Rackham offers “Faculty Ally” grants up to 12K per year, for the purpose of making departments better for all graduate students, including students from under-represented demographics.
A few years ago, PhD student Patricia Klein took the lead on designing a program to fund speaker travel to our seminars. We were able to use this money, and a followup grant the next year to “diversify” our seminars, fund social events where students could interact with seminar speakers, and most importantly, provide PhD students with a pot of money and agency to invite speakers of their own. The fund also funded some student travel, a conference, and a training session from the Spectrum Center.
Applications are due in Mid February. The proposal needs to be submitted by a “faculty Ally” but we are happy to help make this happen if students are interested in designing a project for this grant. In addition to the “Faculty Ally” grant, we can also apply for a “Student Ally” associated grant which can fund students to work on the project. There are many things we might be able to work together on and need innovative ideas: something to help student mental health? fund QR exam prep? improve social life? help with recruiting? fund student initiatives like the DRP? fund more career panels? Please see the link below for details, and talk to me (Karen Smith) or another faculty ally if you are interested!
