Skip to site navigation

Dissertation-Year Fellowships Review

During the 2001-02 academic year, the Faculty Senate organized a dissertation-year fellowship program to support highly qualified graduate student researchers who also excelled in teaching during their graduate careers. These fellowships provided the students full financial support for one year so they could pursue the completion of their dissertations. Financial support for these fellowships was provided by the College of Arts and Sciences, the School or Engineering and Applied Science, the Office of the Provost, and the Jefferson Scholars Program. This fellowship program was not continued in the 2002-03 academic year so its effectiveness could be evaluated after a one-year trial period.

Of the 11 students supported, eight had graduated by August, 2003. Of the 3 students who have not yet finished, one took a 3-month leave of absence because of a tragic death in the family, and the other two are very close to completion.

The following passages are excerpted from the student letters in which we requested a progress report in May 2003:

"Without the funding, I would not be where I am today, with a Ph.D. and a teaching position ...U.Va. must make every effort to continue this program, not only as an important source of funding, but also as a statement of belief in graduate students across the academic disciplines." M. Setje-Eilers

"It is difficult to convey just how significant this has been. Without the fellowship, I had two rather desperate options: finding a job that would pay for enough childcare to both perform the job and work on my dissertation (a demoralizing proposition that would have left me very little time with my one-year old daughter) or trying to work on my dissertation without any childcare and with the constant threat of not having enough money to make ends meet (an option that I now know would not have been sustainable)." J. Griffin

"Over the past year a dissertation-year fellowship has allowed me to devote all of my energy to my research in the area of space-time coding over [Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output] wireless channels. This is a rapidly growing research area that has drawn the attention of many of the brightest minds in the communications field. As a result, the knowledge base in this area advances at a tremendous rate. I have been able to push the knowledge base forward as opposed to constantly chasing it because of the freedom afforded me by the fellowship. Without the fellowship and the extra time I could therefore commit to my work, my contributions to the research area would be much less significant...Faculty and graduate teachers are partners in undergraduate education. By awarding dissertation-year fellowships, the Faculty Senate has shown that it is committed to the continued success of this partnership. I hope that in future years this fellowship program will continue to bolster undergraduate education at the University by recognizing graduate students with a passion for teaching." T. Summers

"Because of the fellowship, I could pursue a "cutting-edge" area of study and know that I had the resources (both time and money) to do so with rigor. Other members of my cohort were not as fortunate and therefore conducted studies much smaller in scale and implication...The fellowship was in many ways my first entry into an intellectual community devoted to the discovery and teaching of knowledge. It is a community to which I am proud to belong. I am not sure that I will ever be able to quantify and measure all the ways that the Faculty Senate Dissertation Fellowship contributed to my professional and personal growth. I must therefore qualitatively report, that the experience changed my life." D. Mock

"Shortly before the fellowship was advertised, I had been seriously considering dropping out of graduate school. This was partly for financial reasons (there was a time when I was working three jobs in addition to teaching and trying to write my dissertation, and my experience is far from unusual). But it was also out of a deepening, bitter conviction that the University did not seriously value the scholarly and pedagogical work done by its graduate students. The Faculty Senate Fellowship renewed my faith in the University and the larger profession. It not only enabled me to complete my dissertation; it also enabled me to complete a much more ambitious project than I had originally thought possible, one that my advisors have strongly encouraged me to submit for book-length publication. It not only facilitated my job-search; it also convinced every hiring committee I spoke to that I had been trained in an institution with a rich and strongly supported culture of teaching, a consideration that played no small part in their decision-making. And it convinced me and many of my peers that the academy is indeed a place where decency, idealism, and humane behavior are still possible." J. Kim

"[The fellowship program] makes a strong statement to graduate students and to the entire university community that UVA values teaching and leadership...The existence of the fellowship program both encourages graduate students to emphasize the vital work of teaching and service and rewards those who have done it with important recognition that can be of immense help when they go on the job market. This is a very important program and fills a vital role at UVA--it would be extremely unfortunate if it were not continued in future years." P. McGuinn

"I understand the budget pressures facing the Faculty Senate, but this program seems like an especially worthy one to continue. It provides a level of compensation equal to many of the best fellowships available to graduate students and shows a dedication to graduate education that inspires faith in the University's commitment to its core mission." A. Sheehan-Dean

Based upon these responses and the high dissertation defense rate, plus the important role these fellowships played in helping several of the students gain faculty appointments, I think it is fair to proclaim that the program was successful after the first year. In addition to simply providing financial support to worthy students, this program demonstrates, in a very public way, the University of Virginia's commitment to the importance of both teaching and graduate education. On behalf of the Faculty Senate, I look forward to reinstituting this program in the 2003-04 academic year.

Sincerely,

Bob Davis, Chair

Faculty Senate