Faculty Senate and College officials have refined the monetary awards they plan to offer University graduate students for the next school year, polishing everything from the name of the awards to the methods used to finance them.
The Faculty Senate Dissertation-Year Fellowships of about $17,000 will be offered to 11 graduate students completing their last year of education at the University.
As the name suggests, the awards are intended to help graduate students obtain funding in their last year of schooling while completing their dissertations.
"Often this is the hardest year for graduate students to get funding to concentrate on their projects," Faculty Senate Chairman Robert Grainger said.
However, Grainger stressed that the awards are designed to recognize not only research but also teaching.
"A lot of fellowships, including [those] at the University, recognize research," Grainger said. "We want to also highlight the importance of the teaching component."
"While we are first and foremost students, and should primarily be judged as such, a fellowship that considers teaching along with our research demonstrates that the time and energy we devote to our undergraduate students is recognized and respected," said Graduate Student Council President Todd Price.
"Almost everyone I know who is eligible is applying for the new fellowship," Price said.
In addition to rewarding current University graduate students, Grainger said he hopes the awards will attract highly qualified graduate students in future years.
Although the funds may not have an immediate impact on graduate student recruitment, "any increase in sources of funding will improve the morale of the graduate population, which cannot help but make U.Va. a more attractive place for graduate study," Price said.
The idea behind the fellowships occurred to Grainger and College Dean Edward L. Ayers simultaneously, according to Grainger. From the beginning stages, the awards have been a joint effort between the Faculty Senate and the College.
Because of the College's financial support of each of the fellowships, five of the 11 awards will be geared specifically toward Arts & Sciences graduate students.
Thanks to a contribution from the Engineering School, two fellowships will be awarded to Engineering graduate students.
One of the fellowships was endowed by the Jefferson Scholars Program, a gesture that Grainger said "reflects their interest ... in developing unique ways of funding graduate education."
The final three awards are endowed in the name of the Faculty Senate, courtesy of a generous grant from the University Provost, Gene Block, Grainger said.
The last four awards will be at-large fellowships, open to all University graduate students.
A diverse group of professors from a broad range of disciplines will evaluate each of the applications for the fellowships, Grainger said.
He said it is particularly important to have evaluators who are properly equipped to judge both research and teaching abilities.
Applications are due March 1, and all decisions about the fellowships will be made April 15.
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