U.S. Department of Education GAANN FellowshipsGraduate Assistantships in Areas of

National NeedA GAANN Committee consisting ofH. Batelaan, D. Claes, A.Dominguez, D. Leslie-Pelecky, G. Snow (chair), and K. Uiterwaalsubmitted a GAANN proposal to the U.S. Department of Education in November 2005.

We were notified on April 18 that the grant will befunded, for 3 Fellowships/year for 3 years.

Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents areeligible for GAANN support.

GAANN program requires attention to students fromunderrepresented groups in science.

Google “GAANN”, I feel lucky

Special thanks to:

All committee members for their input to the proposal

H. Batelaan for the proposal template from previousyears’ submissions

D. Claes, R. Kirby for providing lots of input about thegraduate program and the department for the proposal

P. Christen, N. Braaten for invaluable help on theday of the electronic submission in November

D. Pilson (Biology), R.Wiegand (Math) for discussionson how they run their GAANN programsJ. Tederman (Financial Aid) for insight on FAFSAfinancial needs assessments

The AwardThe grant is for $126,672/year for 3 yearsStart date August 14, 2006No indirect costs charged by the University

A given year is broken down as follows:(Up to) $30,000 stipend 3 = $90,000$12,224 “institutional payment” 3 = $36,672

A 25% = $31,668 total cost share/year is requiredOffice of Graduate Studies: Tuition waiversDepartment: ½ TA support, fits in with supervisedteaching requirement for Fellows

The institutional payment is intended to be used forfees, tuition not covered by cost share, travel, research supplies, books, etc., needed by Fellows

Why did we get funded for 3 Fellowships instead of the requested 6?

No info on budget comes with award letter; E-mailedprogram officer

The number of awarded Fellowships is based onthe reviewers numerical ratingsReviewers assign numerical ratings in 11 categories

Reviewer 1: 97/100 pointsReviewer 2: 93/100 points

Proposals with an average 95.5 (and above somethreshold) were awarded 3 Fellowships

Proposals with an average >95.5 points receivedbetween 4 and 7 Fellowships

Average = 95.0

What were the weaknesses?

Reviewer 1 (97/100): Perfect score in 9/11 categories

Recruitment plan (9/10): “A general sense of theenrollment is given but would benefit from a moreexplicit listing. This section would benefit from moreinformation concerning the past success of theacademic department in enrolling talented graduatestudents for its academic program.”

Evaluation plan (10/12): “A time-line chart is notnoted in this section. It would benefit this sectionif a time-line proposal would have been included.”

What were the weaknesses?

Reviewer 2 (93/100): Perfect score in 8/11 categories

Recruitment plan (7/10): “Little evidence is providedthat the students recruited are of high ability.Statistical data, e.g. GPA and GRE scores would havehelped the proposal.”Project administration (5/7): “More evidence that thedepartment will indeed be able to recruit as GAANNfellows students with the minimum requirements listedis needed. More data such as numbers of applicants,their qualifications, etc. would have helped.”Evaluation plan (10/12): “There does not appear to be an adequate plan to disaggregate the data on those ofdifferent racial backgrounds, etc. A timeline chart isnot provided.”

The financial details• Fellowship stipend amount is based on need which is determined by the online “Free Application For Federal Student Aid” form (FAFSA)• Procedure: student fills FAFSA, UNL Financial Aid receives report and forwards to us (Jo Tederman)• Need based on previous year’s income (taxable or not) • UNL: Typical needs assessment for a student with no income in previous year is about $12K• Things that can increase the assessed need: Spouse and dependents at home with no income• Things that can decrease the assessed need: Student appears on parent’s tax return as dependent, financial assets, student or spouse works, student received TA or RA or fellowship support in previous year

The financial detailsOur proposal commits ½ TA spread over academic yearfor Fellows = $9K which:• Augments typical GAANN stipend ($12K) to the approx. $18K our grad students receive with full RA/TA • Might make the GAANN option attractive, due to reduced teaching load• Supplementing with part-time RA support could increase income to a level above our standard $18K

Reminder: This scheme would result in a FAFSAdetermination of greatly reduced financial need for the next year, making a second GAANN stipend unlikely.This is a known flaw in the system.

However, “once a GAANN, always a GAANN”, means thatthe institutional payment funds CAN be used in later years

The financial details

One advantage of the fact that it is nearly impossibleto provide a student with more than half of themaximum $30K per Fellow – you can use the $30Kto support two Fellows

So excluding special cases where assessed need is>>$15K, we can provide 6 Fellowships using the stipendmoney designated for 3 Math and Biology do this with their GAANNs Department of Education likes this

Short Term Do-List (Identify 1st year GAANN Fellows as soon as possible)

• GAANN info web page linked to Dept. page (started)• Application form (have examples)• GAANN Committee reviews application procedure• Announce 2006-2007 fellowship competition with short deadline (May 15?) to all incoming and present grad students• GAANN Committee does preliminary prioritization of applicants (June 1?)• Wait for FAFSA needs assessments (2-week turn around)• Convolute with preliminary prioritization results• Announce 1st year GAANN awards in June

We should make sure to award at least one GAANN Fellowship to student(s) from underrepresented groups

UNL Biology GAANN Web Page

Longer Term Do-List• Organize supervised teaching activities for GAANN Fellows (mentoring, in class observation, …)

• Organize mentoring and evaluation activities for GAANN Fellows

• Produce information brochure for Physics GAANNs

• Enhance GAANN web page with tracking and evaluation information on Fellows and other graduate students

• Implement recruiting schemes in proposal for 2nd year GAANN recipientsA detail: We will set up 2 cost objects for the GAANNgrant [(i) stipends, (ii) other payments] for ease ofyearly financial reporting