Here’s some good news:
TO: Deans and Department Heads, Directors of Graduate Studies, GTF Contacts, and Graduate Coordinators
FROM: Kassy Fisher, UO Graduate School
RE: Tuition Support for Grants Funding Level III GTFs (Revised July 2, 2014)
Effective Fall 2014, the University will provide support to grants on which GTFs are hired. In short, the labor index will be charged only three credits of tuition when the index is a grant and when the appointee is a research level III research fellow (GRF). The balance of the tuition will be charged to a non-grant index in the hiring unit. Hiring units with GTFs supported on grants should consult their dean’s office to determine the index that will be used. …
This is really quite good news for PIs and research grants. It means that we can also increase grad student stipends to
a moderate extent.
Now, if we could just do something about the ridiculous OPE rate for postdocs ….
This is crucial for continued research success. UO labs were struggling to be competitive when personnel costs were higher than other institutions. This should also give a boost to graduate student numbers as the excess funds can be used to support more students. It will have a more immediate impact on the grad:undergrad ratio metric than any of the cluster hires, and will act as a multiplier of the effect of those efforts as well. Good job to those involved!
While this is welcome relief to PIs supporting grads on research grants, it’s important to note that the savings amount to about $3.5k/student/term. This is not much in terms of allowing leveraging to support additional grads. It’s an important first step, aligning us with comparator institutions that have been doing this for a while. It’s good for our reputation, morale, and possibly also time to degree. But as far as I can tell we are well below threshold for having enough eligible level 3 GTFs per PI to enable leveraging the savings towards additional grad hirings. The threshold ratio for that is roughly 4. Most PIs don’t support 4 level 3 GTFs on a regular basis. So the impact on grad numbers will be minimal. The only way to significantly increase graduate enrollment is by hiring faculty who are committed to engaging grads in research.
excuse me
I currently have 3 students on federal grants – this now saves me 32K per year – so I can have now have 4 graduates students
and pay each of them a bit more.
We also need to hire faculty in growing areas of funding – we area all committed but some of us are stuck in fields of research that are drying up.
Finally some good news!