Twelve current and former members of the University Board of Trustees have pledged $100,000 each toward the sponsorship of new endowment-based fellowships for graduate students in the humanities and social sciences.
The initiative follows University President Amy Gutmann's Friday morning inaugural address, which highlighted increased accessibility for undergraduate and graduate students as one of her top priorities. The establishment of the fellowships also comes in the wake of Gutmann's mid-September pledge to raise graduate student stipends by 11 percent for the upcoming academic year.
Noting that the recipients of the fellowships will receive an extra $4,000 per year in addition to the base stipend, Gutmann called the initiative a "great start for us in competing for the very best graduate students."
The fellowships will be awarded to 12 students -- handselected by School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston -- starting in the 2006 academic year.
Representatives from the graduate student constituencies on campus seemed pleased with the news, but noted that fellowships are a vital and expected part of graduate education.
"I think it's another indicator that this administration is interested in graduate education," Graduate Student Associations Council President Ann Tiao said. "While I think that these things are great, ... these are things that we should be doing to support graduate education."
Gutmann initially brought the issue to the trustees because she said she felt that, although Penn was "really in good shape in regard to graduate fellowships, [the University was] still not able to be at the very top when other places made offers."
Gutmann proposed the idea to Trustee George Weiss, who estimated that it would take six weeks to gain the support of his fellow trustees. However, Weiss secured the support of 11 other current and former trustees by the following day.
The financial assistance "will alleviate the need for those [selected] graduate students to work in the summer," Gutmann said.
The monetary aid will allow the students to continue their academic pursuits during the summer without having to worry about financial repercussions.
"We've long felt that Penn was at a disadvantage" for not giving fellowships that were comparable to its peers', Tiao said.
Jack Nagel, associate dean for graduate studies at SAS, said that the fellowships will boost Penn's competitiveness.
"We don't want to lose any student for financial reasons," Nagel said. "This helps us to compete on an equal footing."
Though the fellowships will only directly impact a small portion of SAS's over 2,000 graduate students, many expect that the effects will be widespread.
"It affects the quality of the faculty, the quality of your peers that come in and the ability of your department to compete," Tiao said, predicting that the fellowships will cause a "ripple effect."
Currently, the fellowships are limited to specific disciplines, because "we just don't have the funding to do it across the board," according to Gutmann. However, Gutmann said she sees the initial 12 as a jumping-off point.
"This is a base from which we want to build," she said.
Though the monetary aspect of the fellowships is impressive, many said that the symbolic implications of the gifts are more important.
"It's another gesture from Dr. Gutmann of her pledge to help out graduate education," Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Chairwoman Simi Wilhelm said.
Nagel said that the fellowships demonstrate the trustees' dedication to both Penn and Gutmann's leadership.
"I think it's a fantastic expression of commitment from the trustees to support a very important initiative of the president," he said.
