In an effort to attract high quality graduate students who are interested in studying ethics and leadership to the University of Houston, the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center will offer stipends to selected incoming graduate students beginning in the fall of 2024. These stipends can be added to the recruitment packages that departments offer their students. The stipends are in the amount of $4000/year, and will be provided to students in Master’s programs for two years, as long as they are in good standing, and to students in doctoral programs for four years, as long as they are in good standing. Students who are awarded these stipends will be subject to an informal expectation to attend EDR Center events when possible, and normally to meet together each semester to share ideas and seek constructive feedback from one another.  Aside from that we do not expect them to have any formal obligations. The sole criterion for the award is the promise of doing excellent work related to ethics and leadership. Each will be dubbed an Elizabeth D. Rockwell Scholar and may put that appellation on their CV.

Department chairs or graduate directors who are interested in taking advantage of this opportunity should contact the EDR Center Director (Dan Engster, daengste@central.uh.edu) by February 15 to express their interest. In your email, please indicate when you might be able to forward to the EDR Center an application file of a student who meets the requirements of the award, on the assumption that their departments will receive such applications. Once departments have determined their offers to students, they should send the files of students whom they think are suitable for the award (no more than one per department) to the EDR Center. The Center should be able to make a decision on these files within a few days so that departments can sweeten their offers to outstanding applicants.

This is a new and experimental program. The logistics are obviously challenging since different departments have different deadlines for their graduate applications. We expect to offer only a couple of stipends in the first year to see how the program goes. We’ll seek feedback from program applicants about what we might change for coming years. If you have any questions, please contact Dan Engster at daengste@central.uh.edu.