Kailey Krantz-Diaz | Staff Writer
Some undergraduate students may want to continue their studies at FIU through their graduate program. However, they’ll have second thoughts after learning the program is experiencing drastic budget cuts.
While I may be an undergrad student, I sympathize with the graduate students who have voiced their concerns and relate to their distaste for this decision.
These students have dedicated themselves to furthering their education and have worked hard to be part of the program. Defunding this program puts these students at a disadvantage in achieving this goal; Some participants are struggling to cover these expenses out of pocket.
Back at Hialeah Gardens Senior High School in 2020, I remember my U.S. History teacher, Danny Mayorga, telling the class that everyone nowadays has a bachelor’s degree.
This comment is still relevant to this day.
The chart describes that 31.7 percent of the Miami-Dade population received a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2021. That’s roughly a 22.4 percent increase from the 25.9 percent that received a bachelor’s degree in 2009.
It’s easy to understand why some students want to continue their education after their undergraduate degree. Even with the accomplishments of a bachelor’s degree, there’s still a competitive market for job opportunities.
According to the U.S. News, “a graduate degree can open the door to higher-paying jobs or a faster track to management and executive roles. It can also provide valuable opportunities for professional networking and personal growth.”
These benefits are crucial for students if they want to get a competitive edge in the workplace, which is why it baffles me to see the university try to kill this effort.
Decreasing the funding for this program means that students will have fewer opportunities to hone their networking skills by not having the funds to travel to conferences and other events. This results in graduate students paying out of pocket for their research, on top of worrying about the graduate program’s cost of tuition and other essential finances.
Even worse, the budget cuts risk students out of technical and academic skills that could better equip them for the workforce, such as staying up to date with trends happening in their industry, marketing and publishing their work and utilizing resources that enhance their research.
It’s yet another example of the university slowly back-tracking its promises to students in providing opportunities to grow as individuals, publicly and professionally.
Advocate for a higher budget and allow these students to expand their horizons past their four years instead of leaving them in the dust for a better future.
Correction: A previous version of the article included math that has been flagged as inaccurate. The GPSC did not cut funding from $1,900 to $1,600. Instead, the cuts are as follows: From $850 to $600 for international conferences, from $650 to $500 for domestic travel for conferences and $300 to $200 for Professional Development travel per student. Additionally, students can only receive travel funding once, instead of twice.
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The opinions presented on this page do not represent the views of the PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.
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