University at Albany Targets Doctoral Stipends
By Greta Petry
The University at Albany has taken steps in recent years to improve stipends for doctoral students in order to stay competitive with major public research universities across the nation.

At a time when the gap continues to widen nationwide between stipends offered by private universities with large endowments and those supported by public universities, UAlbany continues to make progress.

“I think it is important to know that we understand and are sympathetic, and recognize there is an issue regarding graduate student support,” said Associate Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Jeryl L. Mumpower. “We are doing everything we can to correct this. As dean of Graduate Studies for the past two years, I have dedicated a great deal of my time to figuring out how to improve the financial situation for our graduate students.”

Targeted funds for specific programs have achieved measurable results in terms of recruiting and retaining quality doctoral students.

Earlier this semester, Provost Carlos E. Santiago announced in a memo to deans and department chairs: “The College Scholars program - designed to create highly competitive graduate assistant stipends for doctoral students - will be continued for the upcoming 2002-2003 academic year.”

A Presidential Fellows program, in place for almost 12 years, has long provided competitive stipends for about two dozen of the best doctoral students at UAlbany. The College Scholars program was created about seven years ago to reach more students, particularly in nationally ranked doctoral programs. “When it reaches maturation, the College Scholars program will augment the base stipends of approximately 200 doctoral students,” the University reported to SUNY System Administration in September 2000.

Santiago noted in his memo that “we currently invest $400,000 in annual funding - more than twice what was available two years ago. Despite the budgetary difficulties within which the University finds itself, we intend to maintain our investment in the College Scholars program.”

Nationwide, funding available for graduate student assistantships and fellowships varies from student to student and across the disciplines. For example, a Sept. 28, 2001 Chronicle of Higher Education article noted that the average stipend for a teaching assistant in biology ranged from $15,985 at Cornell to $23,000 at MIT. In economics, a teaching assistant could make $18,000 at NYU and $8,400 at the State University of New York at Buffalo, while in English, a teaching assistant at Princeton earned $17,500 and $8,400 at UB. Typically, disciplines with a large amount of external research grant funding, like biology or biomedical science, can offer higher stipends, accounting for the disparity between the sciences and the humanities.

At UAlbany, Mumpower said, “as in all other research universities, the value of graduate stipends varies substantially across departments and sometimes even within departments. The contractual minimum stipend for a full assistantship through state funding is $7,000, although there are very few stipends on campus that low. In some of the departments with high levels of external funding, it’s not uncommon to see total, calendar-year stipend levels at $17,000 or $18,000, or even higher. I wish we could find enough resources to provide stipends at that level for all our doctoral students in all our programs, but that’s simply not possible given our resources.”

Another factor is the cost of living. In a November 2, 2001 Letter to the Editor in the Chronicle, UAlbany sociology Ph.D. candidate Cuong N. Le wrote that the cost of living may be more important than the amount of financial support.

“In my first four years in the sociology department at the State University of New York at Albany, I was fortunately able to live (and remain virtually debt-free) on an $8,700 stipend for the academic year plus a tuition waiver. While that wasn’t a lot of money, you can’t beat the low cost of living in Albany.”

Le went on to say that support should be extended for a fifth or sixth year. “Four years is not enough, because just as students need financial support the most - i.e., when they need to concentrate on writing their dissertations - it ends...”

All told, UAlbany is investing $18 million this academic year in graduate student stipends, up almost $3 million from what it was five years ago. Of this amount, $6.3 million comes from SUNY System Administration (and of that, $162,000 a year for three years from Mission Review funds); $8.2 million is contributed by UAlbany in stipends, fellowships, and tuition scholarships; and nearly $3.5 million comes from external research grant funding, Mumpower said.

He also noted that SUNY System Administration has recognized, with its Mission Review funding, that SUNY doctoral stipends have been historically underfunded, and that this issue must be addressed in order for nationally ranked programs to stay that way.

In the College Scholars program itself, one component of this overall funding, efforts are made to target monies where they will show the greatest return in moving nationally ranked programs forward. Management of most of the program funds lies within the departments. The supplemental awards range from $1,000 to $3,000 over three years.

Although the majority of the College Scholars funds go directly to targeted departments, the Provost’s Office administers a central pool of funds that is used on request to help any department to attract specific exceptional students.

“Targeted programs are those for which data indicate that increments are most needed, that are highly ranked nationally, or that are pursuing new directions in which the competition for top-rate graduate students is especially keen,” Santiago’s announcement to deans and department chairs noted.

Administrators of programs that receive these supplemental funds say they strengthen a department’s ability to recruit doctoral students with higher GPAs and standardized test scores, and attract more students. They also occasion-ally entice top students from master’s degree programs to transfer into a doctoral program.

Jim Acker, interim dean of the School of Criminal Justice, noted: “Having exceptional graduate students is the lifeblood of our program. They are absolutely essential. Nobody would be satisfied in our school - and they shouldn’t be - if we did not have the best graduate students available. Top-flight students make classes intellectually stimulating; they are actively engaged in research and scholarship, in collaboration with faculty and frequently on their own; and they will soon be leading contributors to the discipline. There has been a recent explosion of Ph.D. programs in criminal justice, making competition for the most promising students even more intense. I would match our students against those of any other program in the country. Funds from the College Scholar Program have been a significant resource in helping attract the best students to our program.”

Robert Rosellini, chair of the Department of Psychology, said that because of Mission Review funds, his department was able to increase selectivity and yield [the percentage of accepted doctoral students who enroll] at a time when applications to graduate psychology programs were decreasing nationwide.

“For example, in 1999 and 2000, we accepted 24 percent of applicants, and our enrollment yield was 32 percent. This year, we accepted only 20 percent of applicants, and our yield was 53 percent. We believe this to be an impressive accomplishment by our department that would not have been possible without the more competitive stipends that we were able to offer partly based on the Mission Review funds. Most importantly, the Mission Review funds were critical in allowing us to recruit students who fit well within our doctoral program,” Rosellini noted.

So critical is this issue of graduate student stipends that the provost last June established an Advisory Task Force on Graduate Assistant Stipends, Tuition Scholarships and Targeted Awards, and named the associate provost as chair.

Mumpower concluded, “We want students to know that the level of stipend support for graduate students continues to be an issue, and we continue to do all we can to improve things.”

Editor’s Note: The College Scholars Program in this story is not to be confused with a program by a similar name that provides scholarship support for undergraduates.

Commencement Weekend 2002
By Christy DeLaMater
Planning is already well underway for Commencement Weekend 2002. The majority of this year’s ceremonies and activities are scheduled for Saturday, May 18, and Sunday, May 19, and all will be held on the UAlbany campus.

In addition to the graduate ceremony (Saturday, 10 a.m. at the RACC) and undergraduate ceremony (Sunday, 10 a.m., new library lawn), all schools and departments will once again hold individual recognition ceremonies. The weekend’s events also include a picnic for all graduates and their families on Saturday, as well as Torch Night and a gala fireworks display.

“Last year was the first year we implemented this format for Commencement Weekend, and I am delighted to report that it was a tremendous success,” said Linda Wheeler, Commencement coordi-nator. “Graduates, families, and guests reported that they enjoyed the weekend’s activities immensely. Based on this feedback, we’re moving forward with a similar format, while also adding new features that will benefit the graduates and their families.”

Additional information regarding Commencement Weekend 2002 will follow in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to UAlbany Update, Today@UA e-mail, www.albany.edu/commencement, and your mailbox. We’ll be asking all faculty and staff for input, help, and expertise.

First Public Interest Career Fair Draws 400 Job Seekers
By Dan Kinne
The first Public Interest Career Fair was held March 6 in the Campus Center Ballroom at the University at Albany. The event drew more than 400 students from around the Capital Region.

“Living in the world that is becoming so interconnected and interdependent, we must all identify and nurture new coalitions so we can proceed through this new century. The University at Albany is proud to host the first annual Public Interest Career Fair in which new partnerships are being formed with not-profit, business and governmental organizations from the state of New York and beyond,” said James P. Doellefeld, vice president for Student Affairs.

The fair was a cooperative effort by UAlbany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Action Without Borders, the Sustainable Careers Institute, and the Council of Community Services of New York State. These organizations set forth ideals for eager job seekers whose values have led them to search out meaningful careers that benefit their communities and the surrounding environment. Employers from non-profit industries, ranging from the AIDS Council of Northeastern New York to Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood, set up booths at the fair. The fee was $50 per booth, compared with career fairs that charge more than $100 per booth.

Workshops offered opportunities in networking for job seekers and student groups alike.

Shirley M. Downey, director of UAlbany’s Career Development Center, said: “We are very excited about bringing a Public Interest Career Fair to the UAlbany campus. Many of our students are interested in working for organizations that are committed to creating stronger communities, saving the environment, and making the world a better place to live. This event is a perfect fit with the University’s strategic mission, and a real support in serving the broad spectrum of students who come to us.”

The fair attracted students from nearby colleges around the region, as well as UAlbany. While some were more interested in earning a paycheck, others came out of the conviction that giving back to the community was an important part of a career goal.

“I came to the fair looking to find a beneficial non-profit company to work for in order to show that I do care for the community as a whole, and I am certainly willing to strive at making others’ lives better in my environment,” said UAlbany junior Mike Johnson.

Jenny O’Brien, a UAlbany student, an advocate for non-profit organizations, works for NYPIRG, a political action non-profit group. “I am not into jobs within big business, and I am not in it for the money,” O’Brien said.

Other students, such as RPI’s Sabie Pettengill, said a solid career at a large corporation appeals to them. “I have worked at big corporations such as IBM, and I feel like it doesn’t matter about personal profit you get. However, in some instances, I wouldn’t mind working for a non-profit company to help and give back to my community,” Pettengill said.

The fair itself came from an idea Melissa Everett had almost nine years ago. Everett, executive director of the Sustainable Careers Institute, based in Kingston, connects workers with jobs in such fields as working with the disabled and the Peace Corps. She is the author of Making a Living While Making a Difference.

Everett said: “I secured startup funding last year to figure out how to infuse more of this kind of ethic into the services of university and college career development centers, in response to what I see as a slow groundswell that has been brought into focus by 9/11. Through friends and colleagues on the faculties, I developed relationships with the heads of the career development centers at UAlbany and RPI, and got them interested in providing sites for this year’s experimentation. I believe that the interrelated concerns of security, environment, economic globalization, and community well being are dancing around in a lot of people’s minds and providing spark for questioning about how to do something of value in our lives.”

Support for the fair was provided by UAlbany and RPI.

The Public Interest Career Fair was a success; students came away from this event looking to go out and serve their communities.

Future of Hispanic Education Forum
ByCarol Olechowski
Sarita E. Brown, president and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund Institute and former executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, will be the keynote speaker at A Forum on the Future of Hispanic Education in New York State. The program will be held Wednesday, March 20, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the New York State Education Department Chancellor’s Hall, located at 89 Washington Avenue in Albany.

In convening the forum, planners are seeking to focus the attention of national, state, and local educators and leaders on the condition of Hispanics in education, from the pre-K level to college. The teachers; principals; program staff; school board members; college and university faculty, staff, and students; members of community and faith-based organizations; business and industry representatives; and state and local government officials in attendance will also develop creative strategies to encourage Hispanic academic achievement.

University at Albany Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Carlos Santiago will introduce Brown. Following the keynote, a panel will present “Overview of Educational Condition of Hispanics in New York State.” Panel members are Margarita Benitez, director of Institutional Development and Undergraduate Education Services for the U.S. Department of Education; Pedro Pedraza of Hunter College’s Center for Puerto Rican Studies; Maritza Vega of the NYSED Office of Higher Education’s Companeros Education Collaborative; and Antonia Jiménez, founding member of the Massachusetts Education Initiative for Latino Students.

Lunch will be provided. The afternoon has been organized into facilitated networking sessions and reports from those sessions. A 45-minute period devoted to the discussion of recommendations is also planned.

There is no registration charge; however, pre-registration, which will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, is required by March 15. Information about the forum and a printable pre-registration form are available online at http://www. albany. edu/lacs/FutureofEducation.htm. The form may be faxed to Librada Pimentel-Brown, c/o Alianza Latina, at (518) 442-4790, or mailed to her at the University at Albany, 1400 Washington Avenue, SS 250, Albany 12222.

The forum is sponsored by UAlbany, its Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the Center for Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies (CELAC); SUNY System Administration and its Office of Diversity and Affirmative Action; Hunter College Center for Puerto Rican Studies; and NYSED.

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