The Lantern's April 12 article "graduate students to get paid" concerning the provost's new compensation initiative for funded graduate students, while appreciated, is somewhat misleading. This phase of the university's long-term plan to increase compensation for funded graduate students is unanimously supported by the Ad hoc Graduate Associate Compensation and Benefits Committee, and, with few exceptions, is completely supported by the members of the full Council of Graduate Students. The implication that the council and its ad hoc committee are not satisfied or happy with this new initiative is incorrect.
As part of Friday's CGS meeting, I was asked to compare the new initiative with the resolution that the council passed last October asking the university to set some goals and move more quickly towards better compensating its funded graduate students. After making the comparison, I discussed how the committee would continue to work with the administration to reach the other proposals spelled out in the resolution in much the same way the faculty and staff compensation and benefits committees work with the university.
During the questions that arose for me from the floor of the council meeting, I stressed that this initiative is a two-year plan and noted that the council intentionally set a five-year target for reaching these goals to give the university adequate time during an extremely difficult fiscal arena to reach those goals. The university still has work to do in order to accomplish its compensation goals but the senior leadership is committed to reaching them.
This commitment from the president, provost, senior vice president for Business and Finance, associate vice president for Human Resources and the 18 college deans clearly demonstrates the value the university places on its graduate students. I am fully confident that as GCBC continues its work in the upcoming years more progress will be made on the president's and provost's promises to competitively compensate all funded graduate associates at Ohio State.
J. Briggs Cormier, doctoral candidate in theatre, CGS chair of the Ad hoc Committee on Graduate Associate Compensation and Benefits
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