Tufts University Council on Graduate Education
MINUTES
April 10 1:00-5:30 PM
Mayer Campus Center
Medford
Minutes of the Feb 2006 meeting were approved for posting on the website
Provosts Fellows
The applicant pool was impressive this year. Fewer offers were made (16-17) with the goal of getting 12 fellows.
A few changes relative to previous years:
slower getting confirmation to accept—probably reflects stiffer competition for these students; they have many offers.
Sackler—no acceptances as of today, target numbers have been reduced so the process is slower; awardees need to decline their offers before new offers can be made, in order to avoid exceeding target number.
For next year:
Process is fine—keep rolling applications
Blackboard worked well.
ACTION ITEM—Dawn Terkla should conduct an assessment of the Provosts Fellows program.
ACTION ITEM—Vin will monitor current responses and make additional offers to other qualified nominees if it appears that we will below our 10-12 target.Possible agenda items for next year
Request report from schools on Operational Changes Document at Provosts Council meeting. The Council expects to hear that schools have distributed the document and discussed it with their faculty.
What is the role of Centers in graduate education? This question was asked by Bill, who asked about how many exclusively research faculty are at the University—i.e. non-teaching faculty who have non-tenure track status. The question is prompted by the desire to increase our research profile. Centers/institutes/programs give focus and identity to specific areas of research, but raise issues of oversight and funding. How can centers and institutes serve the dual purposes of raising the research profile of the university and contributing to doctoral education, possibly through research opportunities? This item could fit into the context of the issue of Postdoctoral Fellowships, which was discussed at our Feb meeting.
Postdoctoral issue. See minutes of Feb 2006 meeting and the document put together by Shafik. Question is: what is the role of postdoctoral education in the mission of improving doctoral education and research, and whether post doc education should be considered as a goal itself.
How to identify and remove the barriers to expanding doctoral education and increase the depth and breadth of its offerings. How does the university move more nimbly to take advantage of new opportunities?
Department assessments. What should be the role of UCGE?
ACTION ITEM: Request a report from each dean on their assessment of what is happening in graduate education at their school. Should be part of annual report to the Provost and this information should be passed on to UCGE.
David Walt led a brief discussion on identifying and selecting replacements for Bea and Laura.
ACTION ITEM: Laura and Bea are to submit suggestions for their replacements to Vin for approval by the appropriate deans and appointment by the Provost.
From 4-5:30pm, Provost Jamshed Bharucha and VP for Advancement Brian Lee engaged the Council in a discussion of the goals for the next Capital Campaign and how graduate education fit into the planning.
Meeting was adjourned at 5:30pm.
