July 26, 1995 Contact: Robert Irion (408/459-2495)

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AWARDS $1.3 MILLION TO UC SANTA CRUZ TO SUPPORT GRADUATE SCIENCE STUDENTS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--The University of California, Santa Cruz, fared remarkably well in a national competition for fellowships to support graduate students in the sciences, garnering $1.3 million for the 1995-96 academic year.

The fellowships, from a U.S. Department of Education program known as Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN), will pay stipends, tuition, and fees for 55 students pursuing doctoral degrees in biology, chemistry, computer and information sciences, mathematics, or physics. The fellowships, which last for three years, exist to "sustain and enhance the capacity for teaching and research in areas of national need."

Each recipient will earn a $14,400 stipend and $9,493 to cover tuition and other costs. The fellowships are available to all graduate students in the five fields, with an emphasis on supporting women as well as African American, American Indian, Chicano, and Latino students.

In the fall of 1994, those minorities made up 14.2 percent of UCSC's graduate student body. That was the highest percentage in the UC system, says Ronaldo Ramirez, assistant to the dean of the Division of Graduate Studies. "The faculty and facilities are what attracts a number of talented students, and it helps when we are able to offer competitive financial packages," Ramirez says.

Ramirez applied for the grants and serves as project codirector, along with the chairs of the five departments. Each department will receive $167,251 for the 1995-96 academic year to support seven graduate students. In addition, two departments will receive renewals of GAANN grants awarded last year: $262,923 to biology (eleven students) and $215,037 to physics (nine students).

"These fellowships are prestigious for the recipients, and they have many positive spillover effects," Ramirez says. "For instance, they will free up teaching assistantships and other sources of support for other students who need them." Ramirez adds that the fellowships also help assistant professors, who often lack the external grants necessary to support the research of many graduate students in their labs.

UCSC received 5 of the 70 new GAANN grants awarded this year. The Department of Education received 285 applications for the 1995-96 funds, which totaled $11 million.

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