Graduate college revises program 
February 8, 2010 by Victoria Gonzalez
Assistantship program restructures its distribution
The UNLV Graduate College has modified the way the graduate assistantships are distributed for research.
Set up as an element of a broader reorganization of the Graduate Assistant program, about 50 GA research positions will be dispersed among competitive applicants beginning in the fall. These new positions will be called Strategic Plan Graduate Research Assistants.
This adjustment is a procedural change and does not include new money from the state. It is a change in the way the money is allocated.
Before the reorganization, the college would allocate the pool of money to deans and to departments.
“We wanted to use a small group of GA’s to incentivize graduate student and faculty research activity, and to promote the UNLV 50-100 strategic plan,” said Kate Korgan, senior associate dean of the graduate college.
Korgan said that they are holding the 50 GA positions in a pot and the university will review and select individuals or teams to award the assistantships to.
“Students will be chosen by committee to conduct research related to our institutional research goals, as stated in the 50-100 strategic plan,” said Ron Smith, vice president for research and graduate dean. “Their work will reinforce how we are responding to community challenges.”
Smith also said that these are not new GAs, but they are carved out of the existing GA positions. The 50 SPGRA lines come from the standard state GA allocation and the remainder of the GA state lines will be distributed as GA stipend funds to deans according to a new allocation formula. College deans will then assign their GA state funds to the graduate departments they consider suitable.
Each SPGRA will comprise of a nine-month contract for the academic year for the student and a three-year term assistantship starting in the fall. The research assistant will have the same benefits that are offered to all other state-funded GAs.
Students on a master’s level are set to receive a $10,000 stipend for nine months along with benefits of optional health insurance, tuition waiver, etc. Those students on a doctoral level will receive $12,000 stipend for nine months and benefits of tuition waiver and optional health insurance too.
For applicants to be eligible, they should apply as individuals, teams that include tenured or faculty on the tenure track who are involved in graduate programs or do substantive research with a particular graduate program or graduate departments as a unit.
The proposals submitted must describe how UNLV’s research mission and strategic plan will advance with the work of the graduate research assistant.
The SPGRA committee that will review and rank the proposals will consist of one faculty representative from each college that grants graduate degrees.
The Office of Research and Graduate Studies, along with the Provost and President’s Office, will announce the winners in early April.
Applications must be electronically submitted, with the supporting documentation, to GCProjects@unlv.edu by 5 p.m. on Feb. 10.
This is nothing more than a shell game, and one that steals from the poor to give to the rich at that. Reduce the number of existing GAs as chosen by their departments, and then give those GAship to a “pool.” Let me guess where the money will go to. Sociology – the home department of the Grad College’s Assistant Dean – Women’s study’s – ditto – and the sciences.
No, the real problem that graduate college and the university (and the so called GPSA) are all ignoring is that GA pay is well below national average and that work loads equal that of tenured in faculty. Reduce works loads, increase stipends, and provide better health insurance. This plan is little more than shuffling the chairs on the Titanic.