Grad Funding: The Story Thus Far

Graduate Funding: The Story Thus Far . . .
Current as of February 14, 2008

This text is intended to make more accessible the diverse activity surrounding the effort to increase funding for current graduate students at the University of Chicago, activity that is a direct response to the new funding package aimed only at new graduate students. For any students who want to get involved or want more information, this document is meant to make that effort significantly easier. I apologize in advance for omissions, errors, and bias. Please forward this document to all interested parties.
- Brian Cody, Sociology - briancody@uchicago.edu - 386.965.1974 cell



I. Upcoming Events
II. Ways to Get Involved
III. Facts and Arguments
IV. The Story Thus Far (from my perspective)
V. Links.



I. Upcoming Events (events in bold are large public events)

• February 14: Read the Provost’s Working Group Report, leave feedback for administration on the Graduate Council Blog (http://sg.uchicago.edu/blog/category/assembly/gc/)
• February 18: Meeting with Provost about increased University commitments for current graduate students that go beyond the Provost’s Working Group Recommendations (closed meeting)
• February 19: Taking Action for Graduate Funding (large public event, noon at Regenstein)
• February: Documentary being made - contact Neal Patel (nhpatel@uchicago.edu)
• February: Press releases, push for articles, other promotional activities – contact Jenn Gregory (jaegregory@uchicago.edu)
• March 5: Rally for Graduate Funding (large public event, main quad 11:30am-1:30pm)



II. Ways to Get Involved

• Show up at upcoming events (above)
• Graduate Council’s Graduate Funding Committee (GCGFC) - focused on large-scale initiative to include current graduate students in the fellowship initiative, expand health insurance, improve teaching compensation/opportunities, international student funding, summer funding opportunities, advanced student tuition/fees remission, and dissertation writing support - email Averill Leslie (averill.leslie@gmail.com)
• Graduate Student Union (GSU) – focused on increasing teaching pay and teaching opportunities, expanded health insurance, and advanced student tuition/fees remission - email Duff Morton (duffmorton@yahoo.com) or Megan Wade (meganw@uchicago.edu)
• Graduate Council – formal student government, all issues of student, academic, and institutional life - email Anthony Green, President (ahgreen@uchicago.edu) or Erica Simmons, Graduate Liason to the Board of Trustees (ericas@uchicago.edu)
• Promotions and Design Work - support all efforts of communicating the graduate funding issue with the wider public - email Jenn Gregory (jaegregory@uchicago.edu) or Neal Patel (nhpatel@uchicago.edu)
III. Facts and Arguments

• Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
The logic behind the University’s new funding package applies to current students as well as new students: better scholarship, faster time to degree, more systematic teaching opportunities. President Zimmer was clear on the intent behind this initiative, and the university needs to become an advocate for students so it can achieve the goal the initiative set for ALL students across Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Divinity School. This means:
1. Inclusion into the new funding initiative for all graduate students years 1-5
2. Higher teaching pay, more opportunities, and health insurance for TAs
3. Increased dissertation support
4. Help international students’ situation
Whether this means finding funding, changing priorities, or raising new money, the administration needs to make a serious effort to make this happen if the University of Chicago is to improve and achieve the vision President Zimmer set out for the Graduate Aid Initiative.

• Funding Sources
The NACUBO endowment report for 2007 ranks the University of Chicago as the 13th largest endowment in the nation with $6,204,189,000 and 27.5% growth from 2006. Only 3 universities on the list reported a bigger growth last year than us. This huge increase could be put to improve scholarship among current graduate students rather than just new students and new buildings. Current graduate students need to be made a priority rather than being told “we can’t seem to find the money.”

• Cost of Living
Current students may feel lucky to be receiving a stipend of $3,000, $5,000, or even $10,000, but all of these packages fall dramatically short of the estimated cost of living for the nine-month academic year at the University of Chicago, currently estimated at $19,560. New students receive $19,000 a year which puts them much closer to the cost of living, through still well below the estimated cost of living for the twelve-month calendar year, estimated at $26,080.

• Precedents for including current students
Northwestern University implemented a very similar graduate aid initiative in January 2008 and included current students of their own choice without the need for student protests. The funding for all students in the Northwestern Graduate School is uniform across divisions, with the exception of the sciences. The new changes include increases to stipends, summer funding, health insurance, and TA availability for current students, as well as improved ways to monitor students' progression towards degree. The philosophy behind many of these improvements seems consistent with those articulated in the recent report from the Provost’s Working Group.

• Teaching Pay
• The University of Chicago pays $1500 for 10 weeks as a Teaching Assistant. This has not increased in 7 years while tuition and cost of living has increased.
• Harvard pays almost $7,000.00 (4.5 times) more than the U of C (20 hour/11 Week).
• Northwestern pays almost $4,000 more than the Univ. of Chicago (20 hour/11 Week).
• Columbia College pays almost $1,500 more than the U of C (20 hour/11 Week).



• Teaching Opportunities
Due to the Graduate Aid Initiative, Teaching Assistantships will be mandatory for all incoming graduate students. In a matter of one year, it will be impossible to fill TA-ships with an even marginal percentage of current students. Raising teaching salaries will, unfortunately, have a minimal effect on the approximately 1,000 current graduate students who are currently under-funded. There simply aren’t enough undergraduates to go around, so additional teaching opportunities are needed to properly train our future educators at the University of Chicago.

• Artificially Limiting the Discussion
The scope of the Provost’s recommendations are expected to be small ($500k-$2 million) and not include a serious initiative to raise the money needed to fully cover all Social Science, Humanities, and Divinity School students, even though President Zimmer initially told graduate students that no options were off the table. In Spring 2007, the Provost convened the Working Group on Graduate Student Life in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Divinity. Students in this group did meet with Provost Rosenbaum to discuss the possibility of new forms of aid, and the Provost suggested that new financial resources might be found. This approach has been abandoned without explanation or rationale.

• Dissertation Support
Neither new incoming students nor current students have sufficient resources for dissertation-writing support. Millions need to be raised for more endowed dissertation writing grants to support graduate students during this critical time of researching and producing new knowledge.


IV. The Story Thus Far

• February 7, 2007: An email goes out from President Zimmer announcing a new Graduate Aid Initiative that gives all future incoming graduate students in the Humanities and the Social Sciences five years of funding ($19k/year) plus two summer stipends ($3k/summer); total cost is $50 million. Current students get health insurance through their fifth year; total cost is $2 million. Divinity School students are not included in the main fellowship portion of the initiative. (see original Zimmer email under “Links”)
• The stated goals of the initiative were to respond to “our obligation to support these programs at the highest level, allowing us to continue to attract emerging scholars who will shape academic fields and set the intellectual agenda in the decades to come” as well as “to allow students to engage their work at a more intensive level, with one result being a shortening of the time to complete degree requirements.” The program also “systematizes opportunities for students to develop a range of teaching experiences” and responds to calls “from faculty that a significant increase in graduate student support should be the highest priority for the Humanities and Social Sciences” (quotes from Zimmer email). Even though the same logic applies to them, current graduate students are not included in the initiative.
• February 28, 2007: At an open meeting with Deputy Provost Martha Roth, current graduate students express confusion and anger over not being given additional resources so they too could improve scholarship quality, shorten time to degree, have more meaningful teaching opportunities, and have funding that matches the cost of living in Hyde Park.
• March 2007: Ad-hoc group of students get together to advocate for graduate funding after meetings with Martha Roth (later becomes GCGFC)
• March 6, 2007: Provost Rosenbaum announces 30 new summer fellowships (increased to 40 later); 270 people apply by deadline, demonstrating the need for more financial support for current students.
• April 23, 2007: Open forum with Provost’s administrative staff. Students launch survey to see where graduate students perceive need for aid. 600 responses total.
• April 24, 2007: Erica Simmons, an early member of the ad-hoc student group and strong advocate of increased graduate aid, wins election as the Graduate Liaison to the Board of Trustees
• April-May, 2007: Graduate students meet with division Deans and central administration to better understand the logic of not including current students, and what could be done.
• May 2, 2007: Three students from the ad-hoc group present a proposal to President Zimmerman, Provost Rosenbaum, VP David Green, Deputy Provost Martha Roth and Deputy Dean for Student Affairs Martina Munsters. The proposal calls for full inclusion of current graduate students in the new initiative based on cost of living and the stated goals of the program (stipends, summer support, health insurance, advanced residency tuition waivers, increased teaching pay, and increased funding for international students). The only thing explicitly rejected is guaranteed support for students through their twelfth year.
• May 2, 2007: In response to student proposal, the Provost’s Ad-Hoc Committee is formed with graduate students and administrators to study the issue of increased funding for current students. Committee members: Alison Winter, Chair (Associate Professor of History), Brian Clites (third-year graduate student in History of Religions), David Martinez (Associate Professor of Classics), Martina Munsters (Deputy Dean of Students for Student Affairs), Rachel Ponce (fifth-year graduate student in History and CHSS), Thomas Thuerer (Dean of Students, Division of Humanities), Greg Weinstein (fifth-year graduate student in Music).

• May 2007: The ad-hoc student group gains official recognition as the Graduate Council’s Graduate Funding Committee (GCGFC). [Note: this is the ‘official’ acronym according to the Graduate Council records, though GCCGF and GCCGA have also been used].
• May 2007: The Graduate Student Union (GSU) begins organizing events focused on unionizing, improving teaching salaries, and improved access to affordable health care.
• June-September 2007: Provost committee works on the issue of graduate funding throughout the summer. Erica Simmons presents information to the University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees on the funding situation for current students, informed them of the charge of the provost committee, and discussed the challenges graduate students face as a result of limited financial support from the University.
• September-December 2007: GCGFC pushes for more funding, Maroon article comes out about continuing student frustration, students are told to wait for the Provost committee report to be released.
• December 8, 2007: Erica Simmons presents information to the Trustees on teaching compensation for graduate students including statistics that compared the U of C to peer and local institutions. Trustees were particularly concerned to hear that our graduate students were taking teaching positions at other local universities because of the difference in compensation rates. They were equally alarmed to hear that the U of C had fallen so far behind its peers.
• December 2007: Members of the provost committee share their initial findings with a limited number of graduate students. Final report, including a separate graduate student addendum expressing concern, is submitted.
• January 14, 2008: Provost committee report (draft form) comes to light. Students decry the narrowness of the Provost’s recommendations over email and at GCGFC/GSU meetings.
• January 28, 2008: GC forum with Deputy Provost Cohen. Presents draft recommendations of the Provost committee. Students ask how much money the Provost is looking at, no clear answer though told anywhere from $500,000 upwards (though not too much upwards). Report clearly does not consider full 5-year fellowships for all current students to be an option, and the scope of proposed recommendations is very narrow.
• February 6, 2008: Open forum w/ Cathy Cohen (Deputy Provost), Martina Munsters (Deputy Dean of Students in the University for Student Affairs), and Kimberly Goff-Crews (Vice President and Dean of Students in the University). Over 100 graduate students attend, many angry speeches concerning the lack of funding across the life of graduate work, as well as the lack of prioritization on the part of the University to find or raise money for current students. The sizeable increase in the University of Chicago endowment was noted as one possible source for funding current students, which was reported to be an average of around $13 million a year over the next 4 years (total: $54.2 million).
• February 8, 2008: GCGFC group has meeting with Provost’s staff. Focused on full coverage instead of the report recommendations because the report is too narrow. Agreed to smaller meeting (4-6 students) to discus larger funding issue rather than a large-group forum to discuss the Provost recommendation report only.
• February 13, 2008: Provost committee report “officially” comes out, all the options are limited and do not address large-scale inclusion of current graduate students in the initiative (see Links, “Provost’s Working Group Report”). Students meet to plan ways of gaining administrative support to advocate on their behalf for additional support.


V. Links

Original Email from President Zimmer Announcing Graduate Aid Initiative
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/07/070207.graduate.shtml

Provost’s Working Group Report
http://sg.uchicago.edu/gradcouncil/docs/GSLWorkingGroupReport.pdf

Northwestern University - New Graduate Funding Package (January 2008)
http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/docs/N.W.G.S_strplan08Finalnew.pdf

NACUBO University Endowment Report
http://www.nacubo.org/Images/All%20Institutions%20Listed%20by%20FY%202007%20Market%20Value%20of%20Endowment%20Assets_2007%20NES.pdf

Maroon Article - 11/13/2007
http://maroon.uchicago.edu/online_edition/news/2007/11/13/grad-students-keep-up-calls-for-funding/

Maroon Article - 02/01/2008
http://maroon.uchicago.edu/online_edition/news/2008/02/01/graduate-aid-study-group-preps-report/

Funding Initiative Blog – “U of C Blogspot”
http://uofcgradfunding.blogspot.com/

Graduate Council Blog
http://sg.uchicago.edu/blog/category/assembly/gc/