Graduate fellowship money frozen

Some graduate students expecting to receive fellowships may be skating on thin ice come September. In the University's proposed budget for the 1992 fiscal year, announced last Wednesday, the fellowship pool will be frozen at this year's level of $6.5 million, causing the elimination of at least 12 new fellowships. According to Deputy Provost Richard Clelland, the pool, which has steadily increased since 1980, should have increased to $7 million. The University's pool is divided between all schools with PhD programs. The schools include Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Wharton, Fine Arts, Annenberg, Nursing, Social Work and Biomedical Graduate Studies. SAS Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Donald Fitts said last week a freeze in the University's graduate fellowship pool will result in the loss of 10 fellowships for incoming students in the School of Arts and Sciences. Fitts said SAS receives enough money from the pool to pay for the equivalent of 170.7 full fellowships. He added the fellowships are often split in half between students doing their dissertation. Fitts said because of the current rate of inflation, SAS will be able to fund only 160.7 full fellowships, 10 less than this year. The 10 fellowships will be eliminated from those given in the past to incoming graduate students, Fitts explained. Wharton Graduate Vice Dean David Reibstein said yesterday he was unsure how the frozen pool would affect Wharton graduate students. Reibstein added it was unclear to him whether or not Wharton received any funds from the pool. Engineering Associate Dean of Graduate Education Wayne Worrell said yesterday he had hoped for a $50,000 increase in fellowship money for Engineering students. Engineering will receive $472,000 next year, as they did this year. Worrell said he expects the number of fellowships offered to incoming students to drop by anywhere from two to five fellowships. Because of other funds used to supplement the pool money, it is impossible to know exactly how many fellowships will be awarded, Worrell added. According to Worrell, 18 to 40 fellowships were awarded this year. Next year, Worrell said, only 16 to 35 fellowships will be available. Social Work Dean Michael Austin said he had expected the fellowship monies to increase from this year's $25,000 to $37,000. Because the pool is frozen, there will be no increase. Austin said because the fellowships are distributed in differing amounts, he does not know how many fellowships will be cut out. Nursing Director of Graduate Studies Florence Downs said her school will make up the difference between the money received from this year's pool and next year's. Downs said the Nursing School currently receives $70,000. Next year the the school will receive $60,000. According to Downs, the Nursing School currently sponsors six to eight fellowships and will do so again next year. These fellowships are available to all doctoral students, not only incoming students. "We will do our best to see that students are supported at the same level as they were before," Downs said yesterday. University administrators said they were upset by the lack of funds for the 1992 fiscal year. "Graduate student support has always been low," Fitts said. "We have been working to increase it, but because of the state budget crisis, we have suffered." Fitts would not say exactly how much money SAS currently receives from the pool. Graduate Students Associations Council President Michael Polgar said the frozen pool will hit incoming international students particularly hard. If first-year students cannot be teaching assistants because they are not proficient in English, Polgar said they have less options available to them. Graduate and Professional Students Assembly Chair Susan Garfinkel said lessening the number of fellowships would make the financial situation difficult for some graduate students. "When you have $16,000 worth of tuition, rent to pay, and you need to eat, it's really incredibly hard," Garfinkel said last night.

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