LSA Transitional Funding Support Program

About

The LSA Transitional Funding Support Program was created to reduce and mitigate the power imbalance in the trainee-mentor relationship when trainees are financially dependent on their mentor. It provides immediate financial support for Master’s and PhD trainees with guaranteed funding who are supported by their faculty advisor (e.g., GSRA), so that a trainee can exit a harassing or abusive relationship and transition to a new advisor without losing continuity in financial support.

LSA is committed to creating a climate that is free of sexual and gender-based harassment. Harassment, abuse, and other forms of extreme harm also can and do occur in situations where the trainee is not directly funded by a faculty advisor, but a financial dependency creates an additional barrier to exiting a situation. This program is designed to address such cases of financial dependency.

Regardless of the trainee’s funding situation, all departments are expected to assist trainees who choose to change faculty advisors, whether to exit a harassing situation or for any other reason, and should communicate to trainees the departmental process for changing their faculty advisor.

LSA Transitional Funding Support Program

1. LSA guarantees one semester of transitional funding to any Master’s or PhD trainee, leaving a harassing, abusive, or harmful trainee-advisor relationship who would otherwise have been supported financially by their advisor. Additional transitional funding, including summer funding, may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
2. LSA trainees who receive GSRA funding from a faculty advisor to conduct scholarship as part of their degree completion are eligible. Trainees from other colleges and schools working with LSA faculty should seek support from their home unit.
3. Transitional funding is intended to support the trainees’ continued progress to degree, while conforming to the normal graduate funding model within the unit. A trainee who would normally expect to receive a departmental fellowship or GSI during the transition period should still do so. Self-funded Master’s students who are not directly dependent on a faculty advisor for funding as part of their degree completion are not eligible for transitional funding.
4. Disagreements between trainees and advisors due to personality, advising style, or intellectual outlook do not rise to the level of abuse or harassment.
5. The transitional funding can be used to support the trainees’ search for a new advisor or to support work with a new advisor that doesn’t currently have funding.
6. Master’s and PhD trainees who receive transitional funding should be granted academic accommodations as appropriate, including flexibility around times to degree and other academic milestones. 

Process for Requesting LSA Transitional Funding Support

Transitional support can be requested at any time. Master's and PhD students should first contact their Director of Graduate Studies (DGS)/Graduate Chair, who will then contact LSA’s Director of Graduate Student Affairs (DSA) Paula Hathaway (ptrail@umich.edu). Other referrals may come from Rackham’s Graduate Student Program and Consultation Services, in which case the DGS would be contacted to start the discussion. The DSA will review the student’s specific situation. The meeting between the DSA and the DGS will be treated with discretion and no proof of a harassing or abusing relationship will be necessary for transitional support. A description of any type of harassment, including racial, and sexual and gender-based harassment, revealed at this meeting will be reported to the Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office (ECRT). 

• If funding is approved, the DSA will then work with department leadership to facilitate the trainee’s smooth transition between advisors, including management of the trainee’s ongoing research projects. UM prohibits retaliation against any student, staff or faculty member who makes a good faith report. The department chair will let the faculty advisor know that retaliation of any kind will not be tolerated and will check in with the student to confirm that no retaliative actions have occurred. Retaliation of any kind against a trainee will not be tolerated and should be immediately reported to the divisional AD.

Note: Counseling and other types of support should be sought through Rackham’s Graduate Student and Program Consultation Services (GSPCS) and/or Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS).

Questions?

Contact Paula Hathaway, Director of Graduate Student Affairs: ptrail@umich.edu