President and his family fund new graduate fellowship

A new fellowship award is now available to graduate students, thanks to the leadership and personal generosity of UVic President Jamie Cassels and his family.

The Cassels-Shaw Graduate Fellowship was recently approved by the University Senate and the Board of Governors.

The new fellowship (named jointly for Cassels and his wife, Erin Shaw) will be awarded to new and continuing master's or doctoral students selected on academic merit and demonstrated financial need. All departments will be invited to nominate one student from their graduate ranks each year, with the first recipients to be named this coming fall.

“On behalf of the recipients this year and all the years to come, I would like to express our appreciation to Professor Cassels and his family for this extraordinary endowment,” says Dr. David Capson, dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. “We are incredibly grateful to Jamie for his integrity, generosity and personal commitment to UVic’s graduate programs. This fellowship establishes a legacy that will benefit our graduate students for many years to come.”

In 2014, in response to fiscal challenges facing UVic, Cassels requested his employment contract be amended to reduce the compensation he would otherwise receive during his five-year tenure as president.  Through a combination of salary freezes, reduced increases and cuts to his administrative leave entitlement, Cassels has arranged to forego a total of $330,000 in earnings, and requested that the Board of Governors redirect those funds: a third each to CARSA, general revenue, and graduate student scholarships. Subsequently, he and his family made contributions to the fellowship.

For more information on the Cassels-Shaw Graduate Fellowship and other graduate student awards, visit bit.ly/uvic-awards.