Grad. Student Financial Aid Will BE Changed, Increased

Faculty and administration alike agreed on the need to reform and increase graduate student financial support at a meeting yesterday.

The Faculty Committee on Graduate Student Financial Support established last spring, presented to he Faculty Council a report addressing the future of student funding at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS).

The report also discussed the impact that insufficient funding could have on the University's ability to retain its competitive edge.

"There is rising concern in many departments, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, that the nature of financial support available for graduate students at Harvard is eroding our competitiveness," the report said.

In the past, Harvard has relied on the slogan "Come to Harvard, and don't worry" to attract graduate students, said Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics John Y. Campbell at Yesterday's Faculty meeting. However, he said "the persuasiveness of this [message] has been diminishing."

At the meeting, Committee Chair Peter Ellison explained that one factor is that GSAS has "little" endowment for financial aid.

"The gap between student financial need and resources available is a real one," the report said.

One way in which Harvard has addressed the lack of funding for graduate students is with paid positions as teaching fellows (TFs).

Harvard pays ten million dollars to TFs each year.

The report recommends the incorporation of teaching opportunities directly into financial aid offers.

However, members of the faculty said this would challenge the present system of TF selection.

If the plan were adopted, Harvard would be "abandoning even our current, very modest level of screening," said Phillip A. Kuhn, who is Higginson Professor of History and of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.

He said Harvard TFs would be "herded like untrained conscripts into the trenches."

But Professor of the Practice of Romance Languages Judith P. Frommer said rather than assuming that some students are unable to teach, Harvard should be training graduate students to be effective instructors.

"Everyone's behaving as if teaching ability is some manna that fell from heaven's Frommer said.

The Faculty has not yet taken action on the report's evaluations and recommendations.

The report itself does not suggest explicit measures.

In other business, Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles announced the appointment of five professors to the Harvard College Professorships, which pay for additional research funds, time off and other benefits.

Frommer received a five-year appointment as did Marquand Professor of English Lawrence Buell, Dillon Professor of International Affairs Jorge I. Dominguez, Professor of Chemistry Eric N. Jacobsen.

Knowles said he will select four or five new professors each year.

The Loeb Fund, which finances the professorships, can support up to twenty-four positions held concurrently.