Task forces collect info to improve graduate ed

The newly formed WSU Graduate Education Commission has organized into five task forces to collect information in order to present initial recommendations for improving graduate education to the Graduate Enhancement Commission in October.

Those wishing to offer input to the Graduate Education Commission (GEC) may contact any member, said co-chair Richard Shumway, or send comments to Bonnie Collins, assistant to the dean of the Graduate School, at bonnie@wsu.edu.

The GEC met four times in March to discuss and identify goals to be met and issues to be addressed toward achieving the charges it was given by Provost Robert Bates (please see earlier WSU Today article at http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/completestory.asp?StoryID=1811).

The task forces, their primary charges of investigation and recommendation, and their memberships are:
• Faculty incentives for participating in graduate education: Achievable outcomes that will strengthen the faculty and increase incentives for grant seeking and working with graduate students. Norman Lewis (co-chair), Shumway (co-chair), Don Dillman, Joe Valacich, Orlando Taylor.
• Graduate student recruitment: Achievable outcomes to recruit more and better graduate students. Consider importance of graduate program quality, campus and community climate, financial and benefits package, and faculty involvement in recruiting. Len Foster (co-chair), Dawn Shinew (co-chair), DaVina Hoyt, Susan Ross, Sally Savage, Mike Tate.
• Relative emphasis on Ph.D. programs, masters programs and postdoctoral education: Achievable outcomes that will strengthen the stature and effectiveness of WSU by appropriate allocation of resources among Ph.D. programs and students, masters programs and students and postdocs. Consider differences among colleges, departments and/or programs that would warrant different emphases. Stergios Fotopoulos (co-chair), Kelly Ward (co-chair), Don Bender, Bill Davis, Howard Grimes.
• Interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary programs for evolving career paths: Achievable outcomes that will anticipate and respond to the changing needs for interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and revised disciplinary graduate education. David Bahr (co-chair), Tom Dickinson (co-chair), Wendy Brown, Carol Ivory.
• Graduate education organization: Achievable outcomes that will improve graduate organization and appropriately engage units, faculty and resources at urban campuses and research and extension centers. Mike Morgan (co-chair), Bill Pan (co-chair), Cynthia Corbett, John Nilson, Karl Boehmke.

In addition to their primary charges, each task force will address interrelationships between the GEC’s charges, tentative goals and issues; obtain relevant information from WSU and peers; consider ways to increase diversity of the graduate student population; determine relevant benchmarks; and identify how to achieve improvement.

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