posted
On Thursday, 4 November, the Task Force on the Future of the Graduate School is hosting an open, town hall-style meeting to allow graduate students the opportunity to provide feedback into the issues posted below as well as any others that you think might be important. I would encourage you to let your departments/oraganizations know about this event and as many of you as possible to attend. The meeting will be held in the Maryland Room in the basement of Marie Mount Hall on 4 November from 3:30 to 5:30.
For those of your unfamiliar with the issue, the Graduate School and the Division of Research have been fully separated and are now under the leadership of a separate Dean of Graduate Studies and a Vice President for Research. Additionally, the Graduate School has been greatly downsized in regard to function, personnel, and finances. In true bureaucratic fashion, only after this split was made was a Special Presidential Task Force created to examine the future of the Graduate School as an administrative organ of the University.
There are a range of possibilities for the future, the most extreme on either side would be to either do away with the Grad School altogether or to reintegrate it back into the Division of Research. Despite the implication of last week’s headlines in the Diamondback, neither of these extremes looks particularly plausible. The central questions for the Task Force seem to be 1) What should the Grad School do in regard to advocacy, academic, and administrative functions? 2) How should it be organized? and 3) How should it’s leadership be constructed?
Posts: 258 | I am: Graduate Student Government President | Registered: Oct 2001
| Logged: 128.8.22.37 |
There were maybe fifteen or so people there, including the DBK reporter, members of the Task Force, other vested fac and staff, and, like, 7 grad students (not including Doc, who was there by virtue of his position on the Task Force, I think).
Basically, the people who were there have NO idea what life is like for grad students on this campus. They also seem very sure that grad students know all about the many services provided by the Grad School, yet are too busy, lazy, or uninterested to take advantage of them.
Many of the Grad School fac and staff, including some members of the Task Force, got defensive when a grad student from EDPL asked something like, "well, after being here for 1.5 hours, I still have no better idea of what the Grad School actually does. Can someone tell me what you do?"
What came out of the meeting is that (and these are just the senses I got; I'm not sure what the Task Force took away from the meeting)
* clearly, there is a problem with communication: there always is in large organizations, so there's no real way to fix that, but...
* ...programmatic grad directors (PGD) need to be more active in advising their students on the services provided by the Grad School;
* the Grad School needs to be more forthright with programmatic directors by making sure that the PGD actually do communicate--and communicate accurately--with their grad students;
* even if the Grad School does not persist under its current structure, a centralized administrative unit dedicated to grad students is necessary for the wellbeing, academic consistency (through standards), and "advocacy" (the Task Force's word, which is almost a crock) of the graduate student community on campus.
Quite frankly, I was pretty disappointed with the forum, though I suppose I am thankful for even the opportunity.
I am also quite frustrated with the fact that the GSG Executive Committee (with the exception of Doc, of course), the graduate senators (to my knowledge), and other relevant grad student leaders did NOT attend the forum. What a missed opportunity to engage in advocacy and to learn more about your constituencies!
I know that people are busy and some of them may have had class, etc., but I just can't believe that all billion of the execs, senators, committee members, programmatic grad organization leaders, etc., couldn't make it.
I'll guess I'll close with a big whatever.
[ November 08, 2004, 09:43 AM: Message edited by: Rachel ]
Posts: 578 | I am: PhD, CMLT | Registered: Oct 2001
| Logged: 68.32.119.219 |
posted
Not surprisingly, I suppose, I have some problems with this report. It's difficult for me to report very much about this meeting or any of the Task Force meetings because of my membership on the Task Force itself and closed-door agreement that the Task Force operates under. It's a frustrating position to be in because as GSG President, I'd like to put out more information. All that being said, I think I can safely dispute/clarify on some of of the comments made here.
I think many of the members of the Task Force have a very solid idea about what life as a graduate student at UMD is like. To be sure, some are less clear. But this is a campus-wide problem: different norms in insular debapartments/colleges leads to the perception that life there is how things are elsewhere. (For instance, some faculy I've encountered are shocked that TA teach their own courses on a regular basis in many departments simply because that is unheard of in their departments). This leads to a less-than-wholistic world view. Also, because grad students have had problems with advocacy over the past couple of years, i.e., where is GALOL? and the Tan-GSG administration, sometimes we need to start from scratch in bringing faculty up to speed on our plight. In this regard, I thought the meeting was VERY productive. The kinds of stories presented by the grads in attendance are just the sort of thing the Task Force needed to hear.
I think it is a mischaracterization to say that the Task Force thinks that grads are too busy, lazy, or uninterested to take advantage of current Grad School services. Task Force Chair Jim Harris said on many occasions that the communication problem is likely bi-directional: the Grad School and grad directors have probably not done the best job in communicating services, on the other hand, grads can do more to seek out services that they need.
I have to admit a certain level of frustration with the "I still don't know what the Grad School does" sentiment that was thrown around. Whatever people thought, the purpose of the meeting was NOT to educated folks on what the Grad School does. I'm sure that the Grad School staff would be more than happy to sit someone down and explain it all to them if they wanted to know, but last week's forum was not the place for that. The purpose was to get ideas from grads as to what the Grad School should be doing and what it should look like structurally. I'm sorry if anyone was disappointed on that front, but if one came to the meeting to learn about current Grad School services and programs, they came to the wrong meeting.
Lastly, regarding attendance... something that was discussed at this open meeting itself: I suggested that the poor attendance was a reflection of grad student interest in the issue. Some disagreed but, I think, there was a misunderstanding. To say that grad students aren't particularly interested in the form that the Grad School takes on (a largely administrative issue) as I suggested, is NOT to say that grad students do not care abour the Grad School itself, its services, or its programs. One can be a big fan of the latter while not being particularly interested in the former. I think that is the case on this campus.
Posts: 258 | I am: Graduate Student Government President | Registered: Oct 2001
| Logged: 128.8.22.80 |
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