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Endowment Proposals
Chancellor Zeppos has announced a $300,000,000 endowment for Graduate Research and Education at Vanderbilt. (Click here for more info). This translates to about $15,000,000-$20,000,000 per year. Many offices and programs around campus are putting together proposals suggesting uses for these funds. Dean Wallace has given the Graduate Student Council (GSC) the opportunity to submit proposals as well. We have shared this opportunity with all of you.
Here are the proposals that your fellow students submitted. Click on proposal title to see a final copy of the proposal:
- VU Joint Venture Research Initiative – A program to diversify research funding sources and educational opportunities for students. link
- VU Democracy School – Extracurricular weekend classes for high school students, taught by grad students, which better equip high schoolers to address issues in the Social Sciences and Humanities. link
- Adult Community Science Outreach – A science outreach program that targets adults, not children, that serves to educate our voting public and enhance science communication skills among students. link
- Project Mentor – A program that supplies basic training in various leadership skills to current PIs/Mentors as well as grad students and postdocs. link
- Daycare Supplements – A fund to subsidize daycare costs for Vanderbilt Grad students with children to alleviate financial stress and foster a welcoming environment for all types of students. link
- Incentivized Milestones – An award system that uses positive reinforcement, in the form of small scholarships and grants, to promote timely progress to graduation.
- Mental Wellness Initiative – A short course that equips students mentally and physically to adapt to the demands and stressors of graduate school. link
- Travel Funding – A fund that allows the graduate school to expand the number and size of travel grants available to current students. link
- Made@Vanderbilt – a Device Fabrication and Testing Facility – A new facility that specializes in device fabrication and testing that will accelerate research in this field. link
- Everyone Can Present: Popular Research Presentation Platform – A research competition where students post short presentations online so they are accessible to the public. Winners are chosen partially on the popularity of their online video. link
- Interdisciplinary Data Science Fellowship – A fellowship program where a team of graduate students learn data science skills and work together to create a deliverable product to the Vanderbilt community. link
- Technology on Purpose: Taking Education to the T.O.P. – An initiative where technology in the classroom enables students to visualize complex ideas in the humanities while also turning students into producers of knowledge. link
- Home for the Holidays – Creation of a fund and program that would support international students trips home. link
- Vanderbilt “DID” Dual and Interdisciplinary Degree Programs – A fund for courses and new degree programs that allow students to pursue intersectional and multidisciplinary research. link
- BRET: ASPIRE Retention – A proposal calling for the use of the endowment as bridge funding to maintain and expand the ASPIRE program. link