Lawrence B. Martin, Ph.D., Dean of the Graduate School, Stony Brook University
won the CGS/Peterson's award two years ago. The award has helped him to promote
the recently built "Center for Inclusive Education" located near the main
Library on Stony Brook University's campus. A resource for students and faculty,
the Center is a brick-and-mortar commitment to long term change. Read on to
learn more about building credibility on campus for your efforts for
inclusiveness.
| Q: | How are your efforts for inclusiveness in graduate education going at Stony Brook University? |
| A: | Very well. The money from the Peterson's/CGS award is not enough to make an impact on its own. But this award is more about recognition of what the university has done, and continues to do in this area. It has helped us bring together what we were doing and publicize it on campus. |
| Q: | How did you use the award funds? |
| A: | In the first year, we had a symposium to discuss what the campus was doing and needed to do on an ongoing basis to promote inclusiveness. Through this effort, we brought people together and drew our resources together. We developed a plan that included the creation of the Center for Inclusive Education here on campus. |
| Q: | This is now an actual building? |
| A: | Yes. This year, we built the Center, and the staff has moved in. It's in a highly visible location near the main library. It's a resource center for students and faculty, and we run lots of programs from the Center. For example, we had a summer research institute, open to incoming students as well as juniors and seniors in college.
The faculty find the Center to be very helpful as well. This year, we will have a symposium linked to the official opening of the Center. We will cover the topics of diversity and success in graduate education. |
| Q: | How have your efforts made an impact on campus? |
| A: | It's not easy to change campus culture, and it certainly isn't done with one or two activities. Our efforts must be built into the fabric of campus life, visible on a day to day basis. Graduate program directors use the Center for recruitment, we have faculty and students dropping in to see what the Center is about, and this increases visibility for the university's efforts in this area. |
| Q: | What about retention of qualified students? |
| A: | We're trying lots of things to see what works. In conjunction with some other programs (NSF and Alliance for Graduate Education), every week or two we run programs in science, math and engineering to assist the graduate students. There are lots of ongoing campus programs and the Center is a place where students can find out what's going on. Students receive support before they come here, and continuing support while they are here. |
| Q: | So the award has helped... |
| A: | It brought things into focus and frankly gave our efforts a level of plausibility on campus. The recognition provided by Peterson's and CGS is very useful. Also, the award is flexible so that you can do the kind of program you need on your campus. It's not enough to hire a staff person or run a lot of programs, but it does provide a way to flag efforts that are ongoing and coordinate them and institutionalize them - which is what we're doing with our Center for Inclusive Education. |
