one of the Faculty Senate's main goals for the year and will be discussed extensively at its retreat on Sept. 14, Senate Chairman and Biology Professor Robert Grainger said.
At first, the awards will be entitled "Outstanding Teacher and Scholar Dissertation Year Awards," Grainger said.
Each award will be worth between $15,000 and $20,000 per year.
The goal is to reward graduate students who excel in their scholarly pursuits as well as in teaching. Both attributes are very important, especially for those graduate students who wish to become professors, Grainger said.
"This is a place that really values teaching and sees graduate students as partners" in helping to teach undergraduates, College Dean Edward Ayers said.
But Ayers said he realizes "graduate funding is one of the weakest parts of U.Va." and hopes the fellowships will help change that.
The awards surfaced "as a result of several people thinking along the same lines," Ayers said.
The idea came from the Faculty Senate's desire to create a program for graduate students that parallels the Faculty Senate Harrison Awards, which reward undergraduate students with outstanding research projects, Grainger said.
When Ayers assumed the position of Dean of the College in August, he requested that the University make an effort to provide greater funding and recognition to outstanding graduate students.
The provost's office donated $100,000 toward that purpose. The money from the Provost's office will be used strictly for Arts and Sciences Fellowships, but Grainger has acquired donations from other schools, including the Engineering School, to provide funds for graduate students who are not in the College.
The Faculty Senate will go through the selection process this year and will begin giving awards next year. The initial endowments from the provost's office and other schools will pay for the awards. But the program's sponsors eventually hope to gain the interest of alumni, Grainger said.
Ayers said he believes the initiative also will help attract new, talented graduate students to the University because it demonstrates "the way that U. Va. embraces graduate students."
Grainger noted the relevance of the awards to the Virginia 2020 program, a plan which outlines President John T. Casteen III's specific goals for the University in the year 2020. One of the highest priorities in the plan is to raise money for graduate education.
Grainger said he expects many different graduate student issues to surface over the next few years because graduate education is "vital and at the same time controversial and always expensive."
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