Carleton’s Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) is currently investigating funding packages offered to graduate students, according to a post on its website.
“We suspect that there might be a pattern of Carleton offering funding packages which are higher than they end up paying out, to make their offers appear more attractive,” the post read.
According to the faculty of graduate and postdoctoral affairs, only three graduate students have approached the faculty with questions about its funding packages.
“Two of these situations have been resolved and the third will be resolved shortly,” said Matthias Neufang, faculty of graduate and postdoctoral affairs dean.
Funding packages can include a combination of teaching assistant jobs, research assistantships, endowed awards, or merit scholarships.
“[The GSA is] currently investigating this issue based on a number of individual complaints from students, and as part of that process we are seeking out additional feedback,” Michael Bueckert, GSA vice-president (academic) said.
The GSA has not formally approached the faculty of graduate affairs about potentially misleading funding packages, according to Neufang.
“We want to work with the GSA to address any additional issues as soon as possible,” Neufang said.
The GSA’s online statement said some of the university’s misleading actions were assigning funding to a year past the student’s graduation so that the funding will only be applicable if the student stays at Carleton for an extra year, and assigning funding “for semesters when it is nearly impossible to receive it.”
Bueckert specified funding is especially difficult to receive for the summer term.
“I’m currently in the process of sorting through these and determining the source of the problem,” Bueckert said.
“At this point there is no indication that Carleton is intentionally misleading students about their funding packages,” Bueckert added in a later email. “Nonetheless, there are several problems with the way that funding is arranged so that many students are losing thousands of dollars in funding that they had expected to receive when they accepted their offer to come to Carleton.”
According to Carleton’s graduate admission website, teaching assistant jobs have an annual value of over $10,000, research assistantships and endowed awards have a maximum value of $20,000 and merit scholarships range from $1,000 to $12,000 a year.
Neufang said funding packages are laid out in detail, term by term, for each graduate student when they are admitted to the school. Students are then required to review the “Terms and Conditions of Admission and Funding” booklet before accepting the offer.
“If a student’s registration status changes during their time as a graduate student, their funding may be affected,” is a term that is outlined in the booklet, Neufang said.
This has been the policy for several years, according to Neufang.
The GSA’s investigation into the allegedly misleading funding packages will be discussed at the next Graduate Academic Caucus meeting on Dec. 4, and again at the GSA Council on Dec. 11.
After it has been discussed at these meetings, Bueckert said the GSA will contact the faculty of graduate and postdoctoral affairs to discuss making the process clearer and fairer for students.
