Campaign Priorities
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Three Minute Thesis Competition Sponsorship
The Three Minute Thesis is a research communication competition that has been widely adopted by graduate schools throughout the U.S. and the world. It challenges graduate students to present a compelling talk on their research thesis/dissertation topic and its significance in just three minutes to a non-specialist audience. This competition provides an opportunity for students to better their communication skills. It also enhances the visibility of the Graduate School, and builds external relations for the university; last year our winners were invited to give their presentations to our visiting congressional delegation.
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Faculty Graduation Awards
Every year, the Graduate School gives three awards at the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony: The Excellence in Promoting Inclusiveness in Graduate Education Award; the Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring Award; and the Graduate Instructor Excellence in Teaching Award. We would like to be able to add a monetary component of $2,500 to each award.
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Doctoral Fellowships
Most research universities have a prestigious university-level fellowship for their truly outstanding graduate applicants. Along this model, UM would fund 10 of these fellowships that will be reserved for the top 10 percent of national-level applicants. These would be new fellowships that will stimulate graduate programs and graduate education. Awardees will be selected by a process with strict criteria to ensure that we are recruiting the top students in the country.
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Student Achievement Awards
To advance our reputation as a stellar research university, we seek to grant three new prestigious awards with a monetary component. An annual Doctoral Dissertation Award, a Master’s Thesis Award, and Graduate School Class Marshall Award will provide motivation to our graduate students to produce excellent dissertations and theses in a timely manner and would be a means of drawing attention to the outstanding research carried out by our students.