Graduate Enhancement Fellowship

The Taft Fund provides each Taft department with an annual allocation for the enhancement of Graduate Assistantships. This fund's purpose is to promote the recruitment, retention and advancement of excellent graduate students. It allows departments to make supplemental awards to graduate students who hold Graduate Assistantships or external fellowships that provide both tuition coverage and stipend comparable to that of a department's UGA.

Use of Allocated Funds

The funds are made available to departments to strengthen their graduate programs by enhancing Graduate Assistantships or providing release time for selected graduate students. To this end, departments are given wide flexibility in the manner in which these funds are awarded to students. No specific departmental decision process is required, and the individual awards do not have to be approved by any Taft committee.

1. In making a Graduate Enhancement Award to a student, the department may either add a supplement to the Graduate Assistantship stipend, or use the funds to provide one or more quarters of release time.
2. When an award is made to enhance a Graduate Assistantship, it must be added to the Graduate Assistantship stipend the student would normally receive. That is, Taft funds may not be used to replace usual Graduate Assistantship funding.
3. When an award is made to provide release time, the stipend must be at least as large as the student would have received from a Graduate Assistantship.
4. It is inappropriate to use Taft awards to make across-the-board increases to all students.
5. There is no upper limit on the amount that may be awarded to an individual student. However, a student receiving a Taft award should receive at least $1,000. Departments wishing to make smaller awards should first consult with the Chair of the Student Awards Committee.
6. Departments may use up to $2,000 of their allocation for recruiting and advertising their graduate program.

Use of Student Award GEF Reserve

The Student Awards Committee will oversee a GEF Reserve Fund. If a department allocates all of its GEF money (annual allocation and any carryover balance) in a given year and still has excellent student that it needs to enhance, the department can request assistance for that specific enhancement. In order to make a request of the reserve, graduate directors need to send a letter to the Taft Chair indicating that all of the department's GEF money has been encumbered for the upcoming academic year (please provide a list of allocations). The letter should then state the specific student and why additional GEF support is needed, the type of planned support (stipend or release) and the amount requested as enhancement (this may not exceed the average department GEF award). Upon notification from the Taft Chair, the Student Awards Committee will meet and decide on the request.


Reporting

The distribution of funds to graduate students by the department is to be communicated through the annual Head's report. Those students receiving awards will receive a letter to that effect for their files from the Taft Student Awards Committee. Each department must report annually the current year's allocation, and the status of all previous Fellowship recipients. For each recipient, this reporting should continue as long as the student remains in the department. The final reporting for a student should indicate their final degree status and (when known) where they went after leaving.


Allocation of Funds

The total budget for the Taft Graduate Enhancement Fellowship program is set annually by the Taft Faculty Executive Board. The distribution of funds will be based on the percentage allocation of 2004-5. Taft will continue to track degrees awarded annually. If degrees awarded in three consecutive years decline, the Student Awards Committee will review the circumstances and may recalculate the percentage allocation up to a 10% reduction in department support. Subsequent decline will lead to further reallocation.

1. For each department, the number of masters' students and doctoral students graduated in the past five years is counted.
2. A score is assigned for each department by taking 
   (# masters' students graduated) + 3 x (# doctoral students graduated).
3. Dividing each department's score by the total score of all the departments gives each department's percentage of the budget, subject to the following qualifications.
4. Each department must receive at least 2.5% of the budget.
5. Departments which do not offer a doctoral degree will receive an additional $6,000 annually, in lieu of the Advanced Graduate Fellowships.

At the end of each academic year (August 31), any GEF money not spent by a department will be split with 50% of the balance carrying over into the new academic year for the department to use according to GEF rules and 50% moving into the general Student Award GEF Reserve.