FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.—The University of Arkansas Graduate School has welcomed 71 exceptional graduate students to campus for fall 2003 with a total of $745,000 worth of support for their first year.

The 26 Distinguished Doctoral Fellows and 45 Doctoral Academy Fellows are seeking doctoral degrees in five different colleges and 23 different disciplines, including physics, chemistry, engineering, accounting, economics, gerontology, health sciences, anthropology, higher education, psychology and public policy.

"These students will enrich an already high-caliber research culture here on campus," said Collis Geren, dean of the Graduate School. "The fellowships have allowed us to recruit and retain the very best students who might otherwise pursue graduate careers elsewhere."

The students hail from as far away as the University of Oregon and the University of Massachusetts. They come from SEC schools including Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt. And they come from neighboring state institutions like Texas Tech, Wichita State University and Oklahoma State University. They include students from in-state institutions like Hendrix College, John Brown University, Arkansas State University and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Their number also includes students from the University of Arkansas who chose to stay at the university even though other distinguished institutions tried to recruit them.

Some of the fellows started directly out of college, while others have pursued careers before returning to graduate studies.

"The fellows come from diverse backgrounds," Geren said. "The one trait they share, with each other and with the graduate students and faculty here is a commitment to excellence."

The enhanced doctoral fellows program is made possible thanks to $100 million earmarked for the Graduate School from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation's $300 million gift to the University of Arkansas, made in April of 2002. The intent is to double the size of graduate enrollments in the University’s 34 doctoral and 96 master’s programs to 5,500 by 2010, and to support the growth of University research program.

"We are thrilled that the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation gift has enabled the university to provide financial support for such an excellent group of graduate students," said Chancellor John A. White. "We look forward to the insights, innovations and inventions that these students will produce during their tenure with us and beyond."

The eventual goal is to use $24 million of the endowment to establish 60 Distinguished Doctoral Fellowships, each funded by an endowment of $400,000, which would generate about $20,000 annually for the fellowship. This level of stipend is supplemented up to $10,000 by the university department that enrolls the student, allowing the university to compete for the most talented doctoral students in the nation.

And $40 million has gone to endow the Doctoral Academy Fellowship Program. The annual earnings from this endowment — roughly $2 million — are being used to increase the amount of current stipends offered by departments to bring them up to competitive levels.

Another $24 million is slated to endow eight new graduate faculty endowed research chairs. And another $12 million will be used to support graduate research and enhance library holdings.

# # #