The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Student Council and four deans held a town hall-style meeting Tuesday afternoon to discuss the restructuring of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and its effect on current graduate students.
The two parties discussed the changes made in March to the fellowships program for entering Ph.D. candidates. The University has now guaranteed five years of fiscal support for every graduate student in the humanities and social sciences starting in fall 2012, said Robert Fatton, associate dean for graduate academic programs.
The event, organized by the Council, was grounds for an "extremely good and open exchange on the part of the three deans from the graduate schools," Assoc. Dean of Students Aaron Laushway said.
The evening started out with a 10-minute speech from Arts & Sciences Dean Meredith Woo, followed by a question-and-answer session with an audience of about 100 graduate students, Council President Elizabeth Ladner said. They addressed several concerns the graduate students had about the restructuring, such as "why graduate students hadn't been [previously] consulted" and what, if anything, was going to happen to them in the near future, Ladner said.
She said one of the most significant results of the meeting was an understanding of the importance of consulting graduate students about restructuring. "That was one of the biggest things to come out of it," Ladner said. "They're agreeing to actually consult with us in the future." She said Woo admitted the administration should have communicated with the graduate students before developing the restructuring plan and promised to consult with students as it develops its plan for the restructuring of the hard sciences graduate program.
Students had other misgivings about the plan, however.
"I guess the reaction was more that we just remain skeptical that the administration is not fully aware of what the changes will be in the future," she said. Some people are concerned that restructuring may affect graduate students' teaching, including maintaining an adequate number of teaching assistants and the possibility of tensions arising between current and future graduate students based on a disparity in pay, Ladner said. "I think it was good that the administration saw that students were truly upset by this," she said.
She also explained that current graduate students will not benefit from the restructuring because it will not provide more funding for these students.
"The tenor of the graduate students is for the most part disappointed that we can't benefit in some way, but we recognize the overall step forward for the graduate programs at large," she said.
Ladner said the restructuring will make the University more competitive and attract the most qualified students. The increased funding packages also will help new students to finish their dissertations more quickly, she said.
Although "current students will not be affected by restructuring... [we] thought it was a good idea to let them know what was going to happen," Fatton said. "They voiced their concerns and questions. It was a good exchange of views"
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