Reporter Volume 25, No.22 March 24, 1994

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff
The self-study of the Graduate School which took place in 1993 is
basically completed, and concentrates on outlining the structure,
organization, and vision of the Graduate School, Joyce Sirianni, vice
provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School, told
the Faculty Senate Executive Committee last week.
	The study, which Sirianni said was given to the Provost in
February, "shows how we got to where we are at this time," she said.
	According to Sirianni, the section of the study devoted to the
future vision of the Graduate School makes five basic points, which
include the importance of periodic program review, involving the
Graduate School more in multidisciplinary research and education and
in long-term issues of graduate student recruitment, improving
professional development for graduate students, and continuing to
build excellence in student services.
	Periodic program review helps maintain and promote the
excellence of the various master's and Ph.D. degrees, Sirianni said.
"Such reviews ask departments where they stand, and where they're
willing to put their resources," she said. But she suggested that
there should be a shift away from reviews that consider graduate
programs separately from undergraduate programs, replacing them with
reviews that consider both simultaneously. "In the past, you've all
had separate reviews that ask for much of the same information,"
Sirianni said.
	Sirianni also said that the Graduate School is going to insist
that program review become part of the new budget process that the
Provost has instituted. In looking at the status of a particular
program, one needs to look at how to help that program as part of the
budget process, she said.
	"Program review is extremely important, and is going to become
more so," Sirianni said.
	Multidisciplinary research and education will be closely
aligned to the new university provost for research, who will be
working with the dean of the Graduate School, Sirianni said. And the
long-term recru
itment of graduate students, something that in the past the Graduate
School has not done that much with, also needs to become more
important. "Although we know recruitment is done best at the
department level, we need to do some recruiting at the Graduate School
also, and to look at how we do our month-by-month recruiting effort,"
Sirianni said.
	On the issue of graduate student professional development,
graduate teaching needs to be recognized as a valuable service,
Sirianni said. She said that the Graduate School has been working with
the Office of Teaching Effectiveness on improving graduate student
teaching. "We should and do take this initiative seriously," Sirianni
said.
	Promoting excellence in student services involves greater
concentration on such basic things as day-to-day paperwork, and
ensuring that students graduate on time and degrees are audited
properly, Sirianni said.
	"Our vision is to become a good, solid, functional, serving
Graduate School," Sirianni said.
	Roger Burton of Psychology asked about resources that could
encourage the Graduate School in their pursuit of these goals.
Sirianni responded that, in the case of multidisciplinary issues,
there were various graduate groups that had "a significant amount of
money that could be greater." And Provost Aaron Bloch said that
several faculties had pointed out that graduate student stipends in
their fields were no longer competitive, and so special stipends to
extraordinary students, as well as other possibilities, were currently
being considered.
	Dennis Malone of Engineering noted that the Senate Academic
Planning Committee had met with Sirianni the day before the FSEC
meeting, and that the discussion had highlighted some particular
concerns. In terms of program review, it is not clear that excellence
is being pointed out, Malone said. In the case of multidisciplinary
goals, the success or failure of a particular program has often
depended on who has controlled that program, Malone said. The "split
personality" of research centers and academic departments that had
little contact with each other also needs careful study, Malone said.
	Maureen Jameson of Modern Languages and Literatures asked when
it was appropriate, or inappropriate, for departments to try to form
interdisciplinary groups with other departments. "It's hard to know
what the proper balance of traditional and interdisciplinary education
is, or even where it can be discussed," Jameson said.
	Sirianni said that there could be a problem with the
perception of multidisciplinary programs in the larger society, in
which the meaning of a Ph.D. in a traditional discipline is
understood, whereas one given by an interdisciplinary center may not
be. But she pointed out that when various disciplines come together,
they often find common ground.
	Aaron Bloch said "I have a strong opinion on this subject,"
although he added that his opinion was not policy. "I want to be as
bold as possible in creating research institutions, but conservative
in how we grant degrees," Bloch said.
	In other FSEC business, Jennifer Crocker, chair of the Senate
Budget Priorities Committee, gave an updated report on the budget
process for this year, and asked the FSEC for input on how her
committee could better interact in the budget process in the future.
	"My sense is that the budget process worked well in terms of
informing the BPC on budget decisions, but did not work as well in
terms of letting the BPC have actual input on the process," Crocker
said. "But the process is thorough, reasonable and rational, it
rewards forward-thinking, planning and vision, and attempts to move
the units ahead,' she said.
	Powhatan Woolridge of Nursing said that it was important to
develop ways for the BPC to proactively influence budget decisions,
but that such influence had been limited in the past. He suggested
that perhaps giving the BPC input about long-term budget issues might
be one way of increasing that influence.
	William George of Engineering said that it was not the job of
the Faculty Senate to become involved in the minutiae of the budgeting
process. "The role of the BPC is to ensure us that the process is
honest. That's what you've done, and that's the most we should
expect." What the Faculty Senate should do, he said, is exert its
influence to make sure that the people who handle the budget details
do so properly.