Graduate and Professional Student Council
General Assembly Meeting
10-30-2007 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Student Groups Liaison Elections
QEP Report Speakers: Drs. Boatwright and Kasibhatla
Convene: 7:02 pm
I. Approval of the Minutes from 10/16/07
Move to approve the Minutes from the 10/16/07 meeting.
Motion: Jacqueline Moeller. Second: Wadia Haddaji
Motion Passes Unanimously
Jessi Bardill & Alethea Duncan– If you are not going to the football game you should come to the Native American Heritage Month Plaza Party. We will be having Speed Dating soon, but the website has been having problems so please be patient. Nov. 11 will be Movie Night at Northgate Theaters seeing “American Gangster.” Thursday November 15th will be Thirsty Thursdays at the Cellar (which is below the Wine Bar) and this event may be held in conjunction with MBAA. Join the Student Life committee!
Alethea Duncan – She has been going to DUU meetings. There are several events occurring soon. Devil’s Eve will be on Halloween with kegs, treats and shuttles between West Campus and Franklin Street. There’s also the author of “Unhooked” speaking tonight. Next Wednesday is a DUU meeting, so come if you are interested.
Yvonne Ford – There is a student organization called The Inferno, whose mission is to boost school pride and student support for varsity Duke sports. After you graduate, your participation in The Inferno translates into priority points for membership in the Iron Dukes. The Inferno membership is $40/year (versus several hundred dollars/year for Iron Dukes). There are GnP representatives on The Inferno’s Executive Committee: the graduate student rep is herself, but there is still a need for reps from Fuqua and Law. If you are a member, each event you go to counts as a point toward free Duke merchandise.
Also, Coach K asked Joe Alleva to move the GnP student section in the basketball games because he wants people to be under the opposing team’s hoop for both halves. He asked the freshman class to write Joe Alleva to ask for this to be done. Because of a technicality, it’s not going to happen this year, but tell your constituents to contact administrators if this is something that you are opposed to, and encourage your constituents to do the same.
David Kahler – There will be a GnP student health fair at Wilson Gym on 11/1/07. Flu shots will be available until 6, though the rest of the fair ends at 3. He encourages students to stop by the Medex booth to inquire about travel and medical repatriation insurance, with free travel information and information regarding health insurance or benefits if you are planning on traveling within the US or overseas.
III. Student Groups Liaison Election
Crystal Brown – Wadia Haddaji has accepted his nomination to run for this position. Laura Barnard has also been nominated and the floor is open for more nominations.
Laura Barnard – She respectfully declines the nomination.
Crystal Brown – Since there are no other nominations and no opposition, Wadia will be appointed to this position.
Wadia Haddaji – He is a fourth year PhD student in finance. He did an MBA before and worked in industry for 3 years. The reason he wants to do this position is because he believes it is important to maintain a contact with groups. For example, we need to be proactive and build relationships with groups like DUU. There are a lot of opportunities in these types of interactions and we should strengthen our ties and build relationships.
IV. GnP Student Page in The Chronicle
Margaret Stoner – There will be a GnP student page in The Chronicle called “Filling in the GAPS” (GAPS = Graduate and Professional Students), and they want GnP students to be a part of this effort to provide free and low-cost advertising for GnP events. The top half of the page will be to post events, etc for the students. The bottom half will be for advertisements to support the page. In the past, outside advertising clients have asked to provide ads that might be more able to reach GnP students. The academic departments already purchase ad space, but this would allow more opportunities to do this for the GnP student audience. For the undergrads, this might allow more insight as to what is going on in the GnP student arena. The Chronicle hopes to increase their readership by doing this.
They are asking student groups and departments who are able to pay for ads to purchase space. They are asking that groups/departments try to find a way to purchase one quarter page ad this year, but this is certainly flexible. They are willing to fill in the other ads that are not taken up in this way. They have received 5 commitments for quarter page ads in response to their email to the academic departments.
Yvonne Ford – Have you contacted GSA?
Margaret – Yes, she doesn’t know the details but so far they have been receiving good feedback from everyone they’ve contacted.
Gautham Pandiyan – Is this going to be a weekly page?
Margaret – Yes, they’re planning to run it either on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.
Alethea Duncan – How much are you charging for the quarter page ads?
Margaret – The department rate will be the same as it is now – 1/8 of a page for about $80, then ¼ for $142, and so on. Student groups will receive the lowest discounted rates.
Alethea Duncan – How will you make sure that the schools that pay for the ads get represented more in the content on the page?
Margaret – That’s why they’re asking for a commitment up front so they know who will be contributing money. Email Nalini for more details.
Will Wittles – He doesn’t want GnP students to be known as GAPS.
Margaret – The title can be changed.
Patti Thomas – You could get information about events from GPSCNews if needed.
Margaret – We would really like to encourage the student groups to put things in directly as well.
Wadia Haddaji – This will be a good way to give access to GnP student information without having to flyer, etc.
Alethea Duncan – She would like to see more GnP news articles, in addition to event advertising.
Zak Kazzaz – You can email him with issues pertinent to your whole school at zak2@duke.edu.
Alethea Duncan – She thinks that it is ironic that they are adding this page for GnP students and then asking the GnP population (departments and student groups) to pay for it.
Margaret – She knows that student groups don’t have a lot of money, that’s why they’re going to the departments first.
Crystal Brown – She thinks this page is a wonderful idea. She would suggest for them to make an effort to have someone write articles to profile GnP student life. GPSC could assist in finding such a writer if necessary.
Margaret – She likes this idea and will pass the information along.
Anne-Marie Laura – She thinks that her school (Nicholas) would be very supportive of this and that they will advertise with the page.
Gautham Pandiyan – He would like to say that The Chronicle has always been pretty receptive to GnP students and GPSC requests.
Margaret Stoner – If there are any other questions or suggestions, please email Nalini Akolekar at nalini@duke.edu. They’re shooting for starting this by the beginning of this next year.
V. Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) discussion
Dr. Prasad Kasibhatla – He is here to discuss what he would like from GPSC and what the GnP students would like in terms of going forward. The QEP is the self study component of the University accredidation process (which occurs every 10 years). This process has 2 parts: 1) a compliance report, which demonstrates that you have done required things in the past (the QEP is not involved in this), and 2) a self study, or QEP, where a focused topic is generated in order to discuss things to implement in order to enhance the education of students. The focus is largely academic, though not entirely. This QEP should be consistent with, but independent from, the Strategic Plan.
As the process has unfolded, a Leadership Team had been formed, including the President, Provost and select students and faculty. Through the Blue Sky Project, they had a series of discussions and selected the topic “Enhancing Liberal Arts Education in the 21st Century” as the theme of the QEP. The committee in charge of the QEP is separate from that which picked the topic and is comprised of about 20 people (including faculty, a few administrators such as Dean Nowicki and Dean Thompson, Elizabeth Holmberg from GPSC, a young alumnus rep and an undergrad). They’ve met 3 times so far, with the written QEP due in about 1 year.
So far they have focused on a few things, including what they think the outcomes of a liberal arts education should be. Second, they have asked what are the programs that are ongoing, and what works or does not work (they have touched on the Focus program, undergraduate research, and study abroad). As far as GnP students are concerned, it is a bit less obvious how they fit in, but they want to figure out how. There was a Blue Sky conversation focusing on GnP student life and education. Two major things seemed to come up in this conversation: 1) we need to think about what constitutes the graduate school curriculum in the various departments (since right now it varies across departments), and 2) what are the skills, attributes and experiences needed for students to prepare for their future since not all graduate students enter academia and it is unclear whether Duke is preparing these students for jobs in non-academic environments.
In a conversation with the Executive Committee of Graduate Faculty (ECGF) it became apparent that there is some desire to vertically integrate the culture in the University (e.g. Undergrad connecting with Graduate connecting with Faculty populations) as well as inquiry on what are the benefits for GnP students. For example, are there things that we can think about that will help GnP students in terms of programs that will help them participate. Also are there programs to help GnP students participate more broadly.
The QEP committee has started to think a bit more on the inclusion of GnP students in the plan. Dean Thompson has put forth several suggestions, including that one of the best plans would be simply to increase funding for GnP students.
The QEP committee will be working on this topic over the next year. Some of the things he would like to get out of today’s meeting are creative ideas to figure out how to make GnP students central to the QEP. This is truly an opportunity since resources will be put behind whatever the QEP committee comes up with as recommendations. He would like some sort of discussion involving GPSC and the larger GnP student community regarding current academic barriers.
The last thing they’ve been grappling with is engaging the professional schools in undergraduate education. They’ve been thinking about capstone-type experiences that would be developed and run by the professional schools.
Ali Saaem – Is there any limitation on the committee that stops there from being more than one GnP student on it?
Dr. Prasad Kasibhatla – No he doesn’t think so, but unfortunately the committee has already gotten started.
Crystal Brown – There are currently two (Elizabeth Holmberg and Matthew Hurst) and next semester she will join them to make three.
Dr. Prasad Kasibhatla – If you feel there is not good representation from the GnP student population, then you can ask Judith Ruderman about it. He would be supportive of increased GnP student participation in the QEP committee.
Alethea Duncan – It would be helpful if you could send any documents to us to help us understand the process or the considerations.
Dr. Prasad Kasibhatla – He will be happy to provide things that are not supposed to be confidential. He will give some things relating to liberal arts education, for example.
Wadia Haddaji – There are a few issues that are important to the GnP student community. First, there is a lack of communication between all of the various schools and programs. We need one center where people can gather and learn from each other. In general, we are a bit resentful that the University often seems to ignore the GnP students when we in fact make up roughly as large of a student body as the undergraduates.
Dr. Prasad Kasibhatla – 20 years ago when they did the QEP the topic was on how to develop topics to enhance interdisciplinary studies and research, which is decidedly more GnP oriented than the current topic so it’s not the case that they always ignore the GnP students.
The graduate center has been in discussion for awhile. It is expected to be something connected with the QEP, but the QEP is largely academic.
Betsy Holmberg – Are there any ways we could enhance the liberal arts component of GnP schools, such as a minor or certificate in another department or school?
Laura Bernard - This question is very much a topic of relevance in the Divinity School. Currently, the idea is that it is possible to take classes in other schools, but the reality is that this is not truly available. It would be nice to make it available to actually do this, rather than just saying that it is possible. Right now they are looking into more dual degree programs.
Dr. Prasad Kasibhatla – This is a good point. Think about what you wish you could do from an educational perspective. Are there other joint degree programs that you can think of that there should be resources dedicated to?
Heather LaBreche – We have talked about career services opening the doors to allowing students to participate in classes/programs in other schools, especially by overcoming the faculty barrier.
Dr. Prasad Kasibhatla – The fact that faculty who students work with may not be in favor of dual degree or dual participation has come up before. What kinds of things would you like to see to have this overcome – say all students have to, or some other way?
Brandon Little – Recently the Nicholas School Masters program had a town hall meeting expressing interest in getting certificates from other schools. Compared to other universities, there is a lot less devoted support staff for certificate/combined degree programs here. For example, Fuqua and Nicholas combined programs.
Dr. Prasad Kasibhatla – He has one example of such a program – there’s a law clinic that will be half law students and half professional students. Are there other programs like that?
Kat Mitchel – For the MGM program they have limited options as far as certificate programs in relevant areas (health policy, etc). She would like to feel like student participation is valued in such programs, since graduate students who are doing the research have a lot to contribute.
Dr. Prasad Kasibhatla – Would it be helpful to have a certificate program that is held with the undergraduates or is graduate student only?
Kat – She never really thought that it would be an option to have GnP only.
Yvonne Ford – She is interested in doing some social psychology stuff, but it is hard to find coursework because there is no pathway. Even when we say we’re interdisciplinary, it often comes down to not having the ability to do such things, maybe on a formal basis. Often it requires individual effort to contact people who can help, but it would be nice to have this formalized.
Patrick Palmieri – IOM report is coming out and he’s surprised that there’s not more emphasis on interdisciplinary studies. In other schools, faculty seem more accommodating for interdisciplinary studies. Also, it is very difficult to have intellectual discussions amongst GnP students because there is no location easy for such interactions to occur. His idea would be to have a place to congregate to talk about scholarly endeavors.
Dr. Prasad Kasibhatla – If there were such a space, would it be used? Would it be best if it was GnP only or if it included students from a variety of levels (including undergraduate students).
Patrick Palmieri – In places like Vanderbilt and U Penn similar spaces are well used by GnP students. If you want people to congregate you should have a center.
Consensus – It would be best if it were for GnP students only.
Anna-Marie Laura – It might help if there were space allocated in this graduate student space for lectures & seminars to ensure interdisciplinary interaction and attendance at interdisciplinary seminars.
Elizabeth Rach – She would suggest having a Masters degree in Clinical Research available to non-medical students. The MD/PhD program is very popular and so there might be a lot of interest in people doing a similar thing with clinical research.
Alethea Duncan – On your way to your PhD you can get a Masters in a different field, but you need to have an institutional knowledge base with a large hub of information with Career Services to help you get joint degrees and certificates. A lot of departments discourage this to keep students honed in on academia. It would be helpful to have an academic student ombudsperson so we can have established guidelines for prelims, etc. Right now it’s largely up to each department to determine whether students are “allowed” to pursue such training.
Elizabeth Rach – It seems that one of the difficulties in setting up dual degree or cross-certificate programs is in financial transfer between the schools/programs.
Supriya Munshaw – Financial transfers are not problems unless they are between different schools. Within the graduate school, certain programs (e.g. Masters in Statistics) are more accessible.
Gautham Pandiyan – One issue that would involve mentorship for both the undergraduates and GnP students is to enforce mentorship standards. Your experience is largely defined by your mentors and there is not attention to mentorship standards right now.
Kim Novick – She proposed the question: does Duke do a good job preparing its graduate students to do things besides being an academic professor in a major research institution? We lack the ability to teach here. It would be good to have more standardized ways to teach courses as well as mentor students.
Christine Eyler – Often we wish we could go to conferences that may differ in focus from those of our particular labs/programs but our PIs/mentors are often not willing to fund these trips. It would be nice to have funding or resources to help us attend interdisciplinary conferences and events, which would also help us with our networking skills.
Crystal Brown – She would like to see Duke promoting more international opportunities for GnP students, making it more available for GnP students to take part in Duke Engage and other programs.
Oliver Gjoneski – In terms of graduate students teaching, in his department (math) there are many opportunities. It is good for the graduate students for this to be the case and may also be good for the undergraduates as well. For example, there was a recent beneficial overhaul of the undergraduate calculus classes as a result of graduate student-raised concerns.
Laura Johnson – It is two different things to 1) TA an already-planned course and 2) design and teach a course. In her department, they TA every semester but the only time they are able to fully teach their own courses is over the summer.
Dr. Prasad Kasibhatla – One of the things that he’s thought about is a teaching fellows program to dedicate resources to help people be able to teach courses “off the books.”
Dr. Mary Boatwright – That would be a way you could have interdisciplinary courses that address current thinking in a way that would be different than the Preparing Future Faculty program. It could be geared to people wanting to go to a liberal arts school.
Unidentified speaker – There are some places where graduate students are allowed to teach in prisons and these courses are often more interdisciplinary than others at Universities.
Jessi Bardill – She knows a colleague who has designed and taught a course of his own. He had to do the footwork to support this because it wasn’t institutionalized. The Stern and Bass fellowships (administered by the Graduate School) are some of the support mechanisms in place.
Brandon Little – She took two courses taught by graduate students as an undergrad and they were not good. There should be additional help to train teachers who will be responsible for undergraduate teaching.
Dr. Mary Boatwright – They would like to come talk to us more often to make sure that the GnP schools are incorporated into the QEP.
Move to approve extension of the meeting by 10 minutes.
Motion: Alethea Duncan. Second: Yvonne Ford
Motion fails
Adjourn: 8:32 pm