Dean Berkey's Response to the BGSA

September 3, 1997

Mr. Ioannis Batjakas
Department of Biology
Boston University
5 Cummington Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Dear Mr. Batjakas:

This is in response to your letter of August 27 in which you accuse the Graduate School of a "cavalier nature" in its "ill-considered" policy concerning stipends for teaching fellows.

As with other forms of student financial assistance, the current policy will keep constant the stipends offered to teaching fellows during their tenure in the Graduate School. It recognizes the market for graduate students, and the expressed desire of departments to increase stipend offers to applicants as a recruitment device. It results directly from the allocation of limited resources to what was understood to be the greater need.

If financial resources permit, we will reconsider this policy in the future, and your views will be taken into account. Thank you for expressing your opinion on this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Dennis D. Berkey
Provost
Dean of Arts and Sciences

cc: Professor Gary Jacobson
Acting Chairman, Dept. of Biology

Professor Scott Whitaker
Associate Dean, GRS