UNC Trustees Debate Ways to Lure Grad Students

By Ginny Hoyle, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.

Jan. 25–CHAPEL HILL — The UNC Board of Trustees attempted to tackle a seemingly circular question at its meeting Thursday morning: Is it better to offer more financial incentives for graduate students or increase faculty salary in graduate departments?

The board broached the subject of competitive stipends during a presentation on UNC’s graduate student support. The talks came a month after the trustees decided in-state graduate students will pay $400 more in 2008-09, while out-of-state grad students will pay $800 more.

UNC has under-enrolled graduate students during the last two to three years, said Bernadette Gray-Little, executive vice chancellor and provost, a statement which seemed to alarm many trustees.

There are about 8,200 graduate students and roughly 2,300 professional students currently enrolled at UNC.

One trustee suggested in-depth surveys of the individual graduate school deans and another called for some other means of collective data to find out why potential students select other institutions.

“Whether students get competitive packages, doesn’t [address the] comprehensive issue of whether we’re losing students,” said Trustee Nelson Schwab.

Linda Dykstra, dean of the graduate school, said a past survey showed UNC’s financial package “was good enough” to retain prospective graduate students.

“We felt comfortable with what we could provide financially, but program quality and top educators are a draw,” Dykstra said.

Holden Thorp, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, made a statement that prompted fierce nodding from a few members:

“At the really good schools, students will go for less.”

At least one trustee openly disagreed with last month’s decision to raise graduate school tuition.

“We’ve got $4.6 million of graduate tuition out of graduate school into faculty salary,” said Trustee Rusty Carter. “… I just think it is very bad policy to move these funds out. I don’t agree with it and it’s as simple as that. I was opposed to it last month I [am] opposed to it this month.”

Roger Perry, chair of the trustees, said he would like to see graduate school become a priority for the board.

“A huge part of that $2.38 billion is to make us more competitive,” said Perry, referring to the total raised through UNC’s Carolina First Campaign. “I worry that we’re trying to figure out the wind speed with a thermometer. Comparing us to peers [by] our financial level is like fools’ gold — we should be doing in-house studies to figure out how we’re competing department by department.”

Trustee John Ellison said that the financial package for graduate students is “not the whole deal.”

“If you don’t take care of faculty salary, you’re going to lose students to faculty with better programs,” Ellison said. “The fact of the matter is our undergraduate population is going to grow. If we don’t have graduate support … I think the quality of this university will go down.”

The two-hour discussion ran over the allotted time, forcing subsequent presenters to talk quickly and paraphrase in order to get the board back on schedule.

The chancellor offered his summary of Thursday’s debate during his presentation on Legislative priorities, which included a request for research on graduate student recruitment and retention.

“It’s a reinforcing positive cycle,” James Moeser said. “Neither one is enough by itself, we have to do both.”

—–

To see more of The Herald-Sun, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald-sun.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.