GRADUATE STUDENTS
GOALS
GOAL 1: R ecruit and retain a diverse graduate student body. GOAL 2: Provide an equitable and inclusive environment for graduate students.
STRATEGIES GOAL 1: Recruit and retain a diverse graduate student body STRATEGY A: PROVIDE EQUITABLE FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO EXPAND PhD FELLOWSHIPS TO SUPPORT ONE PROGRAM PARTICIPANT PER YEAR PER DEPARTMENT We strongly encourage implementation of this program for FY22 to accommodate students entering the doctoral cohort for Fall of 2021. In terms of resources for realizing this goal, consider that, at present, the funding allocated to the units in Dietrich College for graduate student (PhD) support includes three Dietrich Presidential Fellowships. This dollar amount per unit comes to $18,500 annually, and the accounting across the departments and the college is complicated. • We propose that these existing Dietrich College fellowships be repurposed so that instead of each unit receiving this small sum annually, the college use them to bootstrap a college- wide set of fellowships to improve diversity and equity for PhDs • Moreover, in terms of current funding for PhDs, across all units, there is sufficient leeway to significantly add to the expanding the diversity of the fellowship pool, creating two to three more fellowships by recapturing about $10,000 per unit. With this commitment to supporting the fellowship on the annual basis, we then request that the provost commit to a $100,000 annual contribution to the fellowship pool (the $100,000 being about equivalent to what the dean through the Presidential fellowships and the departments through the recaptured funds each contribute). This approach would result in a total annual pool of eight fellowships — one per unit in the college. We aspire to each department having at least one suitable candidate each year. Departments could decide if they want fellowship periods to be one year or include additional years and could implement accordingly. Critically, the program should stipulate that if a department does not have a suitable candidate in their program that demonstrates an interest in achieving the departments diversity-related goals in a given year, they lose the fellowship for that year and it goes to a candidate in a different program.” One note: although departments are contributing $10,000 plus their (recent) portion of the Dietrich College Presidential pool, each department actually comes out ahead in terms of total support flowing into each program. However, it is mandatory for them to be successful in URM recruitment for this to happen.
DIETRICH COLLEGE DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION PLAN
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