Recent budget cuts have left graduate students with fewer options for student employment and loans, but a UNM initiative aims to help them counteract these setbacks.
The Graduate Student Funding Initiative (GSFI) offers nearly 50 educational sessions to help students identify sources of funding, prepare résumés and build budgets.
The workshops began during the spring semester and continue this fall. Faculty Research Support Officer Elly Van Mil said the initiative will also help students locate other avenues of funding.
“They get information not just about what to do and how to do it in terms of finding funding and writing proposals … but they find out who they can contact if they have questions,” she said.
University budget cuts over the course of the last year have lowered the number of available teaching assistant positions, eliminating job opportunities for many graduate students. Congress also eliminated all federal subsidized loans for graduate students in August.
Julia Fulghum, vice president for research, said the initiative was a response to those concerns.
“The idea is to provide support for students who want to look for funding and apply for funding, and it will help them apply for any type of funding opportunities that are out there,” she said.
The initiative also offers certificate programs in grant writing and proposal preparations.
Van Mil said the initiative was in its experimental stage in the spring, but major growth is planned for this semester.
“The question we have this fall is: Which of the sessions within each of the certificate programs are drawing in more students, and what are (the students) saying?” she said.
Van Mil said grant-writing skills are important for students beginning their career search.
“Those who review applications will either require or look favorably on those applicants that have grant-writing skills, either having successfully found funding or even just having it in their résumé, that they have a grant-writing certificate,” she said.
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Van Mil said she hopes to begin offering GSFI sessions online.
The GSFI is a collaborative effort of the Office of the Vice President for Research, Office of Graduate Studies, GPSA, Title V Graduate Resource Center, Center for Academic Program Support, University Libraries, Project for New Mexico Graduates of Color and other student organizations.
