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Signatures | Total: 482

 

# NameWhat is your campus Dept. or Affiliation?Comments
201 Doreen FifieldMolecular and Cellular Biology Program
202 Jason HillMCB Graduate student
203 AnonymousMolecular and Cellular Biology Program
204 Barbara OsborneVet & Animal SciencesThe fee increases undermine our ability to train graduate students. It is cheaper and more effective to hire technicians and postdocs in our labs and if we all continue to have to pay these fees, many fewer graduate students will be trained in the sciences at UMass.
205 Jonathan G.RudMCB
206 Paraskevi SgourdouBiology
207 Joseph G. KunkelBiologySmall grants that support a graduate student are being particularly hard hit since their budget is made up mostly of the salary for a grad student.
208 Pablo ViscontiVeterinary and Animal SciencesThe curriculum fee represents a burden for researchers at the University. In addition, the University loose their indirect costs from Institutions like NIH. To continue being competitive in grant applications as well as in publications, curriculum fees for Ph.D. students in the STEM disciplines should be eliminated.
209 Stacy CarvalhoMolecular and Cellular BiologyThe financial pressures on students are too high and coupled with our academic and work responsibilities make being a graduate student very difficult. Reducing mandatory fees (which is a huge portion of what I am taking out loans to cover each semester) would greatly help me reduce the amounts of my loans each semester. I hope that this petition will be seriously considered as it has a great impact on the lives of students.
210 Catherine McCuskerMolecular and Cellular Biology
211 Vincent RotelloChemistryThe fees are counterproductive to our goal of achieving quality in research.
212 Sait Ozturk
213 Jeanne HardyAssist. Prof. ChemistryThe tremendous increases in curriculum fees make it extremely difficult to pay for students to work in the lab. The massive hikes in the fees every year diminish the amount and quality of science we can do. I ask that you roll back the fees.
214 Dominique AlfandariVet and Animal Sciences
215 Scott GarmanBiochemistryThe fees make it difficult to train students because of the costs they impose on investigators.
216 Helene CousinVet & Animal Sciences Dpt
217 Michele KlingbeilMicrobiologyThe curriculum fee (and its 5% annual increases) is essentially diminishing our ability to train highly qualified graduate students at this institution. This fee is also reducing the value of our hard-won external funding.
218 Samuel J. BlackVeterinary and Animal SciencesI consider the curriculum fee a significant threat to continued graduate education on the UMass-Amherst campus
219 Samuel J. BlackVeterinary and Animal SciencesI consider the curriculum fee a significant threat to continued graduate education on the UMass-Amherst campus
220 Anonymousbiochemistry
221 Ayse OzacarMolecular and Cellular Biology
222 Jerrold MeyerPsychology; Neuroscience & BehaviorRising grad student fees, particularly the curriculum fee, are a significant factor reducing the competitiveness of UMass in attracting the best grad students and a major disincentive for faculty members to engage in grad student training.
223 Magdalena BezanillaBiology
224 Caren RotelloPsychologyThe dramatic rise in curriculum fees has eroded the value of my hard-earned grant dollars. I have thought seriously about shifting away from paying graduate students in favor of hiring postdocs.
225 Haoheng YanMolecular and Cellular Biology
226 William Boston-HowesMolecular and Cellular Biology Ph.D candidate
227 Juan AnguitaVeterinary and Animal SciencesThese fees are an obscure way for the university to obtain funds, clearly penalizing Faculty that obtain outside funding. It is unclear how these fees are associated with the training of graduate students, but rather hindering the ability and willingness of mentoring faculty to commit to this training.
228 AnonymousTGSA
229 Zeynep InancPolitical Science
230 aycan kapucupsychology
231 Gerald B. DownesBiology
232 AnonymousKinesiology
233 Ustun TuluMCBFees have been doubled since I joined MCB seven years ago...
234 Nick FerenzMCB
235 Kausalya MurthyMCB
236 julie larocheNSB
237 Andre J BoulayPsychologyThe rising grad student fees, including the curriculum fee, are a detriment to graduate education on our campus.
238 Veronica Lopezneuroscience and behavior
239 Julian SosnikMCB
240 Anonymous
241 UnJa HayesPsychologyWhy should I invest in graduate training when I can hire a "professional?!" For the cost of a graduate student, I could hire a postdoc. If you care about graduate training, reduce the fees!!!!!
242 Carrie E. MahoneyUMass-Amherst
243 AnonymousBiology
244 AnonymousNeuroscience and Behavior
245 Lisa S. ScottPsychologycurrently it seems more economical ro get a post-doc than a pay a graduate student. The costs make it difficult for young faculty to get and keep graduate students.
246 Elizabeth JakobPsychologyThe graduate student fees have significantly impacted my ability to support students. I have gone from 5 graduate students to one, and do not foresee that I would able to take more on in the near future. Under the current fee structure, it makes far more economic sense to employ technicians rather than graduate students--that strategy will surely have lasting negative impacts on the profile of our graduate programs. In addition, productivity is bound to suffer, which will in turn result in fewer grants. The current fee structure strikes me as a short-term response to economic problems, but will have long-term negative consequences that are hard to reverse. I have been discussing our fees with colleagues from other research universities, and they do seem extraordinarily high in comparison.
247 Anonymous
248 Theresa Rayneuroscience and behavior program, psychology dept
249 Eliza NelsonPsychology
250 AnonymousPsychologyThe high curriculum fees are particularly difficult on pretenure faculty who lack the seniority to recruit postdoctoral fellows and generally have smaller grant budgets.

 

Signatures | Total: 482