In a move administrators, faculty and students alike first described as unprecedented and uncalled for, the Executive Committee of the Graduate Faculty decided last week to discontinue Hispanic and Latino students’ eligibility for the Duke Endowment Fellowship, the largest single-funded program at the Graduate School.
The committee made its decision based on a report of the 15-year-old fellowship program’s history that found Hispanic and Latino students receiving the fellowship attained a 40 percent Ph.D. completion rate, whereas Hispanic and Latino students without the fellowship attained a 55 percent completion rate—both figures well below the overall Ph.D. completion average of 63 percent.
After the decision was made, the executive committee promised to develop a more efficient strategy for providing funding to those Hispanic and Latino students that demonstrate merit. The committee hopes to implement the new funding program for Hispanic and Latino students beginning in the 2006-07 school year and will allow Hispanic and Latino students to continue to be eligible for the Duke Endowment Fellowship for the 2005-2006 school year, as in years past.
“The issue is straightforward,” said Lewis Siegel, dean of the Graduate School. “There is never a question as to whether or not we will support Hispanic students—it’s what type of support.”
By excluding Hispanic and Latino students from the program, the committee will limit the fellowship—a four-year award providing full tuition, registration and health fees as well as a $21,000-per-year stipend—to Black and African American students and American Indian and Alaskan Native American students starting in the 2006-07 school year.
The announcement initially triggered concern from many members of the Duke community, as a memorandum circulated on various e-mail lists last week that proclaimed Hispanic and Latino students would no longer be eligible for the funding but failing to communicate that the Executive Committee was working to develop an entirely new and different fellowship program for those students. Siegel sent out a memo apologizing for whatever harmful effects the first letter may have caused, writing that the first e-mail was supposed to be accompanied by a memo calling for the immediate formation of a task force to develop a more adequate program than the one currently in place.
“This action by the grad school is being circulated on e-mail networks throughout the U.S. and has been very harmful to what Duke is supposed to stand for,” said John French, director of the Latino/a Studies program and associate professor in the history department. “Dean Siegel recognizes that, which is why he revoked the decision. But why did it have to get to that point? Revoking the decision that the grad school made is only the beginning of the University being more supportive of Latino issues.”
Although the committee’s report found that Hispanic and Latino students with the fellowship completed their Ph.D. degrees at lower rates than those without it, the report also revealed that the Black and African American graduate students with the fellowship attained a Ph.D. completion rate of 70 percent, whereas only 60 percent of those without the fellowship completed their degrees. Duke is one of the only universities in the nation where the Ph.D. completion rate of Black and African American students is higher than the overall Ph.D. completion rate.
The committee decided that rather than changing the program entirely, it would be better to create a new program for Hispanic and Latino students and continue allowing Black and African American students to benefit from the Duke Endowment Fellowship.
“Do people come for the ‘goodie’ and then don’t do the work? Is there a support system in place?” Siegel asked. “Maybe there needs to be a more service-oriented program—this fellowship program doesn’t support that. We really want to think this through.”
Siegel wrote in another memo that the committee charged with developing a new fellowship strategy for Hispanic and Latino students will consider various modes of support, such as dissertation year and research support instead of some of the support that is now in place and has been marked as ineffective. Siegel also hopes the committee will foster a better intellectual and social environment for Hispanic and Latino students, which would improve the chances of completing their Ph.D. degrees.
Still, members of the Duke community remained unconvinced that the University is sufficiently addressing Hispanic and Latino student issues.
“I think the action by the grad school—which was very insensitive and inappropriate—runs counter to the direction that the University is taking towards providing support for other ethnic and cultural groups,” French said. “The problems being faced can’t be thought about as a grad school thing; the University has to make a commitment to take action. Growing visibility has shown and convinced many people that Duke needs to do something.”
Student leaders hope administrators will come through on the committee’s new plans.
“This is indicative of a larger problem Duke has understanding the Latino community—Duke’s lack of effort recruiting Latino students and retaining Latino students,” said Victoria DeFrancesco, president of the Duke Latina/o Graduate Student Association. “I view [the report] as a biased sample, because when you don’t put in effort to recruit the best students you’re already sabotaging your efforts.”
Undergraduate student leaders are also unsure of Duke’s commitment to their community. “Do we feel valued here?” asked junior Tomas Lopez, co-president of Mi Gente. “Are there systems in place that they have set up to fully support our needs?”
Though the Executive Committee of the Graduate Faculty’s decision caused widespread controversy, it also brought the Hispanic and Latino community at Duke together. “Presently,” DeFrancesco added, “North Carolina has the fastest growing Latino population in the country. This is where the future lays.”
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