Graduate students at the University of Iowa say they’re concerned about possible changes to their employment and admissions contracts.
Two days before Spring Break, grad students in the English Department got an email from the department chair saying the UI could no longer guarantee financial support due to uncertainty around federal research funding. Jennie Sekanics is a third-year PhD student in that department.
“Class sizes would increase, the student-to-professor ratio would certainly increase,” Sekanics says, “and ultimately the University of Iowa as an institution would lose its status as an institution that produces stellar research.”
The UI says it encouraged all department heads to outline for graduate students the contingencies of their funding. Sekanics says the letter from the English Department chair said students will receive updated terms of their offers and have their old offers rescinded.
“Personally, I would not have pursued my PhD unless it was fully funded. I only applied to fully funded programs,” she says. “I was only accepted to fully funded programs, and I ultimately chose the University of Iowa because of the funding that was offered to me.”
The UI says graduate assistantship appointments have always been dependent on available funding. It says it is -not- changing terms of employment or rescinding employment contracts, just the -promise- of funding.
(By James Kelley, Iowa Public Radio)