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Research NewsSpring 2008From the Graduate School |
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Alliances help develop community of future faculty Every month a group of graduate students get together to talk to each other—and faculty mentors and department chairs—about the research they’re conducting. Their presentations are brief and informal and geared for people in all disciplines. The students are part of the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP). Tony Nunez, professor of psychology and associate dean in the Graduate School, and Julius Jackson, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics and assistant dean in the Graduate School, lead the program at MSU. The idea for the monthly presentations was Jackson’s. “The students get acquainted, and because they come from a range of disciplines, they learn to talk about their research to people in other fields,” he says. “This will be a valuable skill as they move into faculty positions.” And that’s the “Professoriate” part of the program: one of the AGEP goals is to encourage graduate students to go on to faculty careers. MSU has two grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund the AGEP program. One is for recruiting and retaining domestic students in STEM disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The other covers social, behavioral, and economic sciences (SBE). Both grants are to alliances of universities. The STEM alliance includes the University of Michigan (UM), Wayne State University (WSU), and Western Michigan University; SBE alliance members are City University of New York, UM, and WSU.
Each semester the Michigan AGEP universities have a meeting. MSU hosted last fall’s gathering. “We called it ‘Pathways to the Professoriate’ and kept it to one early evening,” Nunez says. They provided dinner, with Ruben Martinez, director of the Julian Samora Research Institute, as speaker. Then students went to one of four sessions designed to fit different stages of their experience, from transition into a graduate program to the job hunt at the end. “They were on their way back to their home campuses by about nine o’clock,” Nunez recalls. “And the program got rave reviews.” The spring semester meeting was the Mega Midwest AGEP Conference—three days of professional development and networking activities, including a recruiting fair. Four alliances, with member universities from New York City to Iowa, plus the Dow Chemical Corporation and Shell Oil Company sponsored the event that drew more than 200 students and faculty to Chicago. Karen Klomparens, dean of the MSU Graduate School, gave a presentation on responsible conduct of research. Other presentations covered topics like negotiating for academic jobs and writing papers and proposals. “Now that we’ve developed a community for these students, the next step is for them to become AGEP scholars,” Jackson says. Students are invited to submit proposals requesting up to $2,000 for activities related to their research. “They can request funds for travel, membership fees for a professional society, tuition for a short course in a research technique, even a laptop,” Nunez says. To apply they must be members of the AGEP community and students in good standing and have the support of their advisor for the activity. Requiring them to be part of the AGEP community draws them into the support system it offers, Jackson says. In the first competition, 14 students received funding. “We provided feedback on proposals that weren’t successful,” Jackson adds. “We want those students to be successful the next time.” Nunez and Jackson are developing plans to offer a $10,000 fellowship for AGEP scholars who have passed the qualifying exam and have participated in another professional development opportunity offered by the Graduate School. “This would be in addition to support they have from other sources,” Jackson says. “We want this award to be something that will make an impact on the student’s career.” The AGEP program has a recruitment component, too. “Increasing the number of historically underrepresented minorities and excluded groups in the STEM and SBE disciplinary areas is something we’ve been working on for decades,” Jackson says. “But we still have a long way to go.” He and Nunez are experimenting with new ways to expand diversity among domestic students. They go to recruiting fairs and conferences where undergraduates make research presentations. But their survey of first year graduate students told them that the recommendation of an undergraduate mentor was more important than what prospective students learned at events like recruitment fairs. So they also encourage MSU faculty to visit universities with significant populations of minorities, and they invite faculty from those universities to visit MSU and get acquainted with MSU’s graduate programs. They began with visits to the College of Natural Science by faculty from six institutions and, after three years, have expanded to ten universities. Next year they hope to add more visitors and disciplines. Over two days, the visitors interact with MSU researchers and representatives of the Graduate School. “The visiting faculty ask us why they should encourage their students to come here for graduate school,” Jackson says. “They want to know how they’ll be accepted, who will look out for them. The AGEP community is reassuring to them.” The process is working, he adds. Students have applied and been admitted. “Those connections with faculty are powerful,” Nunez adds. Just past the midpoint of the AGEP funding, Nunez and Jackson are beginning to plan for their renewal proposal by identifying what has worked best to recruit and retain future faculty members and what they might do in the future. “We’re searching for answers to these issues,” Jackson says. “That’s what we do at universities.” |
Below: Julius Jackson led a breakout session at the Chicago meeting.
University fellowships offered to top grad students The Graduate School offers fellowship programs that provide financial support for outstanding students. University Fellowships are awarded in a competitive process to U.S. citizens or permanent residents accepted to doctoral and MFA programs at MSU. The five-year fellowship awards for this fall’s incoming students include a stipend of $24,000, as well as tuition, fees, and health insurance. Applicants are nominated by their departments and their colleges. An advisory committee, composed of faculty from all participating colleges, screens the files of applicants from across campus. More information on the awards and eligibility criteria is available online. This year, offers were made to students in the following colleges and departments: College of Agriculture and Natural Resources – 4 total
College of Arts and Letters – 8 total
College of Communication Arts and Sciences – 4 total
College of Education – 9 total
College of Engineering – 6 total
College of Music – 1 total · Music - 1 College of Natural Science – 17 total · Chemistry - 2 · Mathematics - 1 · Microbiology and Molecular Genetics – 1 · Neuroscience – 1 · Physics and Astronomy – 3 · Plant Biology – 2 · Statistics and Probability - 1 · Zoology - 6 College of Social Science – 22
College of Veterinary Medicine – 2 total
Eli Broad College of Business – 1 total
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NSF’s
primary goals for AGEP are to increase the number of underrepresented U.S.
minorities earning graduate degrees in the program’s disciplinary emphases
and to enhance the students’ preparation for faculty positions. By creating
these alliances around the country, NSF aims to encourage universities to
build communities that can work cooperatively to recruit domestic students
to graduate school and ultimately faculty jobs.