Spring Break
Grad students voice concern over potential program changes
Catherine Couretas
Issue date: 11/21/08 Section: Front Page
Devenathan agreed.
"We do things that faculty really can't find time to do," Devenathan said.
He also said that many graduate students have a large impact on whether undergraduates decide to go to graduate school.
Brown also said faculty members rely on graduate students to write recommendation letters for undergraduates for things such as jobs and graduate school applications.
Cochrane said the reallocations would have a large impact on the university.
"We're going to have to make some hard choices," Cochrane said. "It is a very difficult and painful process. We want to make absolutely certain that we're using the resources we have effectively."
According to Herbst, current graduate students do not have to worry about losing assistantships.
"Reallocation of grad assistantships will not affect current students," Herbst said. "These are allocations for students who are incoming."
Cochrane agreed.
"Students currently enrolled will not be affected," Cochrane said. "It will shape the future in terms of what programs will be areas of growth and which areas will contract."
This could still be a problem, however, for students that are enrolled in a terminal masters program wishing to earn their Ph.D., according to Edwin Shriver, a fifth-year psychology graduate student.
In a terminal masters program, students earn their master's degree and then re-apply for a Ph.D. program.
If they choose to do so at Miami, they risk the chance of not being able to have an assistantship if cuts have been made in their department.
Students enrolled in masters programs that are not terminal will still have their assistantship, Orndorff said.
Brown said GSA realizes that change is necessary and key for the university, but that the message has gotten lost a little bit.
"We understand the change but we're worried about the kind of change and how quickly it is going," Brown said. "These cuts are not only going to affect graduate students. They're going to affect everyone on every level of the university."
"We do things that faculty really can't find time to do," Devenathan said.
He also said that many graduate students have a large impact on whether undergraduates decide to go to graduate school.
Brown also said faculty members rely on graduate students to write recommendation letters for undergraduates for things such as jobs and graduate school applications.
Cochrane said the reallocations would have a large impact on the university.
"We're going to have to make some hard choices," Cochrane said. "It is a very difficult and painful process. We want to make absolutely certain that we're using the resources we have effectively."
According to Herbst, current graduate students do not have to worry about losing assistantships.
"Reallocation of grad assistantships will not affect current students," Herbst said. "These are allocations for students who are incoming."
Cochrane agreed.
"Students currently enrolled will not be affected," Cochrane said. "It will shape the future in terms of what programs will be areas of growth and which areas will contract."
This could still be a problem, however, for students that are enrolled in a terminal masters program wishing to earn their Ph.D., according to Edwin Shriver, a fifth-year psychology graduate student.
In a terminal masters program, students earn their master's degree and then re-apply for a Ph.D. program.
If they choose to do so at Miami, they risk the chance of not being able to have an assistantship if cuts have been made in their department.
Students enrolled in masters programs that are not terminal will still have their assistantship, Orndorff said.
Brown said GSA realizes that change is necessary and key for the university, but that the message has gotten lost a little bit.
"We understand the change but we're worried about the kind of change and how quickly it is going," Brown said. "These cuts are not only going to affect graduate students. They're going to affect everyone on every level of the university."
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
roy
posted 11/21/08 @ 5:25 AM EST
"Faculty won't come here without graduate students"? Great news, because we don't want those kind of faculty to further degrade the priority, emphasis and quality of undergraduate education in the classroom. (Continued…)
zak
posted 11/21/08 @ 6:07 AM EST
Faculty are too busy to write recommendation letters for undergraduate students, so they have grad students write them instead?? If faculty are too busy or too important to do that, then they should refuse to allow their pay to be contaminated by any tuition dollars paid by our undergrads. (Continued…)
let me shirk
posted 11/21/08 @ 8:11 AM EST
But we can't pretend to be more like Ohio State if we don't have graduate programs.
Who do MY teaching if we don't have grad assistants?
How can I get away with teaching only 1 undergraduate class a semester if we don't have graduate students?
Who will program my clicker?
Who will do my Powerpont slides?
And most important of all, how can I play the Hodge-Herbst Miami game--you know, where we pretend to care about undergraduate education (snicker, snicker)--if I have to take extra time and mess with undergraduates?
You would think that undergraduates foot most of the bills around here. (Continued…)
Miami Jack
posted 11/21/08 @ 8:37 AM EST
To "let me shirk": There are seminars available on campus to teach faculty how to program their own auditorium-classroom clickers and how to prepare their own powerpoint slides, and they're conducted by scores of dedicated Miami personnel. (Continued…)
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