1. Faculty Council Presentation: October 25, 2018
Task Force on Graduate Student Funding Preliminary Findings and Recommendations
Faculty Council Presentation: October 25, 2018

2. Task Force Charge
Examine the state of graduate student funding at UNC Charlotte and make recommendations surrounding two critical aspects of graduate student support:
Secure sustainable and scalable funding for graduate students.
Make the most effective and efficient use of internal and extramural resources.

3. Task Force Members Co-Chairs Members
Rick Tankersley, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
  Johnna Watson, Graduate School
Members
Jack Cathey, Belk College of Business
Claudia Flowers, College of Education
Benjamin Gordan, Student Representative, Biological Sciences
Jose Gamez, College of Arts + Architecture
Christine Haynes, Graduate Council Chair
Richard Leeman, Faculty Council Chair
Heather Lipford, College of Computing and Informatics
Annette Parks, Graduate School
Heather Smith, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Tony Schmitz, College of Engineering
Michael Thompson, College of Health and Human Services

4. Task Force Activities Campus Forums
Solicited input from students, faculty and staff
Solicited feedback on draft recommendations
Data Collection and Analysis
Assessed the nature and scope of graduate student funding
Bi-Weekly Meetings
Reviewed and discussed standard and best practices
Developed set of overarching goals and guiding principles
Assembled key findings and associated evidence
Developed draft recommendations

5. Key Findings #1 GA Stipends
Management of institutional Graduate Assistantships is decentralized, resulting in a diversity of funding models and policies governing eligibility, duration of support, stipend levels, and workload.
Many graduate assistantship stipends are funded with institutional dollars instead of extramural funds; the relative contribution of extramural funds to graduate student support has declined in recent years.
The number of graduate students supported on extramural grants and contracts has not increased proportionally with increases in award funding.

6. Key Findings #1: Cont GA Stipends
Many graduate assistantship stipends are far below national averages, and stipends for many students are below the poverty line; nearly all programs fail to provide stipends that are above a living wage.
Lack of competitive stipends makes it difficult for programs to attract and retain exemplary students.

7. GAs by Source
Graduate Assistantship Stipend Sources. Bars show dollars spent from Grants & Contracts sources (left) or Institutional General funds (right). Circles show numbers of unduplicated GA positions supported by those dollars, above each bar.

8. CLAS Graduate Student Stipends 2018 Living Wage (Charlotte)
$18,168 (9-months)
2018 Poverty Line
$9,045 (9-months)

9. Annual Survey of Graduate Assistant Stipends Oklahoma State University
Benchmarking Stipends
Annual Survey of Graduate Assistant Stipends Oklahoma State University

10. Ranking of Average Stipends All Disciplines, All Ranks
$21,735 (survey median)
$16,872 (average doctoral stipend, full-time)
$10,070 (average master’s stipend, full-time)

11. Key Findings #2 Tuition and Fee Support
Enrollment growth and the addition of new graduate programs has strained the resources available to support students in existing programs, particularly at the master’s level.
GASP funds have not increased proportionally with increases in graduate tuition and enrollment.
The proportion of GASP funds awarded to non-resident students has increased substantially.
Funding packages have not kept up with increases in the estimated cost of attendance, especially fees, health insurance, and tuition increments.

12. Students Supported with GASP

13. Distribution of GASP Support

14. Reliance on Federal Aid
Academic Year
AID YEAR
STUDENT LEVEL
NUMBER OF GRADUATE STUDENTS ENROLLED OR WITHDRAWN
NUMBER OF GRADUATE STUDENTS WITH FEDERAL LOANS
PERCENT OF GRADUATE STUDENTS WITH FEDERAL LOANS
TOTAL FEDERAL LOAN AMOUNT
AVERAGE FEDERAL LOAN AMOUNT GR
6,827*
2,006***
29.38%
$30,026,963
$14,969
4,912**
1,841***
37.48%
$27,501,349
$14,938
* Unique (all) graduate students who enrolled in the fall or spring or both.
** Graduate students enrolled in the fall or spring or both; only includes U.S. citizens.
*** Average debt amounts also include debt graduate students had prior to graduate school enrollment.

15. Reliance on Federal Aid
All Graduate Students who Graduated in :
AID YEAR
STUDENT LEVEL
DEGREE TYPE
AVERAGE LOAN DEBT AMOUNT GR
ALL GRADUATE DEGREES
$53,184
CERTIFICATE
$56,868
DOCTORATE
$80,147
MASTERS
$49,599
All Graduate Students (U.S. Citizens) who Graduated in :
AID YEAR
STUDENT LEVEL
DEGREE TYPE
AVERAGE FEDERAL LOAN DEBT AMOUNT GR
ALL GRADUATE DEGREES
$54,076
CERTIFICATE
$59,226
DOCTORATE
$79,328
MASTERS
$50,085

16. Key Recommendations

17. Recommendation #1 Build a Sustainable Graduate Assistantship Model:
Stipends for GA positions should be managed by the Colleges.
Programs should manage GAs as “positions” that are tied to specific instructional or research needs.
New full-time GA positions must include stipend, resident tuition, fees and health insurance.
Establish a GA workload policy
Establish a GA baseline compensation of $18K per academic year, 20 hours per week
Annually benchmark GA stipends against national and peer data for baseline and competitive wages.

18. Recommendation #2 Provide a Scalable Tuition Model:
Tuition and fee support should be managed by the Graduate School.
Only full-time GAs should be eligible to receive tuition support.
Resident tuition and fee support should be coupled to all full-time GA positions for doctoral AND master’s students.
Non-resident tuition differential support (NRTD) should be provided for all full-time grant funded GAs (if needed).
Non-resident tuition differential support (NRTD) support for institutional GAs should be distributed to programs based on program performance.
The Graduate Assistant Support Program (GASP) should be continually funded to cover annual increases in tuition and fees.

19. Questions?