The majority of the fellows are new recruits, but 28 are second-year graduate students recognized for their exceptional promise. It all began with a conversation between Casper and former Secretary of State George Shultz, about how vulnerable universities are to the vagaries of federal funding. At Shultz's urging, Casper began to envision a capital campaign to reduce some of that uncertainty. Casper turned to faculty and deans, who persuaded him that the biggest bang for that 10 million bucks would come from spending it on graduate students. Funding graduate students puts our priorities exactly where they ought to be.
Graduate students are the key to creativity.
If you look at our 25 top admits, each one has the potential to hit the ball out of the park. You want those people to be Stanford alumni. You want to add to their value. And without the fun of working with them, some of my faculty would just go to industry. Ripple effect for research Support for a graduate student frees research grant money for other purposes.