Another Plan At Grad School

After two consecutive years of strikes by the Graduate Student and Teaching Fellow Union against provisions of aid programs for graduate students, the Committee of Fellowships and Other Aids this week revised the controversial Kraus Plan in an attempt to provide an equitable scholarship program for students at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences within a framework of fiscal autonomy.

The tightening of Harvard's money belt and the withdrawal of federal funds for education has squeezed graduate student scholarships. Harvard says it cannot afford to fund the studies of both meritorious and needy students at once. Last year's Union said Harvard must find the money to fund both. The Kraus Plan was a compromise which placed financial burdens on middle-class students and it was never well received by the students at GSAS.

Although no graduate student group has formally responded to the revised plan, indications are that the plan may be as unacceptable to graduate students as the original Kraus Plan. Two of the three student members of the Committee on Fellowships voted against the plan, a first draft of which was issued on Monday.

The new plan retains two provisions of the Kraus Plan which the Union opposed during its strikes. The new plan still calculates need according to parental assets, and departments still retain the option to fund students $1000 below their calculated need so as to free funds for students seeking scholarships on the basis of merit.

According to provisions of the revised plan, no student will be admitted to GSAS who cannot meet his expenses either through scholarships or personal assets. If the new plan is put into effect, scholarship students will be guaranteed aid for the duration of their studies.

Peter S. McKinney, administrative dean of GSAS, said the revised plan is a compromise between financial pressures and the demands of graduate students. "There simply isn't enough money," he said. "I can only hope students will see this [revised] plan as an attempt to spread what we have around as evenly as possible."

Whether students at the GSAS will agree with McKinney's analysis remains to be seen.