URI FACULTY SENATE AD-HOC GRADUATE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH COMMITTEE (GERC)
PRELIMINARY REPORT
DECEMBER 15, 2005

The GERC had its first meeting on November 12, 2003. After initial exploratory discussions over several weeks, the committee decided to focus its attention on gathering information relating to graduate student support at the University of Rhode Island. To that end, the GERC designed a survey and distributed it to all departments and administrative units beginning in December of 2004. The survey applied only to the Fall Semester of 2004, and was divided into two main parts:

1)   Part I: Graduate Students employed by your department.
2)   Part II: Graduate Students not employed by your department.

Students in the Part I include Graduate Assistants for whom specific duties are to be performed (teaching, grading, research, etc.). Students in Part II include those who are receiving fellowships or scholarships for which no work is specified.

To date, approximately 90% of the departments have responded. A sampling of the preliminary results is presented below. The final report will be issued, probably in the spring semester of 2006, after all of the surveys have been returned and all of the data have been processed and interpreted.

Part I Question 1: How many Graduate Assistants (GAs) in your unit are supported through the Provost’s Office (Old Ledger 2 or Fund 100)?

Results:

The number of  graduate students (head count) by college varied from a high of about 500 in A&S to a low of fewer than 10 in NUR.

The number of graduate students (head count) normalized per graduate faculty, by college, varied from a high of about 7 in HSS to a low of  fewer than 1 in BUS and NUR.

The total number of GAs (head count or FTE) supported through the Provost’s office varied from about 130 in A&S to fewer than 10 in NUR.

The total number of FTEs from the Provost’s office, normalize per grad faculty, veried from a high of nearly 1.0 in ELS to a low of around 0.3 in BUS and NUR.

The total number of FTEs from the Provost’s office normalized per graduate student varied from a high of about 0.45 in BUS and NUR to a low of about 0.05 in HSS.

The percentage of FTEs from the Provost’s office engaged in teaching was higher (app. 80 – 100%) in PHA, EGR, A&S, and ELS, and lower (0 – 40%) in GSO, HSS, BUS, and NUR.

The percentage of FTEs from the Provost’s office engaged in research was significant (app. 25 – 65%) in GSO, HSS, and NUR.

Part I Question 3): How many Graduate Research Assistants  (RA) in your unit are supported through external grant funding (Old Ledger 5 or Fund 500)? Examples of such funds are Federal (NIH, NSF, ONR, etc.), State and Local Government, and Private Sources (Non Profit or For Profit).

The total FTEs that were funded from extramural sources varied from a high of over 50 in ELS to nearly 0 in BUS and NUR.

The total FTEs that were funded from extramural sources normalized per grad faculty varied from a high of about 1.4 in GSO to near 0 in BUS and NUR.