Graduate students in Penn's nine Ph.D.-granting schools will enjoy longer childbirth leaves and increased faculty support under two policies recently revised by the Graduate Council of the Faculties.
The Graduate and Professional Student Association is "very excited," chairman Andrew Rennekamp said. GAPSA has long supported the changes, and faculty and students' collaboration helped make them a reality.
The new Childbirth Leave Policy extends the time-off period -- during which stipend support is continued - from six to eight weeks. It also allows time off for fathers and in cases of adoption.
Changes to the Rules Governing all Ph.D. programs establish accountability measures to improve student supervision.
Under the new Rules, students are appointed to Dissertation Committees that must meet at least once a year and provide feedback within 30 days. Faculty must also review exams within 30 days.
Students are now required to advance to Degree Candidacy - the point at which they stop coursework and focus on dissertations - within five years of matriculation and must complete their Ph.D. in no more than ten years.
Most students and faculty already operate well under these time limits, Rennekamp said. The regulations will standardize norms and reign in rare but disruptive "stragglers."
Time-to-degree has been a hot topic among graduate students, especially since Penn standardized tuition rates in April, which resulted in higher tuition for students in upper years of some School of Arts and Sciences programs.
Administrators said a goal of standardization was encouraging graduation in reasonable time frames. But some students said slow and unresponsive faculty were holding them back.
GAPSA supported the tuition changes but called for measures to ensure that faculty were adequately supervising student progress.
Former GAPSA and SASgov representative Lucas Champollion said the new policies are a positive addition to the standardization. "The rules ensure that students actually have the means to graduate within the time required," he wrote in an e-mail.
Associate Provost for Education Andy Binns said professors appreciate the clarity and flexibility of the policies. "The time frame makes it quite clear what has to get done," he said.
Rennekamp attributed the new childbirth policy's success to vocal faculty and the influence of the National Institutes of Health, which now allows funded students eight weeks off.
The change puts Penn at the "forefront of family-friendly policy," he said. Dartmouth and Princeton universities offer 12 weeks off. Other Ivy League programs offer similar lengths or shorter amounts of time than Penn does.
Champollion said Penn could further support graduate students with dependents with lower day-care costs and family housing in eastward expansion plans.
Still, he added, he is happy to see GAPSA's work come to fruition. "It's good to see that their hard work has led to tangible results for the student body," he wrote.
