UM puts hold on three-credit minimum for grad students

Graduate students can go another year without having to register for a minimum of three credits to maintain continuous enrollment.

University of Montana Provost Royce Engstrom sent an e-mail Wednesday to the Graduate Student Association informing them that a three-credit minimum enrollment requirement for graduate students will not be enforced next academic year.

“The information from the Graduate Council came late enough that I don’t want to rush through a decision,” Engstrom said in the e-mail.

Engstrom said on Thursday that he will postpone his decision until the information gained through the graduate survey issued in March can be more thoroughly studied.

“It’s definitely the case that a lot of grad students will be far better off,” said John Copeland, president of GSA.

Copeland said he would like to have been given a definite answer but this is a step in the right direction. GSA has brought the three-credit issue a long way, and we’d like some closure, he said.

Christine Fiore, the UM professor of psychology who headed the graduate survey’s committee, said in an e-mail that the committee does not support the implementation of the three-credit minimum.

“We felt it was too harmful to graduate students and graduate education,” she said.

Although the credit requirement would bring financial gain to UM, Fiore said the personal costs, program and university costs outweigh the financial benefits.

The committee offered several alternatives to imposing a credit requirement, but it is up to Engstrom and UM President George Dennison to ultimately decide whether the credit requirement will be put in place.

Fiore said Engstrom asked to meet with the Graduate Council again to discuss his understanding of the information that was gathered, and the Graduate Council is “interested and involved in this process.”

Copeland said several people are being considered to fill an open position as associate provost. He said he has hope that the new associate provost will help continue further discussion about how to improve graduate education.

“It seems like there isn’t much more we can do about it this semester,” Copeland said. “It’s bittersweet.”