GSAS Boosts Aid Budget By $5.7M Per Year

About $5.7 million will be added to the annual financial aid budget of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles announced at Tuesday's Faculty meeting.

The funds, which will come from interest off of $125 million of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) endowment, will allow GSAS to increase the duration of student funding.

Previously, GSAS students received two-year aid packages from their respective departments. Under the new system, students may obtain aid packages for up to five years.

New funding will be phased in over the next three years.

"The changes will, I'm pleased to say, make our offers to graduate students more attractive and more competitive," Knowles wrote in an e-mail message.

The move comes at a time when Harvard's endowment has skyrocketed to nearly $13 billion. Only one year remains in the University's successful $2.1 billion Capital Campaign.

Graduate Student Council President Carlos Lopez said under the current system, graduate students are expected to find teaching jobs when their funding expires. These jobs are not always available, leaving a "significant number" of graduate students in a bind.

"As it is, if I didn't have a teaching job, I'd be out of luck. I'd have to find another job, or--no one's favorite - get a student loan," Lopez said. "You need two sections of teaching to survive in a semester, or you're going to starve."

The changes in GSAS financial aid have been designed to implement the recommendations of the Faculty Committee on Graduate Student Financial Support, which issued a report last spring.

The "Ellison Report," named for Associate DeanPeter Ellison, who chaired the committee, calledfor increased financial support for graduatestudents.

"The health and vitality of Harvard's Facultyof Arts and Sciences depend on attracting andsustaining the very best professors and the verybest students," the report said.

""Sustaining the quality of our graduatestudent body...requires a level of financialsupport necessary for competitive offers to thebest prospective students each year," it said.

Knowles said he had known of the need forincreased support of graduate students for sometime.

"The matter was brought into much clearer focusduring the Faculty discussions of graduate studentsupport," Knowles wrote in an e-mail message.

Knowles added that both this decision and theSeptember increase in undergraduate financial aidwere "part of the overall consideration ofresource allocation in the FAS."

The endowment interest money will be added inthree portions: $0.7 million this year, $2 millionin 1999-2000 and $3 million in 2000-2001.

"The 'phasing in' will allow considerableeasing in the pressures on the Graduate Schoolthis year, and even more, next," Knowles wrote.

Almost all of this year's portion of the moneywill go to Social Sciences and Humanitiesdepartments, GSAS Dean Cristoph Wolff wrote in ane-mail message.

The FAS endowment was about $5.5 billion as ofJune

The "Ellison Report," named for Associate DeanPeter Ellison, who chaired the committee, calledfor increased financial support for graduatestudents.

"The health and vitality of Harvard's Facultyof Arts and Sciences depend on attracting andsustaining the very best professors and the verybest students," the report said.

""Sustaining the quality of our graduatestudent body...requires a level of financialsupport necessary for competitive offers to thebest prospective students each year," it said.

Knowles said he had known of the need forincreased support of graduate students for sometime.

"The matter was brought into much clearer focusduring the Faculty discussions of graduate studentsupport," Knowles wrote in an e-mail message.

Knowles added that both this decision and theSeptember increase in undergraduate financial aidwere "part of the overall consideration ofresource allocation in the FAS."

The endowment interest money will be added inthree portions: $0.7 million this year, $2 millionin 1999-2000 and $3 million in 2000-2001.

"The 'phasing in' will allow considerableeasing in the pressures on the Graduate Schoolthis year, and even more, next," Knowles wrote.

Almost all of this year's portion of the moneywill go to Social Sciences and Humanitiesdepartments, GSAS Dean Cristoph Wolff wrote in ane-mail message.

The FAS endowment was about $5.5 billion as ofJune