Graduate Student Funding
Porter College Teaching Fellowships
Porter College Teaching Fellowships provide funding for two-unit, lower-division courses that are designed and taught by graduate students during the winter and spring quarters. Recipients of the Fellowship will be compensated at the Graduate Students Instructor pay rate as determined by the Experience Based Salary Wage Schedule. The salary point assigned will be based on the candidate’s quarters of teaching experience.
Total enrollments for most of the courses offered under this program will be capped at 25 to 30 students.
Eligibility
Applicants must be enrolled as graduate students in an Arts Division department through the spring quarter of the year following the year of application.
Applicants must qualify for appointment as a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) under guidelines established by the Committee on Educational Policy. Please consult the relevant criteria on this website for more details.
Applicants must also provide written confirmation from the director of graduate studies in their department or program that it will be possible for them to teach a 2-unit course at Porter College, without violating the terms of the fellowships, grants and teaching appointments that they will hold in the year when the Teaching Fellowship would take place.
Evaluation of Applications
The College Provost, in consultation with the College’s Executive Committee, shall determine the final status of all applications for Porter College Teaching Fellowships.
Successful applications will provide clear evidence of the applicant’s achievements in teaching and research. Among deserving applications, priority will be given to proposals that are suitable for a two-unit, lower-division course intended for non-majors.
How to Apply
The annual application deadline is the second Friday in April. Applications should be emailed to Shraddha Waghela, College Academic Manager, at swaghela@ucsc.edu. Results will be announced by the end of the spring quarter.
In order to receive full consideration, applications must have four clearly labeled parts: a cover letter, a curriculum vitae, a course proposal and syllabus, and three letters of recommendation, one of which must be written by the applicant’s advisor.
The syllabus must include the following elements: a description of the course and its goals of no more than 100 words; a schedule that clearly establishes the order of readings and assignments; a statement of the criteria that will be used in evaluating the students’ work; and two examples of the kind of assignments that the applicant might use.
All proposals must align with the framework of an existing two-unit, lower-division course in the Porter College course catalog. Applicants are encouraged to consult with the College Provost before developing a proposal. The Porter College course catalogue may be found here.
Courses requiring an additional course fee for approval will not be considered viable for the Teaching Fellowship program.
Hitchcock Modern Poetry Fund
The Hitchcock Modern Poetry Fund provides enduring support for poetry at Porter College and UC Santa Cruz, thanks to a generous gift in 2002 from George Hitchcock, a renowned publisher, poet, painter, and Lecturer Emeritus at the University. Following Hitchcock’s death in August 2012, the poet Marjorie Simon honored Hitchcock’s life and work, and his hopes for poetry at Porter College, by donating an additional $500,000 to the Fund. Today, the Fund generates approximately $20,000 each year, which is distributed in grants for projects to be completed in the year following the year in which funding is sought.
Application Deadline
Second Friday of April with results by the end of spring quarter. **Please note that funds will be distributed after fiscal close for the AY of application (typically in August).
Eligibility
All UCSC faculty, including lecturers and emeriti, are eligible to apply to the Fund. Applications for funding initiated by undergraduates and graduate students must be submitted by a UCSC faculty member who agrees to be an advisor to the project. Proposals from students and faculty who are affiliated with Porter College are especially welcome.
Evaluation of Applications
The College Provost, in consultation with Porter’s Executive Committee and the Hitchcock Poetry Advisory Committee, shall determine the final status of all applications to the Fund. All successful applications will propose projects of high quality that are likely to involve, affect, or be of interest to the UCSC community, particularly the Porter College community. All proposals must describe the benefits of the project for students or faculty affiliated with Porter College. This criterion will be an important factor in the selection process.
Funds may be requested in any amount. However, applicants should be advised that requests ordinarily exceed the amount of available funding, and therefore, many requests will likely be denied.
How to Apply
In order to receive full consideration, applications must have four clearly labeled parts:
- Coversheet: must include the applicant’s name, department or program affiliation, quarter of graduation (if the applicant is a student), email address, phone number, and amount requested from the Fund.
- Proposal: which should be no more than 750 words, must describe how a grant from the Fund will be used.
- Budget: must itemize all of the costs associated with the completion and presentation of the project, including those costs for which Porter funding is not sought. The budget should also clearly identify any other sources of funding that have been sought, along with the amounts requested, and whether those applications have been successful.
- Endorsement: In the case of applications from undergraduates and graduate students, the faculty advisor’s endorsement must clearly state that the application is, to the best of his or her knowledge, an accurate representation of the costs associated with the proposal. The endorsement must also clearly and explicitly state the faculty advisor’s commitment to guiding the project to completion.
Please send your applications via email to Shraddha Waghela, College Academic Manager, at swaghela@ucsc.edu.