Petition to restore Purdue graduate student funding

I am not opposed to shrinking some of the graduate programs categorically, but the way it is being done is bad for grad students, undergrads, and Purdue's research and teaching missions.

PhD in English from Purdue, 2015.

A slightly higher stipend (for some) and more time for research are attractive points of the dean's plan. However, fewer students in SLC means fewer opportunities for growth in graduate courses. Although the memo stated that the rule for a minimum of five students per class could be reconsidered, classes with just a few students do not allow for discussion or the exchange of ideas as should be the case in graduate education.

While the changes are well-intended, the funding cuts will result in massive pay cuts for some grads dependent on 0.75 appointments. The loss in professional development opportunities stemming from reduced course offerings will also be considerable. The English department is, at this moment, a very competitive one. Even if long-term changes are inevitable, the Grad School leadership should at least provide enough funding for the English department to confer this competitiveness on the grads who are already enrolled and working hard.

I appreciate the idea, but I believe the decrease in funding should be reconsidered. The proposed plan may lead to the SLC offering fewer courses, which would cause problems for undergrads trying to fulfill their requirements. Also, if the number of incoming students and TAs decreases, the faculty will eventually need to spend more of their time teaching undergraduate courses, meaning less time for research and other responsibilities such as mentoring their advisees.

Purdue English PhD, 2015

We can't be better departments at the sacrifice of one another. SLC has legitimate concerns that must be addressed by administration.

Real people are being hurt, professionally as well as financially, by the new CLA initiative. We are not "tradeoffs."

Purdue M.F.A., 2009

Ph.D. Purdue, 2013.

Despite the thought that computers will eliminate the need to study languages other than one's own native language, individuals who speak, read, and write multiple languages are needed now more than ever. Why would you choose to deny such programs at Purdue? Don't jump on the politically popular bandwagon of having college administrators control students' major choices. Twenty years from now we'll be talking about how misguided major university's cutting of language and culture programs were as the market scrambles to find individuals who can help us understand our global partners.

As a PhD student soon about to be seeking gainful employment, I don't think that we, graduate CLA students, should be asked to accept a minor increase in stipends at the expense of the long term deterioration of the value of our degrees. I am definitely in accord with SLC.

As faculty in the college I stand in solidarity with the graduate students who don't want to see their programs (and degrees) downgraded.

Though I see the merit in Dean Reingold's proposal to strengthen graduate education in CLA, the proposed changes will have short and long term impacts that need to be closely examined before anything proceeds. I stand in solidarity with my CLA colleagues in SLC, and other departments seeing cuts or "reallocations."

I'm in the English department, and I stand in solidarity with SLC. We work hard as graduate students, the work we do is meaningful and important, and these budget cuts both harm us now and impair our future job prospects.

I fully support my colleagues in SLC and other departments in CLA. Graduate education is not a trade-off; and, we need to more carefully interrogate the language Dean Reingold uses to talk about graduate education in the liberal arts.

This is the most important thing I do for a long time.

While I too agree with Dean Reingold's impulse to strengthen graduate education in the College of Liberal Arts, the changes being made are coming at great cost--in the short and long term.

I am in solidarity with my colleagues in SLC and other departments facing cuts. Purdue works because they do. Purdue works because I do.

My support of the place that gave me so many opportunities has to stop. The "reallocation" of funding undercuts what I admire about the English Program and what it does for grads.