Recommendation #5:
Develop new and augment existing revenue streams to support significant growth of graduate programs and build strong interdisciplinary programs.
Preamble. The GEC discussed the issue of faculty incentives to further engage in graduate education at length. At the heart of these discussions was a recognition that our graduate programs need to grow, but that resources are limited. This recommendation asks the Graduate School to consider novel programs that would stimulate growth and catalyze improvements in the quality of our graduate programs. These two new policies respond both to this charge by the GEC and by the two most-cited “barriers” to graduate education by our faculty, chairs, and deans. They provide new, innovative incentives that return dollars to the department chair to further build graduate programs and their quality.
They are impressive changes in our central policies and should drive significant growth and change. They are not, however, cheap when factored at the institutional level. For this reason, they are initiated as three-year pilot project. During, and after, this pilot period, the effectiveness of these programs in achieving the institutional goals of increasing our graduate enrollment and enhancing the quality of our programs as benchmarked against an increasing number of Ph.D. graduates, will be assessed. The Graduate School strongly desires to continue these pilot programs, but whether we’ll be able to do that depends on each unit taking the goals of these programs seriously. Full details of these new policies are found at:
Tuition Waiver Policy
Beginning Fall 2007, all Pullman campus employed graduate students appointed on state funds (fund 001) and F&A funds (fund 148-02) will automatically receive, for one academic year, a tuition waiver (out-of-state and in-state). In subsequent years, all graduate students supported by state funds (fund 001) and F&A funds (fund 148-02) will automatically receive an in-state tuition waiver. This waiver will be assigned when the personnel action form is processed through the Graduate School. This new process will eliminate the waiver numbers that have been preassigned to college deans in the past.
Waivers are only available for fall and spring semesters. The Graduate School does not have waivers available for summer session. During the academic year, students will still be responsible for paying fees as per the current policy.
The purpose of this policy is to increase funding for graduate students to facilitate net increases in graduate student enrollment across the institution. This is a three year pilot project and will be continued only if net increases in graduate student enrollment occur on the Pullman campus. The Graduate School will monitor the data regarding enrollment, waivers, and QTRs, using a three year baseline of fall and spring semesters from 2003-2006. Enrollment will be determined using standard 10th day institutional data. We will expect an increase in waiver usage to correspond with an increase in enrollment. Should any department abuse this new process of waivers, they will be assigned an allocation and return to a number system.
Tuition “Buy Down” Policy
Beginning Fall 2007 the Graduate School will offer $3,500 in temporary funding to departments and research centers on the Pullman campus for each 0.50 FTE research, project, or graduate veterinary assistant (RA, PA, GVA) funded on extramural funds (funds 145-01, 145-02, 148-01, 522-01, 570, 840, and 846) in excess of the department’s historical three year average baseline . In the first week of August the Graduate School will be provide to departments baseline data using Fall 2004-Spring 2007 payroll data (summer payroll data is not included). Departments will be expected to use this data in their fall graduate assistant funding decisions.
At the end of Fall Semester 2007, payroll data for the entire semester will be used to determine which departments extramurally funded RA/PA/GVA FTE above their average three year baseline. For each 0.50 extramurally funded FTE above the three year average the Graduate School will return $3,500 to the Department Chair to further support graduate education in the unit or split between appropriate units as modeled in the distribution models located on the graduate school home page http://www.gradsch.wsu.edu
The funds may be used for a number of purposes that support graduate program quality and student recruitment and retention. In the interest of providing “Buy Down” funds to departments in a timely manner decisions will be based on fall payroll data and transferred to eligible departments in April by the Budget Office. However, the graduate school will continue to monitor payroll data throughout the spring semester each year to insure these increases are continuous.
The purpose of this policy is to increase funding for graduate students in order to facilitate net increases in graduate student enrollment across the institution. This is a three year pilot project and will be continued only if net increases in graduate student enrollment occur on the Pullman campus. We reserve the right to end this program early.