Despite a decline in the number of graduate students nationwide, the enrollment in our graduate program remains steady, with about 50 full-time graduate students, divided equally between the master’s and doctoral programs. We would like to increase our student enrollment to 70.
Several years of effort to bring more money to the graduate program are starting to pay off. Combining fellowships from the department, the University and the National Science Foundation, we were able to support students with stipends that varied from $16,000 to $27,000 per academic year, with all tuition paid.
Several of this year’s graduates were honored for their research and teaching abilities. Atanas Stefanov, PhD ’99, received the Superior Graduate Achievement Award, which recognizes scholastic achievement by MU’s graduate school. Cindy Chapman, MS ’99, received an MU Green Chalk Award, which honors outstanding teaching assistants in the College of Arts and Science.
Lotfi Hermi, PhD ’99, Nora Springer, MS ’99, and Julie Thomas, MST ’99, received the Donald K. Anderson Graduate Teaching Award, which recognizes exceptional teaching assistants in several MU departments.
In the past year, our graduate program awarded nine doctoral and 13 master’s degrees. It is remarkable that all our graduates have either found good jobs or are continuing with more advanced degrees. This clearly reflects on the high quality of our academic programs and teaching training.
Our PhD graduates are going to places like the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Syracuse University, Georgia Tech, Brigham Young University and Marshall University. I found most impressive the demand for our master’s students to teach in community colleges. Cindy Chapman, MS ’99, and Julie Thomas, MST ’99, have received a record number of offers from various community colleges. They decided— finally—to join the faculty at the same community college in Chicago.
