The new graduate student emergency fund does well to ensure that graduate and professional students, whose experience is often marked by financial constraints, don’t lose out on funds to the larger undergraduate population.
The new fund has recently been introduced online by the Graduate and Professional Student Federation.
Graduate school students, often more vulnerable to the monetary strains of tuition and other expenses than undergraduates, have long been grouped with their undergraduate peers in the Student Emergency Fund application process.
Given that undergraduates significantly outnumber graduate and professional students, the resources of the fund cannot always adequately be allocated among the graduate applicants.
The SEF is a good starting point for graduate students, but this new additional fund is a necessary supplement.
At UNC, about half of the graduate students are from out of state — a contrast from the largely North Carolina based undergraduate population — and travel expenses for emergencies can be substantial.
A separate fund exclusively for graduate and professional students gives necessary additional resources to this particularly needy population.
With the emphasis of universities often lying with undergraduates, it is often the case that graduate students, older and arguably more independent, don’t get the same attention and personalized resources as their undergraduate equals.
While attempting to stimulate a sense of unity between the graduate and undergraduate populations on campus is important, realizing the differing needs of the two and creating separate resources when necessary ensures that both populations get suitable support.
