Issue: Graduate Fellowships
Taskforce(s):
Contacts: Bruce Rafert, Sean Williams, KB Kuleskera, Dave Fleming
Situation:
Graduate Fellowships bear the same relationship to graduate tuition as undergraduate scholarships bear to undergraduate tuition: they are sources of support that enable students who would not otherwise be capable of attending Clemson because they cannot afford to pay us the level of tuition we charge to do so. Additionally, Graduate Fellowships also serve to help us develop a nationally competitive ‘support package’ for blue-chip recruits—much the same way as undergraduate scholarships allow Clemson to recruit out of state students with high SAT.
At present, Clemson has no readily recognizable major development activity to pursue alumni or corporations who would be willing to support either endowed or spending-account Fellowships.
Suggestions for discussion, and/or action:
COMMENTS
It should also be noted that fellowships of some sort (teaching stipend, research stipend) for science are de rigor at almost all top 50 research institutions-this is not icing on the cake but rather the only way to be competative in attracting even middle of the pack science graduate students. Thus the present Clemson structure, which relies on teaching assistantships funded by the individual college deans from E&G money at a range of amounts from $6000 yr to $18,000 yr and research assistanships funded by individual faculty grants leaves Clemson without a stable source of funding for graduate education.
