Harvard Lags in Grad Parent Aid

Princeton University has unveiled an ambitious plan to bolster its support for graduate students with young children—and the initiatives provide greater assistance than what is found at Harvard.

The package includes 12 weeks of maternity leave for female graduate students, under which mothers continue to receive financial support while on leave, according to Princeton spokeswoman Cass Cliatt.

Princeton’s new initiatives have been phased in since December and were officially announced last week. The program has prompted a reexamination of the policies at Harvard, which discontinues financial support to graduate students while they take maternity leave.

“We are thinking about further things that we might do to support graduate students with responsibilities,” said Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Theda Skocpol. “We have a larger graduate school than Princeton does, so it’s harder for us.”

Both male and female students at GSAS are allowed to take up to one year of leave for each newborn child, said Garth O. McCavana, the school’s associate dean of student affairs.

“What we call the ‘dissertation clock’ for students stops at this time,” McCavana said.

Students at Harvard Law School (HLS) who are parents can also take up to one year of leave, according to Ellen M. Cosgrove, the school’s dean of students.

But graduate student mothers interviewed by The Crimson expressed mixed views of the level of support they receive from Harvard.

At the Kennedy School of Government, Warigia M. Bowman compared graduate students to the “working poor.”

“I got almost no support from my program in terms of helping me get through the year as a female scholar with a baby who was in financial duress,” she said.

But at HLS, Ulcca J. Hansen, who has one child, said that she found Cosgrove, the dean of students, to be “incredibly supportive.”

And Lilly B. Piper, a mother of three and a masters candidate at the Graduate School of Education, said that being a resident tutor has helped her situation.

Harvard has tried to ease the burden with a pilot program that offers $150,000 in scholarships for 14 students to use at its six affiliated childcare centers, said Nancy S. Costikyan, manager of the Office of Work/Life Resources. The office also launched the Graduate Student Assistance Program, which addresses dependent care and life balance issues.

Despite the scholarships, most of the mothers interviewed said that childcare remains the most pressing problem they face.

“There’s not necessarily space, and it’s quite expensive,” said law student Rebecca L. Goldberg, who has a 17-month-old daughter.

Princeton’s new package provides childcare support of up to $5,000 a year per child, with up to $10,000 for two or more pre-kindergarten children, Cliatt said.

At Harvard, housing expenses are another source of stress.

“They don’t even give considerations for Harvard housing if you have children,” said Marie Cropper, a Ph.D candidate in public policy who has an adolescent daughter. “Moving farther away from campus can be cheaper, but the up-front cost is not.”

Graduate student parents are working to raise awareness of the problems they face. The GSAS Student-Parents Organization, which was founded in 2004, today includes over 300 members from across Harvard’s graduate schools.

The organization surveyed graduate students in the winter of 2004 and then met with the GSAS administration to discuss its concerns, according to the group’s founder, Christine D. Wenc.

McCavana, the GSAS associate dean of student affairs, said the school has increased its efforts to support student parents by funding events and recruiting more female students.

But Skocpol said that limited funds constrain the school’s ability to respond to the parents’ proposals.

“This year has been a very tight budget year in the GSAS,” Skocpol said.

—Staff writer Angela A. Sun can be reached at asun@fas.harvard.