Dear GSAS doctoral students,
I hope you are well, and that the end of the spring semester has brought at least some relief from the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As you know from my May 1 communication, in recognition of the academic disruption caused by the health crisis, GSAS is working with our various PhD-granting departments to arrange for some current MacCracken Fellows to receive extended stipend payments. I am writing now to let you know the status of this initiative.
At the end of April, GSAS asked each of its PhD-sponsoring units to devise a plan for providing funding extensions to its doctoral students whose degree progress had been substantially impeded by the pandemic. Departmental faculty took up this task over the ensuing few weeks, working very hard on behalf of their students during an especially challenging period.
By mid-May the Graduate School had received proposals in this regard from all relevant departments, and we have been reviewing them since then. Over the next two weeks, we in GSAS will be meeting with the Chair and DGS of each department to discuss the viability of the department's proposal and outline any revisions deemed necessary. This series of meetings will conclude during the week of June 15th, and soon thereafter we will confirm the feasibility of the finalized proposals and approve them for implementation. At that point, each department will officially announce the details of its plan to its doctoral students, with rollout of the funding extensions set to begin as of fall 2020.
In addition to arranging for funding extensions during the regular academic year, departments have also worked quickly to provide extra support for their doctoral students in summer 2020. Having been approved by all the relevant deans' offices, those summer 2020 funding plans are being implemented this month and next.
Within the next few weeks you should expect to hear directly from your department about the specifics of its finalized funding extension plan. In the meantime, feel free to contact me with any questions about the process, take good care of yourselves, and remember that there are resources available to you through the NYU COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund.
All best,
Phillip Brian Harper