USVI Public Records

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Cc y Iie TRUSTEE GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP (Board of Trustees Meeting, July 1, 1977) At an earlier meeting, the Board of Trustees had expressed an interest in developing support for graduate study on the part of the College's academically strongest and most promising senior students. With this request in mind, the President and the Acting Provost and Dean of the College had drawn up a proposal to be referred to as the Trustee Graduate Fellowship progrem. This proposal was presented to the members of the Board at this meeting with the suggestion that it be implemented for the 1977-78 academic year. Under this program, as proposed, each division would have available a $1,000 award to be given to an outstanding senior who has been accepted for graduate study. This award would be a combination grant/loan with one-half to be returned to the College when the student is no longer in graduate school. It was argued that such an award would have obvious benefits. It would highlight academic achievement, encourage post-graduate study, reward outstanding students, and help increase the upward academic mobility of our graduates. Further and importantly, it would provide the College with a growing pool of highly trained people to whom it could turn in making faculty and staff appointments in the years ahead. With the provision that the awards for the first year were to be taken from private funds available to the College rather than from the operating budget, and with the further proviso that the eligible group of students be enlarged each year to include graduates from previous classes, the Board of Trustees approved this proposal, indicating its support of it and its designation as the Trustee Graduate Fellowships program.