CBS meetings about the U’s plan to close the Graduate School

March 11, 2009

Several dozen CBS faculty and graduate students joined Dean Elde in meetings on the Minneapolis campus on February 27 and the St. Paul campus on February 24 to discuss the University’s plans to close the Graduate School and transfer administration of graduate programs to colleges. Following is a list of comments and questions from both meetings. Dave Bernlohr, professor and head of BMBB, will share these comments with other members of the task force convened by Provost Sullivan to oversee implementation of the closing. If you have further comments or questions, contact Bernlohr at bernl001@umn.edu.

Note: Since these meetings, Provost Sullivan sent an e-mail to the University community addressing concerns about the way the closing was communicated and the initial timeline. To read this e-mail, go to Restructuring Graduate Education (Memo).

Consultation and communication

• There wasn’t enough meaningful consultation with deans, faculty and graduate students before the reorganization was announced.
• We need to educate the Provost about the graduate system, programs and students.
• The decision-making process should be transparent.
• Can the decision be reversed?
• The VP for Research is not as involved in academic programs as he should be.
• A lot of graduate faculty and students don’t know what’s going on or how the implementation will affect them.
• We should set up a CBS blog for ongoing questions and concerns.

Implementation

• I don’t know how implementation will work.
• Other colleges are forming implementation/transition teams. Should CBS be doing this?
• How do we function as a group?  How do we connect?
• Does CBS have a DGS council? The Medical School DGS Council is very helpful.
• It’s important to include students in the process.
• DGS assistants should be on the task force because they know how programs function.
• Should the Biological Sciences Policy Council be reinstated?
• AHC is a parallel universe.
• Is this an opportunity for the provost to take on more power?

Proposed structure

• How will directors of graduate studies be appointed in the new structure?
• A lot of grant and aid stuff would be farmed out to the colleges.
• Will it reduce graduate support?
• Will programs get cut down or eliminated?
• How will we develop new graduate programs?
• How will fellowships be allocated?
• This could be a good move, if it is coordinated in a positive way.
• How will training grants be coordinated?
• What will reporting procedures be for things like appeals?
• Can we view this as an opportunity to create a better grad program?

Current structure

• Past proposals to disband the Graduate School have failed.
• Graduate schools at most Big Ten schools are structured the way ours is currently structured [centralized].
• One of the great things about the current Graduate School is the convergence of different faculty.

What should remain centralized?

• Campus Climate
• Academic Civility Group
• Workshops that the Graduate School does universally

Funding issues

• Do we really know if it will save money to decentralize?
• Where will money come from after the Graduate School is disbanded?

Interdisciplinary/intercollegiate programs

• Where will interdisciplinary programs go?
• Will interdisciplinary programs fall through the cracks?
• Should there be a “lead college” for each program and a declaration of intent?
• The Neuroscience Graduate Program has faculty from 14 departments and seven colleges.
• Money doesn’t flow through the Dean’s office for interdisciplinary programs now. How will this work in the new system?
• How will costs be shared?

Graduate student concerns

• What will change over the next three years?
• When will someone let graduate students know about changes?
• Will support staff still be there?

Post doc concerns

• We want to retain a central office.
• What about career development programs?
• We will lose a lot when this becomes localized.
• Keeping it centralized will save money.