Resolution on Increasing Graduate Student Support

Whereas the New Brunswick Faculty Council has already resolved to support the development of a capital campaign to generate funds for fellowships to support graduate students, to endorse the development of health insurance benefits for fellows comparable to those for TA and Gas, and to have student fees for fellows paid by the university; and

Whereas the quality and prestige of the university, and therefore the ability of the university to recruit and retain excellent faculty members and provide outstanding education to its students, depend in considerable measure on its success in sustaining its ability to recruit and retain graduate students of the highest caliber; and

Whereas our ability to sustain our recent successes is in serious jeopardy in the absence of an infusion of additional funds;

Therefore be it resolved that the Faculty Council endorses in principle the attached draft plan proposed by the Graduate School-New Brunswick to create, over the next several years, more teaching assistantships and fellowships, to keep salaries and stipends competitive, to provide health benefits, fee remissions and other supplementary forms of graduate student support, and to provide incentives to the faculty to support students on external research grants and contracts.