The news that the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences will revise its system of fellowship grants for the 2012-13 academic year was met with little fanfare across Grounds. This is despite the fact that College Dean Meredith Woo described the plan as the "single most comprehensive restructuring" of fellowships in the history of the graduate school.
Yet undergraduate students and faculty members should not overlook the potential implications the plan holds for their own experiences at the University. The plan deserves praise as it represents a well-crafted effort to improve the graduate school's quality without placing significant burdens upon other constituencies. Nevertheless, the University community should be aware of the changes that will ensue and how they will relate to broader areas such as enrollment, academic quality and interdepartmental equality.
The primary alterations that will be made to fellowships in the graduate school pertain to funding levels and duration. At present, funding for fellowships varies widely across departments. In the English department, for example, annual fellowships of $22,000 are offered; in contrast, fellowships of only $13,000 annually are available in the religious studies department. Additionally, very few fellowships come with a five-year guarantee for funding, meaning students often lose out on their primary source of financial security before completing their studies. "As many as half of our Ph.D. students drop out" as a result, Woo said, noting that this is slightly higher than the national average.
With those problems in mind, administrators in the graduate school drew up a plan that will increase the funding levels for fellowships and guarantee them for a full five years. The new system will feature three tiers of fellowships valued at $22,000, $20,000 or $18,000 annually depending on the department. Although this will not eliminate entirely the issue of funding inequity between departments, it will be a substantial improvement to the system that currently exists, which features underfunded departments amid "pockets of great excellence," Woo said. Moreover, administrators hope the higher levels of funding will attract and retain elite graduate students for the entirety of their studies.
Yet because the plan is budget neutral, the more generous fellowships will necessitate a decline of about 5 percent in graduate student intake. In addition to making it more difficult for graduate students to gain admission at the University, this change could affect undergraduate academics. Fewer graduate students could mean a smaller pool from which to draw teaching assistants, who aid professors of large lecture classes offered in most College departments.
This problem could be exacerbated by the increase in undergraduate enrollment that recently was approved by the Board of Visitors. If there were to be a shortage of TAs, professors might have to alter the way they teach their classes by either enlarging discussion sections or replacing them altogether. Either option would result in more impersonal instruction for undergraduate students taking lecture classes.
Woo is optimistic, however, that the plan will not lead to a net loss of TAs in the College. "Even though the number of entering students will get smaller," she said, "the new package will reduce the percentage of attrition," or graduate students who leave early without their degrees. "If fewer students drop out, we may actually have more Ph.D.'s teaching," she added.
Although this assertion would be difficult to verify mathematically, it is reasonable enough to justify the graduate school's approach. If the plan succeeds, not only will graduate students be more financially secure while they study, but the talent level of those students will rise as well. This would lead to an increase in the quality of TAs and also would serve as a draw for recruiting faculty. The ultimate outcome of the plan remains to be seen, but administrators in the graduate school should be commended for at least considering the interests of the entire University community when formulating this plan to improve graduate studies.
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