The Academic Senate last week decided to reconsider the issue of how to use research grants to help absorb the costs of non-resident graduate tuition.

The senate agreed to seek input from its committees and relevant academic programs before endorsing a specific approach. Faculty members expressed concerns about how two recently proposed models would affect their ability to recruit international students and whether the policies would favor the employment of post-doctoral students rather than graduate students.

The proposed policies were among the items discussed May 7 at the spring meeting of the Representative Assembly of the Academic Senate.

In February, the senate had asked the administration to delay the implementation of any new policy regarding non-resident tuition remission until it received input from its faculty committees. Under current plans, the administration would fully implement a new policy by fall 2004.

Martin Privalsky, professor in microbiology, said the changes could "cripple or aid" graduate programs and research efforts depending on what new approach is taken.

For the "average-cost" model, any fund source that employs a graduate student researcher at 25 percent time or greater would contribute to a central fund. During 2002-03, the contribution would have been about $2,900. Numbers of non-resident graduate student researchers (both pre-candidacy and advanced to candidacy) are based on a three-year average.

Privalsky and other faculty members said the "cost containment" of the average-cost model would lead to increased numbers of international students recruited for graduate research while placing at a disadvantage the faculty who never recruit such students.

A major alternative to the average-cost policy model is the "cost-by-residency" policy model. This is used at most other UC campuses and other public schools. In this model, the fund source that employs a non-resident student as a graduate student researcher would pay the entire non-resident tuition for that student -- approximately $11,000 per year.

The problem with this model, some faculty said, is the possibility it would lead to lower graduate student numbers and more post-doctoral students.

In Fall 2002, the campus enrolled approximately 3,675 graduate students. About one-third of these students hail from outside California and that number is growing throughout the UC system.

The assembly resolved that neither models are workable and neither should be implemented, and that any new model should be developed in formal consultation with the Academic Senate through the Graduate Council and the Committee on Research, other divisional committees and graduate programs. "Let's start with a third option," said Privalsky.

In other business, the Senate approved a proposal to allow students enrolled in a degree program at UC Davis to count grades they earn in concurrent courses taken through University Extension in their grade point average. The body also approved new organization bylaws for the Academic Senate structure of the new School of Education.

The Senate postponed for further discussion a proposal to remove the "enrolled -- no work submitted" grade option and replace it with the grade of "F."

Of special note was the announcement of the 2003 recipients of the Distinguished Public Service Awards. They are geology professor Eldridge Moores, professor of medicine Jerold Last and professor Bill Ong Hing of the School of Law and Asian American studies. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on May 21. The Senate, representing all tenured faculty at the campus, makes the awards annually to recognize significant contributions to the world, nation, state and community. (For more information, see the May 9 online edition of Dateline.)

In addition, Zackary O'Donnell, chair of Staff Assembly, addressed the faculty. He encouraged "collaboration and partnership" between the staff and senate members in areas of mutual concern, including student scholarships, employee recognition and parking.