Minutes
University Council on Graduate Education
February 5, 2007
Burden Lounge--Medford
Present: David Walt (chair), Arthur Donohue-Rolfe, Larry Feig, Shafik Islam, Ayesha Jalal, Bill Moomaw and Vin Manno, Peter Walker. Barry Trimmer (Biology) was invited to sit in on the meeting.
Minutes from the December meeting were approved with modifications
Visit from Naomi Rosenberg:
Speaking about the separation of Ph.D. Programs from departments.
Programs/Departments—Grad Programs across department lines are most popular in biological areas; individuals have department expertise that spans other areas.
From student perspective, maximizes offerings and opportunities
Larger number of faculty in a program—critical mass
Better course set—efficient for faculty to teach one course rather than many
Facilitates participation with faculty on other departments/centers
Leverages faculty hiring
Fosters interaction beyond departments.
Particularly in biomed sciences, prepare better for career
Thought that such programs attract higher quality student
Can do this while still have students remaining disciplinary—faculty must agree on core skills.
Unique funding opportunities
Grad students like it.
ISSUES/CONCERNS:
While intellectually stimulating, can bring about upheaval—struggle about who sets agenda and whether training is going to be adequate
Mechanism for separating funding for program vs. department.
Faculty member’s loyalty to department chair—if grad programs stretch far from department, need method for attributing effort
Students can get lost if programs get too broad—need to belong to something, particularly during first year. After they become member of research group, it is not as much an issue
Need core of faculty who are dedicated to the program so when a faculty member is part of multiple programs, they have difficult time participating fully.
Different programs work differently so faculty need to know expectations.
Questions and answers:
How do select new programs? A great deal of thought needs to be given.
Smallness of departments is a problem so being able to take advantage of faculty across institution (e.g. in centers, institutes, etc) makes it more attractive
Tension between departments and programs—budgets, difficult in a resource limited institution. Certain amount of support must be provided to grad students--$ controlled by the grad school. Particularly difficult in a program that has no departmental home. Relies on goodwill.
Driving force that seeds faculty participation is having a grad student. That is the currency that programs have. Faculty lure—helps attract faculty.
Teaching outside of the program (e.g. Med/ Dental schools) is the responsibility of the departments. Grad program teaching is program based.
How do you assess contributions in these various areas?
Financial Model: different departments had different ways of dealing with their budgets. Some departments. had 10% while others had 90% of student support coming from Med School. Having ways to manage funds that are outside department is important.
Could this be a way to raise the profile of graduate education? Programs enrich the environment. Applicants are increased
How much do programs influence faculty recruitment? Not as much because programs have faculty from many departments. Programs need to find a way to influence hires.
Faculties in potentially participating department should discuss whether a student would benefit from training in other more broadly-based areas.
Departments must be loyal to the methodologies and tools.
Discussion about training in discipline followed by interdisciplinary training.
Discussion and Writing Assignments(due by Feb 26):
Premise: Goal is to promote doctoral graduate education.
Structure: Programs could be BOTH department-based (disciplinary--Ayesha) and independent of departments (interdisciplinary--Bill). Teaching needs to be addressed.
What should constitute membership in a Program for a faculty member? (David)
Funding—financial managements issues; institution needs to provide some level of secure funding. (Peter)
Culture
Need a champion (Art)
Program needs a home (Larry)
Sustainability (Shafiq) –intellectual and financial
Look at other structures at other universities. (All)
Economics Ph.D. Program
Vin Manno reported back to the Council about some of the discussions regarding the Economics Ph.D. Program.
Operational Changes Document
David reported suggestions from the Sackler Chairs and Program Directors and has incorporated the changes into the Operational Changes document. A revised version will be circulated to the Council and will be updated on the website after Council approval.
Medford Graduate Student Council Request
The request from the Medford Graduate Student Council regarding facilitating connections between the Graduate Student Councils at the different Tufts Schools was discussed. Vin has agreed to convene the leaders of the different Graduate Student Councils.
Provosts Fellows
This year, there will be different dates for the different schools. Council will return decisions within two weeks. The evaluation process was discussed.
A survey of past and present Provosts Fellows is underway.
Next meetings:
March 5 8:30am-noon Grafton
April 13 8:30am-noon 200 Boston Ave
