MAGS 66th Annual Meeting

Cincinnati, Ohio  |   April 21-23, 2010


 

Plenary I:  Reshaping Graduate Education in the Building of an Entrepreneurial University (pdf)

Presenter:             Vic Lechtenberg, Purdue University

Expectations of public universities have changed over the past decade. Not only do state governments expect universities to be very good at educating young men and women to become productive citizens and leaders, they also expect universities to produce new technologies, ideas, and entrepreneurial ventures that can directly create jobs and wealth.  The presenter will discuss programs that Purdue has launched to assist the State of Indiana in growing its economy, improving its P-12 education system, and in creating an entrepreneurial mindset on the part of graduates.  Opportunities for graduate students to engage in relevant consulting projects, internships, research projects, business plan competitions, and other entrepreneurial endeavors will be discussed.

Concurrent Sessions

Export Controls — Handouts One(pdf) Two(pdf) Three(pdf)

Lee Williams, University of Oklahoma

Jim Guikema, Kansas State University

The fundamentals of Export Control and its implications for faculty and graduate students as they engage in their research endeavors will be presented.  Advice for graduate deans on best practices will be shared.

Professional Science Master’s Degrees: An Essential Ingredient to U.S. Competitiveness

Eleanor Babco, Council of Graduate Schools

Charles Rozek, Case Western Reserve University

David Wilson, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

A skilled workforce operating at the frontiers of knowledge creation and professional practice is key to America’s competitiveness and its national and economic security. This session will discuss  how the innovative Professional Science Master’s (PSM) degree, which provides rigorous scientific learning and workplace skills through internships, team projects and capstone experiences, is addressing this effort by helping to meet local and regional workforce need

 

GA “Hiring”: Use of Campus-wide Hiring Process through People Admin.

Deb de Laski-Smith, Eastern Michigan University

Jon Murgerum-Leys, Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University’s Graduate School joined with Staff HR and Academic HR in using the online system, People Admin, for posting G.A. openings, acquiring applicant materials, dissemination/viewing of same by faculty committees, and progressing to make offers.  The purpose of the new approach was to stop students from wandering campus is search of open positions, also known as “Trick or Treating from Hell”…  The presentation will discuss the former centralized application process, the in-between phase, and the EMU jobs implementation process, which began fall 2009.

 

Building a Graduate Culture: Setting Expectations, Providing Feedback, and Conducting Annual Reviews

Andrea Golato, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Anne Kopera, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This presentation provides a rationale for conducting annual reviews of graduate students and identifies characteristics of best practices for providing feedback and conducting annual reviews in the effort of building a supportive graduate culture.

 

Building of a Graduate Student Professional Development Community

Cyndi Lynch, Purdue University

This session overviews the Graduate Student Professional Development Community developed to meet the specific and unique needs of graduate students. Community components are identified along with marketing strategies, and assessment methods. Additionally, focus is placed on the various audiences included in developing a graduate student community beyond graduate students such as faculty and staff, administrators, alumni, and graduate student dependents.

 

Principles of Scholarly Integrity: Shifting from Compliance Mode to an Ongoing Professional Dialogue

Minnetta Gardinier, University of Iow

The university has implemented a new course entitled “Principles of Scholarly Integrity” that uses a 2-year continuing education model for integrating conversations about professional and scholarly integrity into graduate education.  It replaces a one-semester compliance oriented model and emphasizes interdisciplinary small group discussions among graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty in the biomedical life sciences.  Future plans will include incremental expansion across all graduate disciplines.

 

Distinguished Thesis Awards

 

Plenary II: Where in the World is U.S. Graduate Education?(pdf)

Panalists:       Jim Hsia, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

                         Daniel Deneke, Council of Graduate Schools         

 

As the “Bologna Process” in Europe enters its second decade and expands, it poses both challenges and opportunities to the US higher education system. It is yet another aspect of the “flattening” of the world, and we in the graduate education “business” in the US should improve our system to be more adaptive to this new challenge of globalization which goes beyond Europe and Bologna.  Joint and dual degrees, offshore campuses, international research projects, and expanding internationalization of campus curricula all require new thinking and new approaches to graduate education. This plenary looks at some of the recent research on best practices in joint and dual degrees and at campus initiatives to meet the challenges of globalization.

 

Concurrent Sessions

Partnerships: Joint and Dual Degrees within Universities and Between Domestic Universities

Phil Pope, Purdue University (pdf)

Dave Daleke, Indiana University (pdf)

Long before joint or dual degrees became an international phenomenon many campuses were creating degree programs from collaborations across programs and even schools. With fewer resources to support teaching and research, collaboration between and among domestic institutions is now growing. This session looks at some of the best practices within and between universities to meet the challenges or interdisciplinary and collaborative degree programs.

 

Best Practices for ETDs and Research Repositories

Erin Fox, Marquette University

Anne Hanlin, Marquette University

Rebecca Bryant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dave Stout, East Berkley Electronic Press

Marquette University’s Graduate School made the decision in 2008 to move from traditional, paper submissions of theses and dissertations to electronic submissions.  They worked with ProQuest to adopt their EDT procedures, to create the Marquette ETD Administrator Web site, and to develop a training program focused on students, faculty and administrators.  In comparison, the University of Illinois with help from the Texas Digital Library customized TDL’s open-source Web application for ETD submission and management developed its own system.  Also the role of the library’s institutional repository as a supplemental means of accessing theses and dissertations will also be discussed.

 

Use of Cross Disciplinary Groups to Improve PSM Student Peer Education (pdf)

Mark Staves, Grand Valley State University

John Stevenson, Grand Valley State University

Interdisciplinary learning among statisticians, computer scientists and life scientists are emphasized in GVSU’s PSM programs. While this approach has met with some resistance from students, the majority consider their interdisciplinary work a valuable learning experience academically, as well as for their employment.  Using periodic survey data, this presentation will focus on what we’ve learned and how our assessment may change our existing curricula for our PSM degree programs.

 

Ph.D. Completion Project and Student Support Activities: Lessons Learned and Potential Impact

Craig Pierce, Marquette University

Noro AndriamanalinaUniversity of Minnesota

For the last two and one-half years, Marquette University has developed several workshops, seminars, and other activities designed to help its doctoral students finish their programs, and while the data is still being gathered, anecdotal evidence shows that some of the activities have been tremendously helpful while others have not.  This presentation will highlight the activities that we developed, the costs involved, and the successes and failures that have been realized.

 

Working Effectively with GTA Unions

Moderator: Sara Rosen, University of Kansas

Karen Klomparens, Michigan State University (pdf)

John Keller, University of Iowa (pdf)

Two experienced graduate deans with TA unions will present and discuss examples of the kind of benefits and working conditions that graduate students seek during the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements and general advice about working with GTA Unions.

Creation and Maintenance of a Graduate Culture (pdf)

Pat Osmer, The Ohio State University

Drawing upon recent and on-going initiatives at Ohio State, Osmer will talk about the practical aspects of building a visible and strong graduate culture on campus.

Intellectual Property (pdf)

Frank Einhellig, Missouri State University 

Graduate deans in master’s institutions often have a major role in development, revision, administration, and coordination of university intellectual property policies.  This session will examine critical choices made in formulating patent and copyright policies, and their role as incentives or disincentives to faculty, students, and other stakeholders.   The discussion also will focus on ways to clarify, communicate, and administer key points of the university intellectual property policy.

 

Academic Integrity for Students: Plagiarism and Honor Codes

Kevin Lease, Kansas State University (pdf)

Gordon Emslie, Oklahoma State University (pdf)

Karen Klomparens, Michigan State University (pdf)

Academic Integrity Reading List (pdf)

 

Experienced graduate school administrators will present model honor systems and Responsible Conduct of Research Programs.  Best practices for managing plagiarism and other academic integrity issues will be discussed.

Graduate School Resource Reallocation: Navigating the Waters of Historical Stasis and Financial Challenge (pdf)

Bruce Cochrane, Miami University                                             

 

A majority of programs, both master’s and doctoral at Miami University are comprised almost exclusively of students who are supported by graduate assistantships, which include both stipend support and tuition waivers.  Allocation of assistantship positions among programs has been constant over the years, and the rationale used to establish them has been obscured by time.  This presentation will describe the development of a two way classification matrix that was used to prioritize the programs in a manner consistent with the strategic directions of the University.

Case Studies: Academic Integrity and Faculty Roles: Advisor, Director, Chair

Kevin Lease, Kansas State University

Gordon Emslie, Oklahoma State University

Karen Klomparens, Michigan State University

Case studies will be used to explore academic integrity issues that graduate deans must address, such as plagiarism, violation of honor codes, research ethics, etc. in round tables.  This interactive session is a follow up to the previous session on ethics. Participants will discuss real-world ethics situations that deans are called upon to address and will discuss possible solutions to share with other small groups.

 

Balancing Graduate Education and Undergraduate Education in the University Setting (pdf)

Jessica Horowitz, Loyola University Chicago

Patricia Mooney-Melvin, Loyola University Chicago

This presentation explores two strategies to highlight the importance of graduate education in the training of undergraduates:  reworking/expanding accelerated degree offerings and a graduate/undergraduate research mentoring program.

 

The Graduate School and Lifelong Learning Needs of the 21st Century Workforce

Debasish Dutta, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Competing in the global economy requires a post baccalaureate workforce that is continually at the technological forefront.  The author is leading a National Academy study that considers lifelong learning needs of scientists and engineers and that will reexamine the underlying assumptions necessary to assess the relevance of continuing education programs.

 

MAGS Business Meeting

Hilary Ratner, MAGS Chair

                  Agenda (pdf)

                  Minutes

 

Plenary III: The Public Policy Environment for Graduate Education (pdf)

Presenter:             Patricia McCallister, Vice President, Council of Graduate Schools

This session will focus on relevant provisions of the Higher Education Act Reauthorization of 2008, the recently passed Student Aid reform bill; the upcoming reauthorization of the COMPETES Act, and the forthcoming report from The Commission on the Future of Graduate Education, a joint initiative of CGS and ETS.