Jane Huh
Daily Egyptian
Graduate enrollment may be on an upswing come this fall despite an almost $1 million cut to graduate assistantships.
John Koropchak, dean of the Graduate School, said the current data that compares enrollment figures from last year projects an increase up to 200 students.
"Graduate enrollment has grown over the last three years, and at least the projections for the fall indicate another significant increase," he said. "So it doesn't look like the things that have been going on campus have degraded graduate enrollment."
A finalized report on graduate assistantship cuts will be presented in November.
Throughout the University, about $2 million in graduate assistantships was cut. However, $1.2 million from the tuition increase is earmarked to cover the loss, bringing the shortfall down close to $1 million.
Kate Kallal, an English teaching assistant from Iron Mountain, Mich., plans to continue as a teaching assistant through her graduation in 2003. She said the budget cuts leave assistants with fewer resources. Kallal said in her case, if her assistantship were cut from the department, her school loans would not be paid off on time. Hiring a graduate student for nine months costs roughly $10,000 that is mainly covered by state and tuition dollars.
Graduate students can be supported by fellowships and teaching or research assistantships. Fellowships are used for honorary and recruitment purposes.
Amy Sileven, Graduate and Professional Student Council president, estimated that around 100 assistantships will be cut from the total of 1,500 for fall.
"The cuts could prove to be extraordinarily detrimental to undergraduate education as well as graduate education," she said.
Sileven said the vast majority of undergraduate students take core-curriculum courses taught by teaching assistants who are graduate students. Reducing teaching assistantships may result in a greater student-to-teacher ratio, she said.
Undergraduate assistantships, which will receive $750,000 from the $8.5 million tuition increase, also pose a threat to the status of graduate assistantships, Sileven said.
"The fear is - and I don't believe the chancellor intends to take the money and gear it towards undergraduate assistantships - there's a risk that jobs currently being performed at the graduate assistantship level will be shifted to undergraduate assistants at undergraduate salary," she said.
At the last Board of Trustees meeting in May, the chancellor addressed the concern saying he does not intend for the undergraduate assistantships to lead to any problematic shift.
Offering undergraduate assistantships is a new program that intends to enhance undergraduate learning by employing undergraduates in jobs that allow them to exercise working skills that correlate with their career choice.
Koropchak said some departments are doing their best to provide assistantships for as many graduates as they can by trimming the assistantships' time percentage from 50 to 40 percent.
"We're sensitive to the same concerns, and we'll maintain vigilance to make sure that doesn't happen," he said.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
