1. How can we expand the pool of high quality graduate students attracted to our programs? In the area of student support, how can we use our existing resources more effectively and how can we increase our resources?

• What is a high quality graduate student (GREs, GPAs, statement, letters)? We need to expand our definitions of quality. What other criteria could be used? Name on publications, measure of curiosity toward research. Personal interviews - invite them to campus - possible danger of missing potentially good students who don’t meet standard criteria.
• Identify under-represented minorities. CEPRAP experience – go to middle schools and high schools to hook children into a fascination of science (developing intellectual curiosity). Presidents' fund for outreach is the way to go.
• How do undergraduates find out about the expectations? Use of web to advertise. Better use of Internship and Career Center - where else to go? Beneficial to talk to graduate students and TAs, but still a problem if you aren’t working in a research lab. Students need to hear more about research opportunities in laboratories - work-study, jobs.
• Develop programs for students outside UCD to work in laboratories in summer programs.
• If we encourage graduate students to write grants we will indirectly release support funding that could be used for other students. Need to develop a "culture" of student grantspersonship on campus. Need some leadership from Graduate Studies and Office of Research - programs of encouragement and incentive to do this.
• Work at developing a culture of philanthropy among the alumni. Especially target alums that had received fellowships and scholarships. As part of that we’ll need to do a better job at identifying these alumni – ask them to come to campus for panels, and other programs to enhance developing relationships with them. Alums are underutilized.
• Development strategies need to be mainstreamed, expanded and sophisticated. Celeste Rose is in the driver’s seat.
• Training grants need to be increased, but there should be some incentive to PIs - staff support, RA.

2. What kinds of curricular change/innovation should be considered in our programs?

• Eliminate formal lecture style courses on standard topics in exchange for faculty discussions in their areas of expertise.
• Courses that are taught at the graduate level need to be research-based, problem-solving based, and student-presentation-based. There are some areas, e.g. electrical engineering, where topics are very high level and do need more standard approaches in course work.
• Why have graduate courses at all?
• Use of core class as a means to develop camaraderie in addition to laying out a basic foundation of information for new graduate students. Graduate courses need to be streamlined in the sense that key concepts and new ideas need to be presented in the context of the historical base of the discipline.
• Preparation for qualifying exams by using technology-virtual courses.
• Graduate courses need to be developed based on what students need and not necessarily on courses that the instructors want to teach.
• Our goal is quality of graduate student research. Need more use of journal clubs.
• Involvement of Graduate Studies (Graduate Council) in a partnership with academic units to identify gaps in graduate education (e.g. facilitate communication). Graduate Studies needs the sufficient resources to help develop these programs.

3. What kinds of mentoring work best? What steps can be taken to improve mentoring?

• One-on-one discussion type mentoring, personal mentoring, peer-mentoring programs, thesis committees, academic advisors, major professor involvement in research, coaching - several types of mentoring depends on situations.
• Honesty and consistency about mentoring style - students' needs must be considered.
• Many alternative mentors - emeritus faculty, staff, senior graduate students, post-docs, etc.
• Professors need to understand that each student is different and one mentoring style won’t work for all students.
• Students need to know a professors expectations up front and vice versa.
• Both need to work at developing a two-sided relationship and trust.
• Need a campus statement outlining the minimal expectation for a mentoring relationship. Note new report from National Academy of Science on mentoring. Should use this document as a discussion topic at graduate group retreats.

4. What kinds of placement efforts, both academic and non-academic, work best? How can we improve what we currently do in this area?

• Have top quality faculty with good reputations.
• Take students to professional meetings.
• Work with alumni to help connect graduate students to industry.
• Informational interviews.
• Encourage members of industry to visit campus to meet with students.
• More use of seminar series as a means to bring people from industry to campus to meet students.
• Assistance to prepare graduate students on how to interview and prepare for future positions.
• Programs to bring alumni back to campus to talk to graduate students about their experiences in their career paths.
• Faculty need to be continuously aware of the necessity to make connections to professional colleagues and graduate students.
• Graduate Studies need to work in partnership with the Internship and Career Center to develop programs on developing strategies for career placement, helping students find positions, etc.
• Inform students about opportunities for placement opportunities through professional organizations.
• PI should take more responsibility to identify student career objectives early in their student career.

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