Chancellor’s Fall
Conference
Agricultural & Biological Sciences
Group 2C
Small Group Questions
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?
Offer competitive support; be conscious
of the marketplace for students; understand what you want to
(need, can) offer; do not be afraid to take a risk in promise of
support (especially when strongly supported by historical data);
four to five year guarantee of support is necessary to be
competitive for the top students in the biological sciences;
safety net needs to be available for programs that take this
risk
Students are attracted to programs that
allow them to enter the program uncommitted to a specific
laboratory; rotation programs key when appropriate
Be selective in membership of graduate
groups; make sure faculty can train students in the
discipline
Control TAships; equitable distribution
of TAships across graduate groups for qualified students; Graduate
Division (or someone) needs to review how TAships are awarded and
if the process is truly open to the campus student community at
large (especially in the case of department-based programs where
departmental students are given first priority for TAships);
better advertisement of TA positions.
Need more fellowships especially for
students in their first and second year, prior to being able to
focus on meeting the goals of a research grant.
What works may be discipline-specific
and dependent upon the nature of the research being done and the
expectations of RAships of granting agencies
New faculty should have student support
guaranteed so that they can compete for students with the
established faculty (do not treat all faculty the same) helps in
recruitment of both faculty and students.
Competitive in dental care; vision care;
health programs; child care; make these available to postdocs who
bring in their own money; involve UCD Medical School in offering
competitive insurance packages to postdocs.
Advise students as to existence and
availability of fellowships; assist them in application process (a
course exists requiring students to not only write but to also
submit such grants - this could be expanded to other
programs).
Develop a mechanism to support faculty
(release time) and students ($) willing to write training grants,
develop fellowships, seek endowment funding; establish a central
office to facilitate these activities and be proactive in
identifying opportunities for training grants, etc.
Build a quality factor into award of
block grant funds.
Graduate Division needs a development
person - this should be a high priority.
Are the best students in the pool of
applicants in the first place?; targeted visits to strong liberal
arts colleges; better outreach and advertising especially outside
of California; web sites critical and must be of equivalent
quality; personal contact important.
What kinds of curricular
change/innovation should be considered in our
programs?
Put different, innovative ideas from
different graduate groups on a common web page to facilitate
exchange of ideas.
Coalesce core courses of different
programs that will improve breadth emphasizing critical thinking
(how to approach a problem); then offer specialty courses
providing detailed information in a specific field.
Recognize that one model will not fit
all programs.
Answer the question of what we are
training our students for - adjust curriculum to where the
students are actually going. Training for professional skills
needed? (See Ray’s list). Professional skills training
courses (management; interpersonal social skills; conflict
resolution; etc.) Faculty might also need help in this
area.
Educational methods course: How to be an
effective teacher at different levels.
Campus should develop a concept of what
the split should be between undergraduate and graduate teaching
for faculty and assess the feasibility of instituting such a
policy; clearly define the expectations for faculty teaching such
as a 2/3 undergraduate 1/3 graduate split (and time spent doing
each).
What kinds of mentoring work best?
What steps can be taken to improve mentoring?
Figure out why women faculty members
appear to be better mentors for both men and women than
men.
Mentors should be student
advocates.
Mentors should train and advise students
in areas beyond simple research criticism.
Peer evaluation of
mentoring.
Ask former students/postdocs to address
mentoring ability of faculty member in letters to be included in
the packet for merit action (from associate to full
professor).
Analyze exit interview data of
graduating students regarding how good of a mentor the faculty
member was to use in merit and promotion actions.
What kinds of placement efforts, both
academic and non-academic, work best? How can we improve what we
currently do in this area?
Make better use of programs on campus
such as the Career and Internship Center that educate students in
topics such as writing a CV; negotiating your first position;
etc.; engage faculty in this process; inform students of the
availability of internships offered through this
office;
Should we do more for career placement
programs for our postdocs (and include graduate students in those
programs)?
