Minutes
COAH Graduate Studies Subcommittee
8:30am, October 22, 2014
COAH Dean’s Conference Room
In attendance: Kristy Gamble, Elizabeth Kramer, Robert Lane, Joshua Masters, Kevin Shunn, Nadejda
Popov Williams, Jeffrey Zamostny. Not in attendance: Randy Hendricks.
This was the committee’s second meeting of AY2014-15.
1. The minutes of our September 24 meeting were approved.
2. Kristy reported on the current process by which graduate program applications are processed. All
applications for graduate admission are now handled by Toby Zigler (Director of Graduate and
International Admissions); she has requested information from him about how the process now works but
as of yet has not received anything. (Kristy now handles only degree evaluations and end-of-year letters,
not applications to COAH’s graduate programs.)
3. We had a lengthy discussion of the emphasis that COAH should be placing on its graduate programs
relative to its undergraduate programs and its service to the Core. The following points (among others)
were made:
Nadejda pointed out that most graduate students pay no tuition (they receive tuition waivers and/or
GRAs), and she recalled a presentation in which Jon Anderson suggested that this fact threatens the
financial viability of the institution. At many other universities, tuition waivers are funded by the state or
various outside sources, but that’s not the case here. Tuition waivers for Public History students are
subsidized by an outside source, but the subsidy covers only their stipends, not their tuition waivers.
The stipends for our college’s GRAs are paid by COAH, but there is no money received or exchanged to
cover the cost of the tuition waivers. Stipends for GRAs are $3000 per semester. Stipends for GTAs are
the same as we pay part-time instructors per course: $2500 per semester.
Kevin mentioned that tuition waivers are an important recruiting device and that managing them well is
crucial.
We discussed the work requirements for GRAs in English, History and Music and the viability of
requiring them to teach (there is a USG policy that requires an instructor to have earned 18 graduate credit
hours in order to teach, so that would rule out first-year grad students). Josh mentioned that all GRAs in
English receive tuition waivers. English recently received $5K in QEP funds to pay for two GRAs to
work 13 hours per week in the Writing Center.
Elizabeth reported that, according to a USG administrator who spoke at a recent PAC meeting, there is
still support at the state-level for new graduate programs. She also reported that, according to one of the
candidates for the position of provost who visited campus last year, donors especially like to give money
to help support graduate programs.
Kevin pointed out that in order to discuss the relative importance of graduate programs within COAH, we
need to understand what the USG means by “comprehensive” in their classification of some schools,
including UWG, as comprehensive universities.
Elizabeth suggested that it is important that we be able to describe our graduate programs in a way that
makes it clear how they are integrally connected to our undergraduate programs and that this committee
should consider this issue. Kevin indicated that having graduate students around elevates the work of
undergraduates. Josh mentioned that in English, grad students organize an annual undergraduate student
conference and staff the Writing Center.
Nadejda asked whether the USG has a policy covering the funding of graduate tuition waivers. Kevin
remembered President Sethna mentioning that there are a limited number of tuition waivers available
within the entire USG.
Kevin mentioned that we need to be able to state the financial value of the work that our GRAs perform
and compare that to what they are costing us in stipends and tuition waivers.
We reached the following conclusions and made the following plans:
Before the committee recommends a specific position on the issue of the relative importance of COAH’s
graduate programs, we need to know (a) the dollar amount of the tuition waivers awarded to grad students
each year and (b) what work, if any, is currently required of GRAs and the approximate financial value of
that work. Elizabeth, Josh, and Nadejda will gather this information for their respective departments and
send to Bob to compile. Bob will then email this information to the whole group, along with a draft of
these minutes.
Our preliminary recommendation to Randy is that this sort of information be centrally gathered
on a regular basis. Ideally, COAH would be able to compare these figures to corresponding
information from the other colleges and the library.
We will need to have another meeting to discuss the issue of the relative importance of graduate programs
before presenting any definitive recommendations to Randy. We will also need to find out what, if any,
USG policies there are governing the funding or distribution of tuition waivers for graduate students.
The committee is strongly in favor of better integrating what happens in our graduate and undergraduate
programs and that given the disciplines that reside in COAH (especially those that involve performace),
we are in a unique position to do so.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:25am.
ADDENDUM #1
Myrna Gantner’s answers to questions about graduate tuition stipends (11/10/2014)
1. Are you aware of any restrictions, stemming from the USG or from UWG itself, on the number
of tuition waivers that we can give to grad students in a given year?
There are limits on the number of OUT OF STATE TUITION WAIVERS for out-of-state
graduate students (not graduate assistantships), but NOT on the number of in-state tuition
waivers for students who are awarded GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIPS (GAs, GRAs, GTAs).
There are two factors to consider when thinking about financial support for graduate
assistantships.
First, consider the waiver itself. Students who are awarded graduate assistantships do not pay
tuition, so the institution does not receive tuition revenue from them. (We do get FTE revenue
for enrollments; I don't know how that will change when we move to performance based
funding).
One might think that the missing revenue is irrelevant, since no funds change hands. However,
the institution is obligated to pay faculty to teach these students and maintain the infrastructure to
support them. So not having the revenue is significant. On the other hand, these graduate
assistants provide a valuable service to the institution through their work—for a small stipend
paid by the hiring unit. In the best of circumstances, they (students) also get valuable experience
that will enhance their graduate education. These are good things.
Second, the hiring unit pays a stipend, which varies between $3,000 - $5,000 a semester, or up to
$8,000 a term for doctoral GTAs in psychology. To pay stipends, the hiring unit must have the
money in their budgets - that's the direct limiting factor.
2. Are COAH grad student tuition waivers subsidized by AA, the USG or anyone else? (We
all believe that they are not and that no money changes hands at all when grad tuition is
waived--but we just want to make sure that's the case before we continue our
conversation about this.)
You are correct that no money changes hands when the in-state graduate tuition waivers are
awarded. Students who are hired into a graduate assistantship (GA, GRA, GTA) simply do not
pay tuition (i.e., the "waiver") other than a required $25 fee, per BOR policy.
The Provost's office receives a report once a year that lists the total stipends paid by hiring units
to graduate assistants (GAs, GRAs, GTAs) and the total tuition waived. Both figures are over
$1.5 million, for more than $3 million yearly.
ADDENDUM #2
Responsibilities of Graduate Assistants / Costs of Tuition Waivers
MUSIC (from Elizabeth Kramer):
As for duties, as I understand them, there's generally a lot of administrative work for our GRAs, who
typically work for either the choral program or for the bands, things like attendance taking, music library
duties, correspondence, etc... There is sometimes work with technology (recordings, etc...) There is also
some supervision of some undergraduate groups within the ensembles and some leading of rehearsals (or
parts of them).
HISTORY (from Nadejda Williams):
History offered 22 tuition waivers this fall semester. Each student would otherwise have been paying
$1,836 per semester if they are in-state, or $7,110 for out-of-state. I believe that we only have one out-ofstate student right now on a waiver. So the total amount of waived tuition for this semester is: $45,666.
ENGLISH (from Josh Masters):
For our students, a full-time load for a student with a GRA is 6 credit hours, but occasionally a GRA will
take 9. A graduate credit hour costs $204, so 6 credit hours is $1224. We have 12 GRAs, so that's $14688
per semester in tuition waivers. Our graduate students also teach between four and six 1102 classes per
year, and they tutor in the writing center for 60 hours a week collectively (about 800 total hours per
semester).