Due to an administrative mishap, for the past five years graduate student parents have been enjoying thousands of dollars in extra grant funds that have been set side for faculty and staff.

When the Cornell University Graduate and Professional Student Childcare Grant for Students with Children was established in 2004, the limit for individual funding for students with children was originally set at $1,500, but the portion of the total funds appropriated for the parent students was accidentally mixed with the total pool of funds for faculty and staff.

Administrators became aware of this mix-up in June and are enforcing the maximum individual funding of $1,500 from this semester onwards. This has elicited heated debates in the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly in its meeting last week.

“The maximum cap for individual funding for graduate students with children was reduced from $5,000 to $1,500 in early September,” said Cresten Manfeldt, a graduate physical sciences voting member of the GPSA. “It was due to a lack of communication between the graduate student body and the administration.”

The assembly passed a resolution to request a re-evaluation of the grant.

The transfer of the grant’s administration from the Office of Workforce Diversity and Inclusion in the University’s Office of Human Resources to the Graduate School and Provost’s Office “reinstated the existing, but not enforced, maximum individual funding of $1500,” according to the resolution.

“WDELQ is a part of HR and employee relations, but because of recent budgetary reductions our office couldn’t service students anymore,” said Brenda Wickes, assistant dean for Graduate Student Life. “So the Graduate School agreed to work with financial aid and other offices to coordinate the grant’s distribution, since a majority of grant recipients are grad students.”

The grant was established in 2004 with a total budget of $100,000, but by the 2008-2009 school year, the average grant per child in a family swelled to $2,647, well above the budget. This marks a 60 percent increase from the previous 2007-08 school year, from $1,605.

“The amount allocated by the Provost and Graduate School had not changed, but [WDELQ] did not operate within the budget,” added Wickes. “It was administered in the same way that they administered faculty and staff grants were, which are federally capped at $5000.”

Some graduate students expressed their concern over the newly enforced cap.

“It was a huge blow to students living on small stipends like single graduate student parents reliant on grants, and also students whose [marital] partners are also students,” said a concerned graduate student attending the assembly who wished to remain unnamed. “These students have to face huge emotional and financial anxiety in meeting basic costs — it’s counterproductive to the University’s emphasis on diversity and access.”

There was dissent, however, among members of the GPSA who saw the situation from a financial perspective; Manfeldt pointed out that “there aren’t really any funds at the moment to give out.”

GPSA President and graduate student Nighthawk Evensen concurred with this sentiment, citing “the financial climate,” and said that “the funds will inevitably be taken from somewhere else,” such as alumni gift funds.

In a letter of response to the graduate student outcry, Graduate School dean Alison Power stated in a letter of response that “the extent of the budget overrun only became clear in June 2009.”

“To eliminate account deficit, the Graduate school provided over $100,000 in alumni gift funds[...] which significantly depleted accumulated gift funds,” she stated.

According to the letter, gift funds were depleted so far that the English for Academic Purposes program had to be eliminated. However, Power also stated that the Graduate School will provide “up to an additional $7,500 from anticipated gift funds for 2009-10 in order to increase the award to $1,605 per student (the same rate as in 2007-08)” as an act of good faith.

The GPSA plans to send their resolution, officially titled “Regarding the Reduction In Maximum Individual Funding for Cornell Students with Children and the Graduate Student Response” to several administrators, including President Skorton and Provost Ken Fuchs.

The resolution aims to “outline and address the benefits of the initial Childcare Grant Program and the impact of the Grant’s alteration,” and consequently instigate a reconsideration of the Grant’s details by administrators. It can be viewed online at the GPSA’s website.

“A group of grad students has been the victims of [an] unfortunate mistake by the administration, and they are coming to GPSA for support,” said Ben Heavner grad, physical sciences representative in the GPSA. “I’d be very disappointed if were unable to help such a large group of students.”