Continuous Improvement

Michigan Tech is well-situated to continue to accomplish its purposes and strengthen its educational effectiveness in graduate programs. Research opportunities and physical resources will be enhanced by the completion of several new research-oriented facilities (see "Facilities and Technology" below). The graduate programs in all departments will be assessed according to established assessment plans, and a plan is also under development to institute internal/external reviews of all graduate programs on a five-year cycle. A key area of concern is the continued emphasis on graduate program growth without planned and assured increases in external funding and on-campus resources for graduate students.

Strategic Planning

The Dean of the Graduate School, with the advice of the Graduate Council and the GSC, develops goals and strategies for the Graduate School which enter into the University strategic planning process. Graduate faculty provide direct input into this planning process through an annual review of the goals, objectives, and strategies.

The University remains committed to improving the quality and quantity of graduate school enrollment and programs. However, as noted earlier, ambitious goals for 1998 will not be achieved, and it is likely that the goals in the Quantitative Context for Planning [2.1D2] for graduate enrollment of 800–1,000 students will need to be revised based on a thorough review of the anticipated revenues for and projected costs of graduate programming, including funding required to enhance graduate student life and professional development opportunities. This review is particularly necessary in light of recent decreases in undergraduate enrollment, since a substantial portion of graduate student financial aid has been funded internally. The Consultant Report raised some serious concerns that such a review should address:

• the ability of the "lean" Graduate School staff to meet the needs of increased activity,
• the availability of external support to meet the costs of educating graduate students,
• the sufficiency of graduate course offerings, and
• the numbers of faculty with active external funding to support graduate programs.

Unless these concerns can be answered affirmatively, the Consultant Report suggested focusing on reducing time-to-completion of degrees rather than program growth.

One of the ways the University is strengthening graduate programs is to build graduate faculty capability. To meet a goal for total faculty start-up funds of $300,000–400,000 annually, the Executive Vice President and Provost increased the 1997 total start-up and cost-share budgets to $200,000 and $400,000, respectively. The University annually awards faculty $1.35 million from the REF, which aids graduate students directly though research assistantship support and indirectly through access to new facilities and equipment. Cooperative agreements with other academic institutions and research establishments through two new international consortia, Alliance for North American Mobility for Studies in Environmental and Mining Engineering (APEX) and Atlantic Mobility for Academic Studies in Engineering and the Environment (ATLAS), will also improve research opportunities for graduate students [2.6F4]. Research opportunities will be discussed more fully in Chapter 8. Since 90% of the faculty are graduate faculty, and since the faculty advisor/graduate student mentoring relationship is the backbone of graduate education, a strong faculty development program enhances graduate education (see Chapter 6).

Another way the University is strengthening graduate programs is to develop sources of external funding. In 1996/97, 38% of College of Engineering graduate students were funded internally, and 34% from external sources [2.6A]. Because continued internal funding is limited, graduate enrollment will increasingly depend on external research support. While sponsored research funding has shown a steady increase in the last ten years, this growth rate may be difficult to sustain (see Chapter 8) and may negatively affect graduate student enrollments. A Research Task Force was established in 1995 to examine ways by which the University could improve its research capability, and respond to changing external research funding [5.1B]; however, its recommendations for creating a new organizational structure for research were not accepted by the University Senate.

Assessment and Program Review

Included in our Program for Assessment of Student Academic Success [2.7] are provisions for all departments to initiate student outcome assessment procedures with feedback mechanisms to modify and improve graduate programs. Also a systematic review of all graduate programs was one of the plans for improvement recommended by the 1988 NCA Evaluation Team, and it was particularly endorsed by the Consultant Report [2.8F]. Since 1988, Humanities and the School of Forestry and Wood Products have conducted external reviews to evaluate their graduate programs, but there has been no University-wide formal procedure for regularly scheduled internal/external reviews. The development of a systematic program review process has been adopted as an objective within the University's Strategic Plan. To meet this objective, and in response to Graduate Council deliberations [6.2B5, Attachment B], the Dean and staff of the Graduate School are developing plans for systematic graduate program reviews on a five-year cycle basis.

Facilities and Technology

The completion of the Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building, the renovation of Dillman Hall, and the addition to the Forestry Building will provide significant usable space for research, faculty, and graduate student offices, and lab facilities, generating superior working environments, more modern equipment, and more opportunities for graduate student learning and research. Facilities Management is positioned to meet current growth in graduate program requirements (see Chapter 11); however, it is not clear whether even the planned capital improvement will be adequate if graduate enrollment reaches 1,200-1,500 students by 2003.

Although Information Technology has added high speed computing to the resident apartments and residence halls and has dramatically increased the number of computer access points around campus as well as dial-in access (see Chapter 10), demand continues to outpace supply. Decentralized computing hinders cross-departmental usage of equipment, applications, or even e-mail, which causes problems with interdisciplinary research groups on campus.

Graduate Student Concerns

Given our remote location and modest name recognition in graduate programs, the University may need to offer better stipends, benefits, and professional development opportunities to compete with other programs for quality students. Although stipends have increased 17% since 1989, and are currently competitive, increases are based on University budget availability and competitive comparison with other universities. Stipends were last increased (by 4%) during 1994/95, and are not projected to increase in 1997/98, nor is the amount allocated to health care benefits.

In the 1996 Faculty Survey [6.2B4], about 62% of the respondents either strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement that the "Atmosphere in your department promotes a productive collegiality [that] includes graduate students." Slightly more than half of the respondents (55%) strongly or somewhat agreed that "Extensive opportunities are made available to graduate students for professional development." While these results are positive, there is room for improvement. Opportunities for graduate student professional development, particularly to develop teaching skills, are a concern for many faculty and graduate students. The Executive Vice President and Provost has stated that all departments will provide quality training programs for their teaching assistants starting with the 1997/98 academic year. As part of a recent meeting between the Dean of the Graduate School, graduate faculty, and graduate students [6.2B5, Attachment H], graduate students requested the development of a University-wide new graduate student orientation program, a seminar series on teaching, and support from the Career Center for graduate student placement. The GSC is currently working to address the safety of graduate students working after hours on campus, health benefits for graduate students, teaching and research assistant stipends, and treatment of graduate students on campus.

Integrity

The policies regarding research integrity and conflict of interest are implemented consistently and fairly with regard to graduate faculty. The policies are not thoroughly presented, however, for graduate student research. Sexual discrimination and sexual harassment policies are clearly stated for faculty and progress is being made to improve dissemination of information to graduate students. Efforts are underway to improve the climate for and numbers of women and underrepresented graduate students.

Academic and Research Integrity

The Faculty Handbook [1.2A] includes policies on research integrity, scientific misconduct, and conflict of interest, and emphasizes the importance of full and open disclosure, for which guidelines are presented. Student projects involving industrial or proprietary research are also discussed in the Faculty Handbook under research. All graduate students are required to sign the MTU Proprietary Rights Agreement and are covered under the University's Intellectual Property policy. The scientific misconduct policy applies to all graduate students and the conflict of interest policy applies to graduate students employed by the University. However, no mention of any of these policies which apply to graduate students is made in the Graduate School Bulletin [1.3B].

Policies for graduate student conduct noted in the Graduate School Bulletin [1.3B] deal with coursework, not research, and refer students to the Student Handbook [1.2C], Student Rights and Responsibilities in the University Community [1.5C3], and the Academic Integrity Policy [1.5C5], designed primarily for undergraduates. With regard to graduate student research, the subject of scientific misconduct (particularly plagiarism) was addressed by the Dean of the Graduate School in an issue of Out of the Blue [7.4C, Winter 1996, Vol. 7, Issue 1]. The GSC and individual departments have also organized seminars and workshops dealing with academic integrity in general, and plagiarism in particular. This is not sufficient, and it is recommended that information concerning research-related activities and policies, such as scientific misconduct and conflict of interest, should be added to the Graduate School Bulletin [1.3B]. Also, these policies should be amended to make it clear that they apply to graduate students as well as faculty.

Affirmative Action

Sexual discrimination and sexual harassment policies are noted in the Graduate Student Bulletin [1.3B] and described in detail in both the faculty and student handbooks. One of the goals of the Affirmative Action Office for 1997 is to inform graduate students about University policies regarding affirmative action. Grievance policies and procedures are carefully delineated for faculty in the Faculty Handbook [1.2A], and an ombudsman is available, but there are no formalized procedures for graduate students except for procedures following dismissal for academic reasons outlined in the Graduate School Bulletin.

A survey of graduate students in 1992/93 by the PCW [5.5C, N=46 women graduate students, response rate=39%] showed that a majority of women students did not experience gender bias, but a sufficient number reported problems to cause concern. A majority of respondents reported experiencing some type of sexual harassment primarily nonphysical, such as jokes, stories, sexual innuendoes, and newspaper cartoons. No one reported feeling pressured or physically threatened to accept touching or kissing. The survey report contained several recommendations for aiding women graduate students who experience harassment and discrimination, many of which have already directly or indirectly been addressed by the University. Some improvement can be inferred from a 1996 Graduate Student Survey [2.8A3, N=150, response rate=50%, distribution not random] in which 11% reported that they believed they were treated unfairly or with disrespect because of gender. Because 31% of the respondents were women, there appears to be a perception of gender bias by one-third of the women graduate students responding to the survey. The questions in the two surveys were somewhat different, so caution should be exercised in comparing the results.

Multiple commissions, task forces, and committees have addressed diversity issues on campus (see Chapter 4), and the PCW Climate Study [5.5C] included many recommendations specific to graduate students. While many of the latter appear to have been addressed in departmental implementation plans, some substantive recommendations that promise to improve the climate for women and underrepresented groups—a minority counselor, a women's center, a multicultural center—recur from report to report but remain unfulfilled. We have made progress on the recommendation to increase the number of women faculty role models (see Chapter 1, Response to Concern 2). It is recommended that the University continue to aggressively recruit women and underrepresented faculty and graduate students in disciplines where they are underrepresented, and develop undergraduate research opportunities for women and underrepresented students to introduce them to the possibilities of graduate education.

Course Offerings

A problem reported in some graduate student exit interviews is that some courses listed in the catalog are not offered on a regular basis. Recent program or personnel changes or varying levels of student interest cause this to happen periodically. Misunderstandings could be minimized by instituting strict reviews in the departments (or in the scheduling office) to locate persistent differences. Courses that are only offered subject to sufficient demand should be clearly identified.

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