Doctoral Education and Philanthropy
This is my last newsletter as Chair, and I want to take this opportunity to talk about the critical role of philanthropy in today’s academic climate, especially as it relates to doctoral education, and to thank some of our donors.
First, some news. The UF graduate school collects annually from the 80+ doctoral programs various statistics about graduate students and their progress to Ph.D. These are then grouped into quartiles for each program, and one metric of excellence is the number of top quartile minus the number of bottom quartile “scores”. This year we are #1 with a score of +6. Yes, you can argue that the measure is not perfect – none are – but clearly Psychology is doing very well. Further, for Psychology departments nationally, GraduatePrograms.com listed UF as #10; this survey is based primarily on satisfaction responses of recent graduates. But we can be better!
Almost two years ago, Departments supplied data for a Doctoral Program Improvement Plan (DPIP). CLAS Departments, strapped for money, came up with plans that enhance professional development, but recognized that the steps that can be taken without money are often modest. Attending national meetings to present data is a huge part of professional development but, with attendance at a 3-day meeting often costing upwards of $1K, to underwrite this is cost is beyond the means of most students. Our graduate stipends aren’t bad, but they’re not THAT good!
The College has a graduate travel support program, and as a big department we are allowed to submit four names at each of three annual deadlines. Usually, all of these get funded in the amount of $300 or so, which is great, but is a drop in the ocean when we have ~20 meritorious travel applications at each deadline (60 per year). One source of funding for student travel used to be our operating expense budget, but over the past lean budget years this has been slashed to about $50K, and almost all of this is consumed by business expenses (phone, paper etc.,). Thus, almost nothing is available for support of graduate travel or research.
Now, thanks to a major gifts from alumnae and friends we have been able to increase greatly the level of support for graduate travel and to make modest dissertation research awards. In particular, we recognize alumna Trish Calvert Ring for a major gift during the past year, as well as several smaller donations to our general foundation account targeted at student support. These in turn build on the bequest a few years ago from Jacqueline Goldman which provides stipend and research support for students doing developmental research. These gifts have made a huge difference for our graduate students….and will help to keep our ratings high! If you are an alumnus, or soon will be, if you have benefitted from these or other professional development funds, I urge you to consider these as loans rather than entitlements, and to consider seriously about (re)paying the loan for the next generation of students. Even if you aren’t in a position to make a large contribution, many small donations have the same effect! Give your support on-line at https://psych.ufl.edu/alumni-board/support-us/ – there you can specify whether you want your gift to be unrestricted – or restricted to a category like graduate affairs.
It’s been a privilege to serve as Chair of the Psychology department. Please join me in welcoming Lise Abrams!