The Council of Graduate Schools posted a resolution, “Resolution Regarding Graduate Scholars, Fellows, Trainees and Assistants,” regarding offers and acceptances of financial assistance for graduate students. Financial support—scholarships, fellowships, and assistantships—is commonly offered at the same time as an offer of admission for advanced graduate studies, and such offers need to be tendered and accepted within publicly known terms. The resolution affirms that students may entertain more than one offer and, if done appropriately, may renege on an agreement to accept an offer.
Students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15; earlier deadlines for acceptance of such offers violate the intent of this Resolution. In those instances in which a student accepts an offer before April 15, and subsequently desires to withdraw that acceptance, the student may submit in writing a resignation of the appointment at any time through April 15. However, an acceptance given or left in force after April 15 commits the student not to accept another offer without first obtaining a written release from the institution to which a commitment has been made. Similarly, an offer by an institution after April 15 is conditional on presentation by the student of the written release from any previously accepted offer
For more, including a complete copy of the statement and a list of the signatories, see “Resolution Regarding Graduate Scholars, Fellows, Trainees, and Assistants.”
Costs-benefits of special education
Over on Squidalicious, a guest post by Lea Cuniberti-Duran about “Special Needs Children and Public Education” appears under the title “We Are Not Sparta: The Real, Justified Costs of Educating Kids With Special Needs.” Ms. Cuniberti-Duran recounts the argument that schools are hamstrung by the costs of providing special education services.
She then proceeds to provide a clear and powerful dismissal of the canard that special education’s costs harm others. Not only does she show how the costs argument leaks (at least with regard to the local education agencies in her geographic area of the US), but also she explains how beneficial special education has been to society as a whole over the past 35 years. Read it!