Goal Five: Recruit a diverse and high quality graduate student body and provide a supportive environment.
Clarification: While the graduate student descriptor "high quality" is uniformly understood, the descriptor "diverse" needs clarification with regard to this goal. We believe the graduate school needs to expand its efforts to recruit and retain both high quality international students, and high quality domestic students of color. Each of these constituencies is vital to a diverse and rich graduate experience. We also recognize that the needs of international students, and the needs of domestic students are quite different, and we urge that they be addressed separately in terms of recruitment and retention efforts. For purposes of enumerating and characterizing our diversity, international graduate students and domestic graduate students of color should always be treated separately.
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Members |
Department |
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Bill Andrefsky |
Anthropology |
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Mike Katona |
Civil and Environmental Engineering |
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Kay Meier |
Pharmacy Sciences |
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Darrel Muehling |
Marketing |
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T.V. Reed |
American Studies |
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Ray Wright |
Animal Sciences |
Required Actions
A. Provide Competitive Graduate Stipends and Benefits
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Work with the WSU Foundation to increase the visibility of graduate education and make it a priority in fund raising.
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The Graduate School may hire a staff member to prepare grant proposals to foundations or agencies seeking funds in support of graduate students.
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Competitive top-off awards from a pool of donated funds should be made available to supplement stipend or grant supported Ph.D. students from under represented groups.
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A survey of graduate student support from specific programs and units at peer institutions should be conducted. Total support including not only stipends but also in state and out of state fee waivers and medical benefits to give an accurate assessment.
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A matching program should be developed as an incentive for faculty who support graduate students on extramural support rather than including post-doctoral students.
B. Enhance TA Training Opportunities
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WSU may institute the title of Teaching Fellow for faculty who have a distinguished record in instruction. Teaching Fellows could offer courses on how to teach, assessment, and innovation in the classroom to graduate students.
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OGRD could develop a series of workshops for graduate students on funding sources and grant preparation including overhead, ICRs, and regulatory agencies.
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Create a uniform evaluation for assessing graduate student teaching that gives feedback for strengths and weaknesses in cooperation with CTLT.
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Explore the possibility of international graduate students with deficient oral or written communication skills enrolling the first semester in an ESL program before starting a graduate program.
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More emphasis should be placed on developing well-organized orientation sessions for new graduate students. Is UNIV 590 meeting graduate students needs?
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Recognize the particular needs of international graduate students, and work to provide a more supportive environment for them.
C. Provide Graduate Mentoring Programs
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See bullets in Required Actions A & B.
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Encourage and financially support the formation of organizations of graduate students to promote issues of diversity, commonality of interests, and cultural support.
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Work with WSU job placement to increase the visibility of graduate student employment opportunities.
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Encourage graduate students to register with national placement registries for under represented groups for employment opportunities.
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Work to make the Graduate School "user friendly" for graduate students and not simply an enforcer of rules and regulations.
D. Strengthen Recruiting Relationships With Domestic and International Colleges and Universities
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Units should communicate better with International Programs to learn of existing MOUs with international colleges and universities to promote faculty and student exchange.
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Encourage faculty who accept international assignments to promote graduate education at WSU.
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Promote and fund graduate student and faculty attendance at professional meetings as an opportunity to recruit graduate students.
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Fund recruiting coordinators to recruit at historically black institutions and institutions that have McNair Programs.
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Ask units to identify colleges and universities where they have historically attracted graduate students and concentrate recruiting activities from these "feeder" institutions.
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Encourage units to provide release time or other award systems for unit recruiters and provide training to improve effectiveness of effort.
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Improve the Graduate School and unit Web Sites to make the system user friendly, with accurate information and emphasize programs of high quality including employment history of graduates.
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Promote the quality of life issues in the Pullman community including graduate student housing, day care centers, and recreation opportunities.
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Seek funding to bring high quality graduate students to WSU as a recruiting tool.