November 2007

 

Senate to Monitor Implementation of Graduate Non-Resident Tuition Directive

 

Implementing a presidential directive to return non-resident tuition (NRT) to graduate student support at the campuses is one of the Academic Senate’s top priorities in 2007-08.

 

Earlier this year, President Dynes responded to the Senate’s May 2006 Memorial to the Regents by eliminating NRT for three years after an academic graduate student’s advancement to candidacy. The president also issued a directive for all NRT funds to be made transparent and returned to the campuses earmarked broadly for graduate student support.

 

Senate Chair Michael Brown says that although NRT funds will not necessarily return to their specific source, the campuses should use them to support graduate students. He encourages divisional faculty and Senate committees to help monitor implementation of the directive. “Local faculty should be able to ask their chancellor and EVC where the NRT funds, dollar for dollar, are going in terms of graduate student support,” he says. “The funds should be traceable.”

 

Chair Brown says the Senate’s Memorial urged the complete elimination of NRT; however, UC is currently legally bound to collect it. Still, he believes the new protocol will have a positive impact on graduate education. The Senate will continue to lobby for relief from the state mandate. “NRT is a tax on our graduate education enterprise that reduces the diversity of our graduate student profile, particularly with respect to our international representation. It handicaps the research engine, and the teaching engine, of UC. We need to continue working to eliminate the NRT, period.”

 

In addition, the Coordinating Committee on Graduate Affairs (CCGA) continues to actively monitor ongoing developments with NRT, as well as the eventual implementation of this directive.