Peter T. Ellison, the new dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), doesn't call himself an ambitious man.

But less than one semester into his term as dean, the biological anthropologist has big goals.

Ellison wants to fully endow the GSAS--an effort that will require raising $200 million to $300 million for the school. He'd like to build a residential campus for graduate students similar to the undergraduate Houses, possibly across the river in Allston.

And he wants to continue to buttress financial aid for graduate students, to ease the burden for starving scholars.

No wonder Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles has termed his plans for GSAS "indeed ambitious."

Amongst his colleagues, Ellison's name is virtually synonymous with graduate student aid reform. He lent his name to a report released in 1998 by a committee he headed. In the report, the committee advocated covering tuition for four or five years for needy students, compared to two years, the previous standard. This meant each department can give aid to the same group of students throughout their careers at GSAS.

According to Knowles, who convened the committee on Graduate Student Aid in 1997, the new system of funding allows the amount each department distributes in financial aid to remain stable from year to year.

"[There won't be] irrational annual swings in numbers that many programs used to suffer from," he says.