The University has reformulated its fellowship program for the fall of 2012, decreasing the number of future graduate students and raising some concern that fewer teaching assistants will be available to teach in the College.
College Dean Meredith Woo said she believes the new structure will increase the value and longevity of remaining fellowships and will improve the quality and competitiveness of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
"We have made our fellowship offerings more competitive [financially] so we could get better graduate students than ever before, and we are also guaranteeing our graduate students support for five years, so they wouldn't have the fear of not knowing if they could continue their work next year, even if they were in good standing," Woo said.
David Leblang, professor of governance at the Miller Center of Public Affairs and professor of politics at the University, said he expects the changes will help the University appeal to first-rate potential graduate students.
"The new policy allows us to be more competitive in attracting the students we really want to attract," Leblang said.
Despite the reformulation's potential benefits, Religious Studies Prof. Larry Bouchard said he is concerned that the changes might adversely impact other areas of the University.
"I think it's a puzzle, in that we see an increasing enrollment in the College, yet we see a decline in graduate students who can serve as [teaching assistants]," Bouchard said. "So there needs to be some thought given to how we are going to cover all of these students. Are we going to have larger courses without TAs? Are we going to have smaller courses without TAs? The other possibility is to have our adjunct professors for hire cover, but there are questions about how that would work as well."
Woo said, however, the decrease in admitted graduate students likely will be less disruptive than people expect.
"It is undoubtedly true that we'll have a bit of a contraction in the number of students coming in, but we're getting better students ... and we'll have a much lower rate of attrition for our graduate students," Woo said. "So even though we have a slightly lower number of students entering the graduate school, the number of students enrolled will likely remain fairly constant."
If anything, Woo said she expects the changes to benefit the undergraduate experience and the University as a whole.
"Excellent graduate programs and excellent graduate students are the sine qua non of a great research institution," she said. "Our hope is that with this reform, that we're able to recruit better students and that our graduate program will get stronger."
Bouchard said regardless of whether the fellowship program changes are ultimately positive or negative, they, along with the current economic climate, demand faculty to re-examine the College's Teaching Assistant Program.
"I think this implies that we will have to rethink how we teach, but I don't think we've been doing that," Bouchard said. "It's not a question about how I feel; there's just a lot of questions implied right now"
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