Community members showed up before the university senate meeting Monday in support of Miami University students nervous about potential cuts in the graduate program.
With cuts being made across the university due to the university's budget crunch, many graduate students have become concerned with the reallocation of graduate assistantships across departments, according to Trey Orndorff, president of the graduate student association (GSA). Orndorff said one hundred fifty community members showed up Monday in support of graduate students.
Bruce Cochrane, dean of the graduate school, and Provost Jeffrey Herbst, began evaluating programs in the graduate school almost a year ago.
"It's not something me and the provost took on lightly," Cochrane said.
According to Orndorff, an ad-hoc committee was then created to sort out the graduate assistant (GA) reallocation process.
Evaluations by this committee had the university looking at reallocating graduate assistants as well as eliminating several positions, according to Orndorff.
Although there have been no written statements stating GA positions will be cut, Orndorff said it has been brought up verbally in graduate council and budget meetings.
According to Orndorff, the GSA agreed that the most important issue is looking at how cutting graduate assistants will affect undergraduates.
"Graduate students might have to teach larger class sizes," Brown said. "Other faculty are going to have to increase the size of introductory classes. It's going to ultimately decrease the quality of undergraduate education."
Sriram Devenathan, associate vice president of the GSA, agreed.
"The remaining graduate students will have to cover for the cuts," Devenathan said. "This will increase the working load of GAs and TAs (teaching assistants)."
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Daniel Doty, benefits chair of the GSA, said that this could also have an effect on attracting faculty to Miami.
"We want faculty that are known and reputable," Doty said. "They won't come here without grad students. Grad students allow for faculty to do research."
Devenathan agreed.
"We do things that faculty really can't find time to do," Devenathan said.
He also said that many graduate students have a large impact on whether undergraduates decide to go to graduate school.
Brown also said faculty members rely on graduate students to write recommendation letters for undergraduates for things such as jobs and graduate school applications.
Cochrane said the reallocations would have a large impact on the university.
"We're going to have to make some hard choices," Cochrane said. "It is a very difficult and painful process. We want to make absolutely certain that we're using the resources we have effectively."
According to Herbst, current graduate students do not have to worry about losing assistantships.
"Reallocation of grad assistantships will not affect current students," Herbst said. "These are allocations for students who are incoming."
Cochrane agreed.
"Students currently enrolled will not be affected," Cochrane said. "It will shape the future in terms of what programs will be areas of growth and which areas will contract."
This could still be a problem, however, for students that are enrolled in a terminal masters program wishing to earn their Ph.D., according to Edwin Shriver, a fifth-year psychology graduate student.
In a terminal masters program, students earn their master's degree and then re-apply for a Ph.D. program.
If they choose to do so at Miami, they risk the chance of not being able to have an assistantship if cuts have been made in their department.
Students enrolled in masters programs that are not terminal will still have their assistantship, Orndorff said.
Brown said GSA realizes that change is necessary and key for the university, but that the message has gotten lost a little bit.
"We understand the change but we're worried about the kind of change and how quickly it is going," Brown said. "These cuts are not only going to affect graduate students. They're going to affect everyone on every level of the university."
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