The Experimental Psychology Student Government organization (EPSG) at The University of Southern Mississippi is currently raising funds to support the Experimental Psychology Research Fund through the Eagle Fever website. Eagle Fever is a crowdfunding tool that allows donors to support different projects going on in Southern Miss. Currently, the Experimental Psychology Research Group is the only active project on the platform.
EPSG is a student government for graduate students in the Experimental Psychology Ph.D. program and currently has 18 graduate students. The organization hosts a meeting every Friday where the graduate students meet and discuss their jobs, presentations, and research topics.
Experimental Psychology Research Fund is based on the foundation created by Dr. Stanley A. Kuczaj. The purpose of the fund is to help students in the experimental psychology program with their research. The organization is hoping to raise $2,500 so that the money could be used to gain interest and help support the students in the long term. The interest from the funds will be used so that the fund can sustain itself for a long time.
EPSG is hoping to help students with the barriers against research with this fund. Some of the resources that students could access through the fund are conferences, software for experiments, and better print for posters. The organization is currently approaching alumni to help collect the funds and posting on social media to raise awareness about the project.
Shiza Shahid, who handles public relations for the organization, explained why the project is important.
“As graduate students, we are not getting enough stipend for our research and travel, especially travel to conferences,” Shahid said. “So I think it would be really helpful if we get this money.”
Shahid explained further why not getting enough stipends is a big problem for graduate students.
“As a graduate student, you cannot do a side gig because as a requirement of our program, we can’t work outside the program during the academic year,” she said. “It is even harder for international students to go to conferences and professional development programs because of the funding.”
With presentations over Zoom meetings being increasingly less common, graduate students have to find different ways to be able to present their research topics. The lack of stipends for graduate students makes traveling for conferences very costly.
“One of the closest conferences in the area is in Orlando, Florida,” Zach Buckner, the president of EPSG explained. “That alone is a big challenge for students to get to. Another big reason for this funding is that the School of Psychology will offer funding to a couple of students every year but we want all of our students to have an equal opportunity to go to these things.”
The project has been active on the Eagle Fever website since the beginning of March and will remain open for funding until 8 am on April 2. The project currently has funding from 11 different states and is very close to reaching the goal. Donations from everyone are welcome and can be made by visiting eaglefever.usm.edu and selecting the “Experimental Psychology Graduate Research” option.
