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Strategic Planning Committee Minutes, March 22, 2002
Strategic Planning (SPC) Committee Minutes
March 22, 2002
MEMBERS PRESENT:: Greg Johnson, Mark Sheehan, Mary Noll, Jaynee Groseth.
MEMBERS ABSENT: Bruce Morton, Bill Brown, John Carlsten, Kay Chafey, Jon Wraith, Betsy Centa, Michelle McLendon.
OTHERS PRESENT: Kathy Attebury, Bruce McLeod.
The meeting was convened at 3:00 PM by Greg Johnson. Dean of the College of Graduate Studies (CGS) Bruce McLeod attended the meeting to discuss graduate education.
Three goals of the College of Graduate Studies Strategic Plan are:
- To maintain and increase quality of the CGS.
- To experience growth in the graduate program at MSU.
- To provide service to students, faculty, and MSU.
MSU currently has about 1230 graduate students,. Usually, a university of MSU's size and mission would have about 2,000 graduate students. For MSU, an appropriate number may be slightly less.
According to Dean McLeod, a graduate faculty would increase the quality of graduate education at MSU. Graduate faculty could meet to discuss mentoring (in the doctoral program) and advising (in the master's program), in addition to discussing other issues related to graduate education. A graduate faculty would raise awareness at MSU of the importance of graduate education.
To maintain and increase quality of the CGS, Graduate Council would function more like Faculty Council with one representative from each college and serve as a policy-making body. The graduate office would handle the more routine issues, such as approval of new courses, as it is now doing.
The Dean would like to work more closely with department heads to develop a sense of the importance of graduate education and encourage them to include it as a focal point in their strategic plans. There needs to be discussion of ways to assess the quality of graduate education (and graduating students).
To encourage growth in the graduate program, the Dean will work with the Office of International Education to increase the number of high quality international students in the graduate program.
To provide service to faculty and students, the CGS will work toward providing "bridge" funding for graduate students between grants, most often during the initial year or during the final year of a student's doctoral program. This funding would make it easier for departments to recruit students.
A financial model will be developed by CGS to analyze various growth scenarios to determine differential costs. A recommended growth plan can then be developed from the analysis.
During discussion, it was mentioned that SPC's recent SWOT analysis suggests premiere academic programs be promoted. Might this lead to overburdening these particular programs? Should programs with potential be promoted instead?
The Dean stated that the dollar amount of stipends for graduate students at MSU should not be used as the excuse for difficulty in recruiting graduate students. The amount of a stipend may not be as important as the opportunity to work in a particular program or with a particular professor. This is especially true at the doctoral level.
According to Dean McLeod, graduate education pays its own way at MSU. However, there is a break-even point, and this point must be determined before MSU knows what the optimal number of graduate students is. Program review is a management tool to gain information from departments to help make this determination, not to make judgments about departments.
As there were no further comments or questions, the meeting adjourned at 4:20 PM.
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