coe-staff: COE GE Funding Update for AY 26/27

[Emily Tanner-Smith]

Dear COE Community,
For your awareness, today I sent the message below to COE PhD Program Directors and Department Heads.
Best wishes,
Emily


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Dear PhD Program Directors,
Thank you to all who have met with me over the past month as I consulted about the college's GE funding options for PhD students. I appreciate the thoughtful feedback I've received from faculty, program directors, department heads, and associate deans. And I appreciate your willingness to engage in these discussions over the summer.

Given the budget challenges facing our college and the university, I have made the difficult decision that no new GE funding packages will be offered to any incoming first-year PhD students in AY 26/27. This change in GE funding packages will only affect new potential PhD students. The college will honor all existing GE funding packages previously offered to PhD students (i.e., offered prior to AY25/26).

I ask the PhD program directors in CDS, CPSY, CSSE, PREV, QRME, SPSY, and SPED and their faculty, to now decide whether their program will actively recruit PhD students for AY 26/27, knowing that those students will not be offered guaranteed funding from the college as part of their admissions offer and will be responsible for funding their studies through other means.

  1.  Re-set option: Some PhD programs may decide to halt PhD admissions this year, to allow for a "re-set" year as the college re-evaluates our GE funding model for AY27/28 and beyond, in light of the university's current budget model. Those programs may wish to divert applicants to their master's (or similar) programs that may offer a pathway to their doctoral program in later years. I encourage these programs to update their websites and contact the Graduate School to close their admissions portal as soon as possible (that admissions portal opens to prospective applicants on Sept. 15th).
  2.  Recruit option: Some PhD programs may decide to continue PhD admissions this year and to accept an incoming cohort in AY 26/27, which assumes there would be sufficient demand for PhD training in that field whether or not the college provides funding. Note that the college will be requiring strict adherence to minimum class enrollment sizes (12 for undergraduate, 6 for graduate) going forward, so if programs choose to admit PhD students, they will be asked to plan cohort sizes accordingly and to assure minimums can be met and maintained.

I ask PhD program directors to let me know the option they have selected no later than Sept 12th. I am happy to engage with departments or programs as you decide, and to share some of the broader pros and cons that may be associated with these decisions.

I am sorry to deliver such disappointing news, especially over the summer, while many of our faculty are not on contract. I did not make this decision lightly and I continue to value the stellar PhD training offered by our college. The budget reductions required of our college have forced these decisions in a compressed timeline, but my goal continues to be prioritizing our commitment to existing faculty and students.

Starting in the fall, I will be meeting with program directors and department heads to discuss next steps on instituting a more financially sustainable GE funding model for AY27/28 and beyond in light of the university's current budget model.

Finally, in the coming academic year, I will be consulting broadly with the COE community on this topic and on the range of other interconnected decisions associated with this change and with our ongoing context. Thank you in advance for your input and consultation on these important matters.
Best wishes,
Emily

Emily Tanner-Smith | Interim Dean & Thomson Professor (she/her)
University of Oregon | College of Education
230 HEDCO Education Building | Eugene, OR 97403-1215
https://education.uoregon.edu<https://education.uoregon.edu/> | https://hedcoinstitute.uoregon.edu/
[Logo for the University of Oregon's College of Education]<https://www.uoregon.edu/>

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