Today marks deadline for grad fellowship

With the deadline to apply for a new source of graduate-student summer funding fast approaching, organizers say they're seeing plenty of interest.

But some eligible students are still in the dark about the opportunity.

The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and the Office of the Provost announced in March the creation of the GAPSA-Provost's Award for Interdisciplinary Innovation. The deadline to apply is today.

Any graduate student wishing to pursue projects that incorporate different disciplines is eligible for one of this summer's six awards, which were created as part of University-wide efforts to increase focus on interdisciplinary studies.

Each award includes a $6,000 fellowship.

GAPSA Chairwoman Lela Jacobsohn said that GAPSA and the Provost's Office have received "quite a lot of inquiries" about the application for the award, saying that she expects "everything will come in in the last few days."

Jacobsohn declined to disclose the number of applicants thus far because GAPSA will likely receive applications over the weekend.

Of those applications she has seen so far, Jacobsohn said she is "very pleased with the level of student interest as in sheer quantity and particularly in the range of program types."

But despite heavy advertising for the fellowship -- which has included Web sites, e-mails to listservs and graduate dean and faculty recruitment -- some students and faculty still don't know about the new award.

Economics professor Nicola Persico said he was unaware of the award and so did not spread the word to his students.

"I do not recall knowing about this," Persico said. "But usually students know more about this than faculty because it is they who get the money."

Kenneth Burdett, the director of graduate studies for the Economics department, said he only learned of the award in the past week.

"I have not encouraged any students thus far to apply," Burdett said, adding that he expects more Economics students to apply for the fellowship in future years.

Some students are also in the dark about the award.

Seth Blinder, a second-year Law student, said that some of his friends applied for the award but added that he did not feel that the fellowship was sufficiently advertised by those in charge.

"I have known about it from the beginning because my roommate is on GAPSA," Blinder said. "But other than that, I have not heard about it."

Jacobsohn said that universal knowledge of the fellowship was never the aim, adding that those students to whom the fellowship is most relevant do know about it.

"The goal was not necessarily to have every single student or faculty member know about it," Jacobsohn said. "It's about hitting the group of people that wanted to pursue interdisciplinary projects ... and I feel pretty good that we got most of those people."

The winners of the award will be notified by May 12, and their projects will begin in June and end in August with a final presentation of their work.

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