Graduate Faculty Meeting Minutes Spring 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
- The meeting began at 10:07 a.m
- Andrea Golato, Associate Dean
- Janet Dixon Keller, Associate Dean
- Graduate Student Life Cycle Survey
- Doctoral Program Assessment
- Ravi Iyer, Interim Vice Chancellor for Research
- Conclusion
1. The meeting began at 10:07 a.m. with a welcome from Debasish Dutta, Dean of the Graduate College. He thanked everyone for attending and engaging with the Graduate College. He extended a special thank you to all of the faculty members who serve on the Graduate College Committees (Executive Committee, Committee on Extended Education and External Degrees, Fellowship Board, and the Council on Equity & Access). He projected the membership lists for each of these committees. He also thanked the people who served on the graduate tuition waiver policy working group. Their work was completed during the 2008-2009 AY and the recommendations of this group have been placed onto the Provost Office Website. All initiatives this group proposed have been implemented. These initiatives went into effect during the fall 2010 semester. The most notable involves a change in the minimum level for a waiver-generating fellowship from $3,000 to $5,000 per term. In addition, a recommendation was made that our institution collect cost of education funds from external agencies. Currently we “leave money on the table” because agencies expect that waivers will be provided. D. Dutta explained that diligence is needed in collecting these funds so that they can then be used to fund fellowships for our graduate students. D. Dutta then summarized some projects that have recently been completed as well as initiatives that will be worked on in the near future:
- The first 17 projects undertaken as part of the Stewarding Excellence initiative have been completed within their deadlines. The Chancellor & Provost Offices have given their next step recommendations.
- The Graduate College is deeply engaged with faculty who have received NSF IGERT funding. We currently have 2 IGERTs on our campus with a third being added soon. The official announcement regarding this new award should be made by NSF very soon.
- Provost Easter charged a working group to examine issues surrounding clean energy. This working group has completed its study and submitted its final report. It was decided that the Graduate College will support this initiative and the work is moving along well. A comprehensive portfolio is being put together and a major workshop event will take place this fall to formally roll out this initiative on a national scale. Dean Dutta has secured support for this clean energy initiative from the State of Illinois and the Department of Energy. NSF will fund the workshop and faculty from our peer institutions will be invited to attend with UIUC being the leader.
2. Dean Dutta then introduced Associate Dean Andrea Golato who spoke about other projects currently being completed by the Graduate College:
- A new Postdoc Affairs Office will soon be launched. A faculty advisory committee studied the need for this office during the fall 2010 semester and the decision was made that it will be housed at the Graduate College. The target date for this new office to open is August 2011. We currently have about 500 postdocs and many faculty PIs on our campus who will make use and benefit from this new office. It will provide professional development, highlight resources, serve as a central location for relevant policies/procedures, and provide a sense of community for our postdocs. In addition it will make our campus more competitive and attractive with regards to federal grant applications.
- The Graduate College will be taking over graduate degree certification. This initiative is on track per the timeline specified in the Provost’s charge letter. The process will be totally moved to the Graduate College by December 2011. It will involve additional staff moving to the Graduate College as well as the addition of a new Director of Academic Services.
- The graduate student petition process is being re-designed to an automated process. Training and development of this new system will be provided to both departmental graduate contacts as well as directors of graduate study. Many technical enhancements are being made that will distinguish exceptions to policies and procedures that are being requested by graduate students and departments.
3. Dean Dutta then introduced Associate Dean Janet Dixon Keller who provided details on two large projects she is currently engaged in:
- Focal Point is an on-going Graduate College initiative that seeks to foster interdisciplinary research among faculty and graduate students. Janet highlighted past projects that have received funding as well as current projects that are still in progress. She noted that all projects are described on the Graduate College website at: www.grad.illinois.edu/focal-point-feature. The main goals of Focal Point are to advance knowledge critical in national and human need, promote interdisciplinary and collaborative problem solving, seed grant proposals, and disseminate new knowledge via campus events.
- Proctor & Gamble Science Diversity Summit. It is a partnership for preparing graduate students for the 21st century. It brought together leaders from four historically underrepresented institutions (Haskell Indian Nations University, Tuskegee University, Universidad del Este in Puerto Rico, and the University of the Virgin Islands. Mutual institutional introductions were made, cross connections among faculty in the colleges of Engineering, ACES, and LAS were made, and enhanced student recruitment was initiated. Memos of Understanding (MOU) are being created between these schools and UIUC to foster faculty/student exchanges, joint advising/mentoring, and curriculum building.
- Associate Dean Janet Dixon Keller then provided a report from the Graduate College Fellowship Board. She thanked Executive Assistant Dean Deborah Richie of the Graduate College and Professor Jennifer Bernhard, Chair of the Fellowship Board, for all of their work relating to fellowship administration. She then provided a brief summary of the different categories of fellowships that are available, as well as support available to students for external fellowship competitions:
- Recruitment Fellowships:
- Illinois Distinguished Fellowships ($20,000 for 3 years)
- Graduate College Fellowships (Doctoral $20,000 for 1-3 years)
- Graduate College Fellowships (Master’s $12,000 for 1 year)
- Retention and Progress Fellowship Support:
- Dissertation Travel Grant (Up to $5,000)
- Dissertation Completion Fellowship ($20,000)
- Block Grant:
- Fixed-sum grants to units for flexible funding, $1.6M available
- Promoting External Fellowships: Ken Vickery vickeryk@illinois.edu
- Database of fellowship opportunities: https://www.grad.illinois.edu/fellowship/
- Proposal-writing workshops: in-house, unit-specific, fellowship-specific
- One-on-one proposal writing assistance
- Recruitment Fellowships:
4. Associate Dean Andrea Golato then provided an overview of the Graduate Student Life Cycle Survey that has been conducted in an effort by the Graduate College to learn about and improve issues that affect our graduate students. She explained that there are three types of surveys. They are the acclimation survey, the mid-program survey, and the exit survey. She noted that student response rates have been quite high with 966 students responding to the acclimation survey conducted in 2009 and 1,158 responses received to the mid-program survey conducted in 2010. She explained that there are a wide variety of factors that contribute to our student’s ability to complete their degrees with the main ones being:
- Financial Support
- Mentoring/Advising
- Family (non-financial support)
- Social Environment/Peer Group Support
- Program Quality
- Professional/Career Guidance
She noted that these surveys illustrate that mentoring from the advisor is particularly important, and that the overall satisfaction rate is dramatically higher for students who are able to select an advisor versus those who have an advisor assigned. However, regardless of the manner by which a student comes to work with an advisor, the relationship between the student and the advisor is the single most important factor contributing to a student’s overall success. The different surveys that have been conducted are being distributed to various offices throughout the Graduate College so that they can be used to highlight areas where students may need additional resources or assistance.
5. Dean Dutta then provided a summary of the Doctoral Program Assessment that is currently being conducted. He added that he plans to keep this process as open as possible and pointed out that the information related to the assessment is available via the Graduate College website at: www.grad.illinois.edu/DoctoralProgramAssessment. Dean Dutta added that there are 97 programs being assessed and he provided some key numbers:
- Graduate student enrollment/Yr = ~5000
- Time to degree = ~6.5 yrs
- Financial aid/student/Yr = ~$70 K
- Degree/FTE faculty/Yr = 0.35
- A doctoral assessment has not been conducted since the 1950s
Dean Dutta then highlighted a few key dates relating to doctoral education at UIUC:
- 1892 – Graduate School established by President Thomas Burrill
- 1903 – First Doctorates (PhD) awarded
- 1905 – First international student, Yasurzo Kakagami, receives PhD
- 1932 – Research Board established
- 1947 – Name changed to Graduate College
Dean Dutta explained that the fundamental question with regards to the current doctoral assessment is how well are we educating and preparing our doctoral students to start a career in their discipline? He noted that a book has been distributed to each of the faculty participating in the assessment. It is “The Formation of Scholars: Rethinking Doctoral Education for the Twenty-First Century” and it will be used as a guide for how the assessment is conducted. In addition, the assessment materials will include a program questionnaire (5 page narrative), program data (provided by DMI), and a student survey (the overall response rate was 42%). Some indicators are:
- Program admissions selectivity
- Program effectiveness
- Program environment
- Professional growth opportunities for students
- Student accomplishments
- Placement of graduates
- Students/faculty
- Non tenure tracks in doctoral committees
- External/internal funds for student support
The assessment will be conducted by a group of faculty who have been divided into four committees:
- Engineering & Physical Sciences (22 programs)
- Humanities & Creative Arts (24 programs)
- Behavioral & Social Sciences (30 programs)
- Agricultural & Biological Sciences (20 programs)
Dean Dutta added that the assessment is progressing on schedule and it is hoped that the information gathered through this assessment can be used by programs to assist with other initiatives they may be working on. He explained that data gathered for other projects such as NRC and the PhD Completion Project can also be updated with data gathered for the assessment so that it is easier in the future for programs to access relevant, accurate figures relating to their programs. The Program Profiles data maintained by the Graduate College will also be updated to accurately reflect data that can be easily accessed by graduate contacts and directors of graduate study. As a result of the assessment, best practices will be identified that can be used by every program to ensure we are preparing our students in the best possible manner.
6. Interim Vice Chancellor for Research Ravi Iyer then provided a report from the Research Board. Dr. Iyer explained that he would be presenting highlights of the presentation he gave to President Hogan. He added that the full set of PowerPoint slides is available via the OVCR website. He began by noting that UIUC has been very successful in the realm of IGERT funding. These initiatives have greatly benefited our faculty and it is anticipated they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. He pointed out that UIUC has a particularly strong research presence in four key areas that currently are, and will be very important in the near future:
- Energy:
- Second generation biofuels,
- International leadership in power grid research
- Major strengths in energy materials
- Health Sciences:
- Focus on personalized medicine and genomics
- Extraordinary strength in bioimaging - atomic to whole body
- Partnerships in regenerative biology, cancer, health disparities
- Leadership in aging, disability, nutrition, social work
- Humanities & Social Sciences:
- Major leadership in IT and digital humanities
- Title VI Centers and Programs further research and scholarship
- Creative arts, architecture and design
- IT & Computer Science
- Blue Waters Petascale Computing
- Campus-wide focus on Data Intensive Computing
- Information Security and Trust
Dr. Iyer then provided a Research Board Summary – FY 10
- 281 requests totaled $4.95 million (23.4% Fine and Applied Arts, 19.5% Humanities, 13.4% Life Sciences and Agriculture, 18.5% Physical Sciences and Engineering, 25.2% Social Sciences and Education).
- $2.36 million awarded (28.3% Fine and Applied Arts, 25.9% Humanities, 9.1% Life Sciences and Agriculture, 11.1% Physical Sciences and Engineering, 25.5% Social Sciences and Education).
- Approximately 60% of the funding was awarded to support research assistantships.
- Scholars’ Travel Fund awards in FY 10 totaled $354,745 for 450 requests, compared to $356,125 for 451 requests in FY 09.
Dr. Iyer provided a summary of Research Board News:
- No reduction in institutional funding for FY11
- Applications are now electronic
- Two submission deadlines per semester
- Looking at innovative ways to support nascent potentially transformational ideas
- Proposal development workshops are being offered
- Office hours prior to each Research Board deadline
Dr. Iyer then highlighted some of the key issues surrounding research compliance. There are a large number of regulations in place and efforts are underway to make the compliance process less burdensome for faculty. These include:
- Implementation of the VCR Research Compliance Advisory Committee – focus this year on OSPRA and IRB
- Appointed Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Compliance – Jan Novakofski
- Implemented Action Items form Client Surveys
- Continued development of web-based solutions
- Enterprise Risk Management Initiative Identified Four OVCR Units in Top 20 University of Illinois Risks: Environmental & Lab Safety, Hazardous Materials, Human Research Subjects, and Export Controls
While export controls and regulations are being tightened, the goal is to keep research open and accessible.
7. Dean Dutta then asked if there were any questions. He noted that the Graduate College is always interested in engaging with faculty and efforts are made each year prior to the Annual Meeting of the Graduate Faculty to engage faculty with the agenda planning. He stated that he is considering having meetings of the graduate faculty once each semester instead of once per year. He thanked everyone for attending.
The meeting ended at 11:45 a.m.