Resources

The University has effectively organized its human, financial, and physical resources to deliver a quality graduate education. The Graduate School is efficiently linked to central administration, academic departments, and graduate students through a Graduate Council and a Graduate Student Council (GSC). Graduate faculty are appointed and retained subject to clear policies. During the past decade, the quality and quantity of resources available to graduate students has improved significantly. Although the Graduate School as a whole has received an external review [2.8F], the University conducts no systematic, periodic review of all graduate programs. Recruitment and retention of graduate students would benefit from more centralized planning. One concern is that the majority of engineering graduate students are recruited internally from Michigan Tech. Office space and computing are inadequate in some departments.

Administrative Structure

Responsibility for graduate programs rests with the Vice Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School, who reports to the Executive Vice President and Provost. The title of Vice Provost was added in 1991. Because this chapter focuses on the Graduate School, we will refer to the senior administrator as its Dean. The current Dean has held this position since 1988; he was judged an effective and highly qualified administrator by the Consultant Report [2.8F] and recently was elected chair of the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools for 1997. The Office of the Graduate School now has an efficient and effective staff of four, two of whom were added since 1988 to work with departmental program coordinators and track graduate financial support (see Figure 17, Chapter 8). Internal and external evaluations of staff have been uniformly positive.

The University supports several mechanisms to create effective links and information flows between central administration and individual departments. The Dean is advised by a Graduate Council, composed primarily of faculty, and the GSC. The Graduate Council, which was a small, elected body until 1993, is now a representative body with one faculty member from each of the 17 graduate degree-granting units, plus a voting representative each from the University Senate and the GSC. This restructuring facilitates the flow of information between central administration and the academic departments. The Council has taken an active role in policy-making, such as assisting in developing a method for allocating graduate assistantships in 1993.

The GSC, initially established in 1975 [3.7B], was reactivated in 1989 to become an active voice in graduate student life and planning. It was restructured in 1990 to include a representative from each department offering a graduate program, and four standing committees—academic, social, networking, and benefits. With an annual budget of $10,000 (in 1996/97 it was allocated an additional $10,000), it funds travel to professional meetings to deliver scholarly papers, a seminar series of external speakers, an information exchange, a newsletter, and social events. All graduate students are welcome to attend its meetings and bring issues to the GSC.

Graduate education is delivered by, and depends upon the quality of graduate faculty. The Dean appoints graduate faculty following procedures and adhering to qualifications established in the Faculty Handbook [1.2A]. Three qualifications include:

1. a terminal degree in the field;
2. a regular publication record of articles in recognized journals that have national distribution or books related to their field of study; and
3. a record of involvement in research, graduate instruction, or graduate-student advising.

Currently 90% of the faculty have graduate faculty status; graduate faculty status is subject to periodic review by academic administration. Michigan Tech's graduate faculty are professionally active and productive (see Chapter 6), which contributes to high-quality graduate programs. Most of the new faculty hired since 1988 (see Chapter 6) qualify as graduate faculty and were sought for their ability to direct graduate students and attract research funding (see Chapter 8), particularly for graduate assistantships. Over 70% of faculty responding to the 1996 Faculty Survey [6.2B4; N = 179] described their involvement with their departmental graduate program as active, and were satisfied with this.

Graduate programs are approved, following appropriate policies and procedures, by the Graduate School, the University Senate, the Board of Control, and the Academic Affairs Officers' Committee, which includes Michigan's 15 public universities' Provosts/Vice Presidents of Academic Affairs. Faculty, College and School Deans, the Dean of the Graduate School, the Executive Vice President and Provost, the President, and the Board of Control all evaluate program proposals, as do the Graduate Council, and the University Senate. Once approved and implemented, however, no consistent, centrally administered process exists for the periodic review of graduate programs. Two programs have invited external reviews since 1988: Rhetoric and Technical Communication [6.6A] and Forestry.

In addition to these administrative bodies, the Graduate School produces two useful documents to keep students, faculty, and departmental administrators informed of university and departmental requirements: the Graduate School Bulletin [1.3B] and Keeping on Track in Graduate School [7.4C]. Individual departments also publish departmental handbooks (Humanities) and newsletters (Computer Science) to inform faculty and students about current research projects and grants. The GSC published The Call of the Keweenaw [7.4C], an informal guide to on- and off-campus issues for graduate students.

Overall, the Graduate School is strongly led and staffed by efficient and friendly personnel and maintains good linkages with departments, providing means for the discussion, dissemination, and implementation of policies on graduate education.

Recruitment and Retention of Graduate Students

Some graduate programs support many recruitment activities, but the Graduate School does not coordinate any campus-wide recruitment efforts. The Graduate School maintains a WWW site to aid with recruitment and admissions, has participated in some recruitment fairs, and works with international programs to recruit international students. To assist Enrollment Management with graduate recruitment, the Graduate School developed a brochure, Avenues for Research [7.4C], to publicize graduate offerings. The University makes specific efforts to recruit underrepresented students (an area recommended for improvement by 1988 NCA Evaluation Team [6.1A]) through involvement in the King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Program, partnership with historically black colleges such as Florida A&M, and the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science [2.6F2], which provides fellowships for masters programs in engineering and doctoral programs in engineering and science. However, recruitment is primarily the responsibility of individual departments, whose departmental self-studies [2.6] reveal a range of initiatives: printed brochures, advertising in leading journals, socials at professional conferences, WWW pages, alumni networking, and campus workshops.

A particular concern is that we continue to draw heavily on Michigan Tech undergraduates, particularly in engineering, to expand the graduate programs. From 1993 to 1996, 55%-66% of Engineering MS graduates received their BS at Michigan Tech, while over 70% of MS and PhD graduates from non-engineering departments were recruited from other institutions [6.2B5, Attachment F]. The Consultant Report [2.8F] noted that many departments are not engaging in proactive recruitment and thus may not be attracting as many qualified applicants as they could. As a result, the Consultant Report recommended several actions for the Graduate School to improve recruitment:

• offer a recruitment training seminar to all graduate departments;
• designate a graduate recruitment coordinator, who is accountable for recruitment productivity, for each graduate program; and
• establish a Graduate School matching fund to help departments develop recruitment materials and implement recruitment strategies.

A weakness which may affect recruitment is delayed notification of graduate teaching assistantships and fellowships, which significantly influences student choice of graduate programs [2.6B6].

Retention efforts include graduate-student orientation programs on teaching, research, safety issues, and communication skills, provided both by departments and centrally by the CTLFD (Center for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development). The Graduate School has paid half the registration fee for all graduate students wishing to attend the on-campus Midwest Faculty Forum, which is dedicated to teaching issues. Special attention is paid to ESL (English as a Second Language) programming for foreign-national teaching assistants, provided by CTLFD. The GSC publication, Call of the Keweenaw [7.4C] also assists with retention by providing useful tips on university services, housing, and community resources, as does a graduate student mentoring program initiated in 1995.

The Consultant Report noted that there can be substantial differences in workload expectations for Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) and TAs (Teaching Assistants) in different departments. Although GRA/TAs are limited to 20 hours of work per week, the work required to complete their tasks may exceed this limit. This may impact retention, as well as time-to-degree completion.

Financial Resources

A significant contributor to graduate student retention is financial assistance. We expend over $5 million per year to support nearly 80% of our graduate students. Graduate student financial assistance is provided through funded appointments.

• Teaching Assistantships (TAs) are allocated by the Office of the Provost and academic departments, dependent upon undergraduate enrollment.
• Graduate Assistantships (GAs) are allocated by the Graduate School to develop departmental graduate programs.
• Graduate Research Assistantships (GRAs) are awarded by the professor or department administering a specific research grant or contract.
• Graduate School Fellowships and University PhD Fellowships (nine month full support for PhD students) are allocated by the Graduate School.
• Other fellowships, such as Exchange Fellowships and industry-sponsored fellowships, support some graduate students.

These appointments carry with them full tuition and a stipend. Annual graduate student stipends are currently competitive with other benchmark schools at $7,800 for MS students and $9,060 for PhD students [2.6F6], although one department (Chemistry) considers them below average for its discipline. GRAs/TAs also receive $100 toward their health benefit premiums.

The percentage of students supported has remained relatively constant at 70%-80% since 1989. As enrollment grows (see Figure 13), the number of students supported grows. In particular, University PhD Fellowships doubled from 9 in 1987 to 22 in 1996

FIGURE 13. Graduate Student Financial Support.

Source: Graduate School (Fall Headcount)

In the face of tight State funding, the University is limited as to how much internal support it can provide for graduate programs. Support-to-date has been critical in developing new programs, but external funding captured by a broad range of faculty through research programs and other grants is necessary to expand graduate programs. Research efforts will be discussed in Chapter 8.

Physical Resources

Since there is no central organization of resources for graduate students, the quality and quantity of space (classroom, office, and laboratory), laboratory equipment, and computer facilities for graduate students varies from department to department [2.6F6, 6.2B8, 6.2B9]. In 1992, the Graduate School secured space for and remodeled the Graduate Student Center, which is used for GSC meetings, thesis and dissertation defenses, seminars, and informal gatherings.

Growth in research funding and new buildings have increased quality and quantity of laboratory space and equipment. Some departments have a separate computing laboratory for graduate students. Space for graduate student offices remains a problem in some departments [2.8C]. Classroom space has been converted into graduate student offices, although this is not always ideal, and phone service is inadequate. Some of these problems will be alleviated when several new facilities are completed (see Chapter 11).

The Library continues to be cited as a problem for some graduate students (see Chapter 10). In the 1996 Graduate Student Opinion Survey [2.8C], 39% of the 150 respondents stated they were "Not at all satisfied" with library/research facilities. The library is working hard to develop on-line and interlibrary loan delivery services, and, as the WWW continues to grow, this problem may diminish.

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