University Council on Graduate Education
April 13th 2007
Minutes
(Taken by Peter Walker)
Present: David Walt (chair), Arthur Donohue-Rolfe, Larry Feig, Shafik Islam, Ayesha Jalal, Bill Moomaw, Vin Manno, Peter Walker
The minutes from the March meeting were approved
Provost Fellows
Interestingly, we all rated the various fellows about the same.
The university has made offers to some 30 fellows. Returns coming in slowly with about 33% acceptance rate at present. At present Sackler has the lowest rate of acceptance. Looks like we may get a 40-45% acceptance rate overall.
April 17th: first Provost Fellow showcase (life sciences) – presentations on their research, around 40 people expected to attend – graduate students, faculty.
Analysis on the fellowship program should be ready for us to look at come the fall. (We may want to look at the key purposes of the program. At present it is about recruiting the best academic students. We could also use it for other purposes, like diversity.)
In terms of processing the fellowship evaluations, we do need to find a way of ensuring that the process works smoothly and fast and does not get delayed because one or two of us are unable to respond quickly to requests for evaluations.
Operational changes document
We reviewed and agreed text to ensure that it was clear that both disciplinary and inter-disciplinary is valued at Tufts. We discussed the nature of faculty membership of Ph.D. graduate programs.
David will circulate the new draft to the committee with the recent changes highlighted.
Ph.D. Programs Document
We accepted a new title for this document “Structuring Doctoral Programs at Tufts”.
Suggested edits from our last meeting and email inputs were discussed. A revised, but not yet finished draft was developed at the meeting. David will circulate for comment.
Revisions due to David by May 1. Include both new text and recommendations. Note: Refer to March Minutes for discussion points to be included.
Next meeting
May 10th 12.30, at the FIC offices, 200 Boston Ave. Lunch will be provided
