GSEF Project Funding Recipients: Spring 2009

Spring 2009

The Graduate Studies Endowment Fund has announced the Spring 2009 winners for project funding!

Initially, ten applications were received. At the initial meeting, two were rejected (example reason: application on behalf of an individual). We also discussed the various projects and what additional information was required to decide how to allocate the funds. We compiled additional details (department sizes, verification/adjustment of quotes, questions of departmental contribution, etc) and disseminated these details electronically. Then we met again and decided on the fund allocations, with one project being rejected at this stage (insufficient evidence of extent of benefit and number of graduate students involved). We then discussed the applications, and arrived at the final totals seen above. One application was accidentally overlooked for the two meetings – e-mail correspondence helped determine its final allocation. In several cases the final amount awarded was less than the amount originally applied for (example reasons: we encouraged the applicant to get matching funds from their department; we adjusted estimates that were too high; we felt the value of their project was incommensurate with the number of benefiting grad students; we wanted year-long initiatives to re-apply each term to ensure maximum diversity of the fund throughout the course of the year).