[La-cgs] GA Allocation Policy

Mon Jun 7 09:32:52 CDT 2021

Hi All, as Carol noted, LSU A&M Grad School does not allocate any kind of GA’s other than a limited number of targeted ones. However, as she also says, this is on my radar because it is a significant weakness in our overall administrative structure. It has led to a kind of “beggar-thy-neighbor” competition where they are not regularly tied to enrollments. This has led to a number of challenges related to TA vs RA allocations, as well as a looming issue related to growing U/G enrollments.

In general, part of our strategic plan is to “rationalize” GA allocation according to strategic objectives. First, and already out of the station is growing UG enrollment that will predictably place additional teaching responsibilities on some and not all departments – especially English and Math. Probably also Biology. I am planning to try to calculate out growth in Gen Ed SCH and recommend central GA allocation proportional to these SCH’s. It can be a little complicated, I think, so any suggestions from you all would be most welcome. Secondly, it seems to me that some colleges have plenty of TAs that disincentivize grant applications (a second weakness of our procedures). I suspect that if a department does not need a TA, they will convert that TA into a general GA for a faculty member, who ends up doing not so much productive work, but more or less functions as simply a subsidized graduate student – which is fine if it is a student that we want to subsidize according to our strategic plans. I am not so sure the extent to which this is happening, but my overall goal is to be more deliberate about using these GA resources to achieve our goals. Right now, as far as I can tell there is little rhyme or reason to allocations.

Any thoughts you all may have on these issues would be great!
Jim

From: La-cgs <la-cgs-bounces at lists.latech.edu> on behalf of Mary J Farmer-Kaiser <mary.farmer-kaiser at louisiana.edu>
Date: Monday, June 7, 2021 at 9:00 AM
To: Sushma Krishnamurthy <krishnamurthy at ulm.edu>, Sanjay T Menon <sanjay.menon at lsus.edu>, "la-cgs at lists.latech.edu" <la-cgs at lists.latech.edu>
Subject: Re: [La-cgs] GA Allocation Policy

Hi Sanjay,

At UL, the Grad School allocates assistantship stipend and tuition/fee waiver budgets to departments to support graduate program enrollment and growth. Historically, these budgets had been intended to exclusively support the appointment of teaching assistants in general education courses, although that has changed over the years. We now do an annual budget request process through which the college deans are involved by reviewing departmental requests and they submit a college request that adjusts continuing funds up/down to reallocate assistantships in ways that support the college's needs. When reallocation needs arise that pull from one college to support a program in a different college, I work closely with both deans and the provost.

I also retain the right to pull back unencumbered funds at the beginning of each spring semester to support one-semester awards in other areas.

Mary

Mary Farmer-Kaiser, PhD

Professor of History

Dean of the Graduate School

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

337-482-6965

mary.farmer-kaiser at louisiana.edu

________________________________
From: La-cgs <la-cgs-bounces at lists.latech.edu> on behalf of Sushma Krishnamurthy <krishnamurthy at ulm.edu>
Sent: Monday, June 7, 2021 8:35 AM
To: Menon, Sanjay <Sanjay.Menon at lsus.edu>; la-cgs at lists.latech.edu <la-cgs at lists.latech.edu>
Subject: Re: [La-cgs] GA Allocation Policy

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Hi  Sanjay,

The Graduate School allocates funds to the various colleges. The Colleges have the latitude to allocate GAs in ways that best serve their needs. Our GA budget has remained static for a number of years so the question of additional funding for any area does not arise.

On occasion, I have used our Grad School GA budget to temporarily fund 2-3 GA lines in areas that are growing and need assistance.

Regards,
Sushma

________________________________
From: La-cgs <la-cgs-bounces at lists.latech.edu> on behalf of Menon, Sanjay <Sanjay.Menon at lsus.edu>
Sent: Friday, June 4, 2021 5:08 PM
To: la-cgs at lists.latech.edu <la-cgs at lists.latech.edu>
Subject: [La-cgs] GA Allocation Policy

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Hi all,

I was hoping to pick your collective brain on a conundrum I am dealing with.  At LSUS, budget-wise, our current GA policy is allocate the same baseline number of GAs to each program regardless of enrollment, with additional GAs being funded by individual faculty grants or departmental budgets.  I am wondering if there are other models that I can propose to senior administration.  My objective is to find a way to provide additional GAs to specific programs as a means to attract students to low enrollment programs.  Directly tying number of GAs to enrollment would make the problem worse, as programs with more enrollment will end up with more GAs and low enrollment programs with fewer.  Simply increasing the number of GAs to low enrollment programs will lead to charges of inequity from other programs.  I will be working with individual program directors to attract funding, but that is really not a policy solution .  I appreciate any suggestions you may have regarding a suitable policy approach to the issue.

Thanks!

Sanjay

Sanjay T. Menon, Ph. D.

Dean of Graduate Studies

Director of India Studies

Louisiana State University Shreveport

Office: (318) 797-5247     Fax:     (318) 798-4120

www.linkedin.com/in/sanjaytmenon<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fsanjaytmenon&data=04%7C01%7Ckrishnamurthy%40ulm.edu%7C60331ef04d694455866208d927a57d8b%7C90963b0cb03044fba95a9e359af4f668%7C1%7C0%7C637584414320387573%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=m12x7hlThrl%2FRSdusrb4aP5MEhzFuGgVGnvygJxVmLs%3D&reserved=0>

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