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In our effort to continue to assess and improve your graduate student experience at CU Boulder, I’m writing to let you know of two initiatives the Graduate School is launching in October.

The first initiative is a task force with the United Government of Graduate Â鶹ÒùÔº (UGGS) and the Office of Budget and Fiscal Planning to examine graduate student stipends and benefits. We understand the financial challenges graduate students face and are proud of our recent accomplishments to improve the pay schedule and increase the graduate student stipend rate. The task force will look more deeply into how these stipend rates compare with our AAU public peers and examine the feasibility of various options for enhanced benefits.

Joining me on this task force are Juan García Oyervides, Sarah Fahmy, Jesse Niebaum, and Varsha Rao from United Government of Graduate Â鶹ÒùÔº (UGGS); Luke Anderson from Budget and Fiscal Planning; Stephen Vassallo from the Office of Data Analytics; and Gretchen O’Connell, senior assistant dean of the Graduate School. The task force will meet regularly throughout the fall semester, with plans for reporting recommendations during the spring of 2019.

The second initiative is a survey that addresses several aspects of the graduate student experience, focusing on two key factors in particular: funding and academic advising/mentorship. We plan to provide initial results of the survey by the end of the fall semester and deeper analysis during the spring of 2019.

As these initiatives are launched and the semester continues, I encourage you to route any concerns you may have through UGGS, whose leadership team I meet with regularly. In doing so, we can work more closely and efficiently together as a team in addressing issues and answering questions to the benefit of the entire graduate student community.

I appreciate all that you contribute to our campus and community, and I wish you the best throughout the fall semester.

Sincerely,

Ann

Ann Schmiesing
Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs

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