Peterson's spoke with Suzanne T. Ortega, Ph.D., Vice Provost for Advanced
Studies and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Though excited about winning the CGS/Peterson's award, Dr. Ortega reports
progress during the last ten years with a 56% increase in the enrollment of
underrepresented graduate students at MU. Her award-winning proposal, "Directors
of Graduate Study Leadership Development Program" seeks to build on the
University's previous success and strengthen the role and leadership skills of
the Directors of Graduate Study. These individuals are often the new graduate
student's first point of contact, and are essential in recruitment and retention
efforts.
| Q: | Congratulations. What does winning this award mean to you? |
| A: | I have to say I can think of no other recognition or honor that means more to me
personally or to this institution. We are determined to increase inclusivity
here. It is a fundamental commitment and value. The heart of a great
institution of higher education is one that fosters a clash of ideas, the
excitement that different perspectives bring to an academic community.
We are committed to the power of education to transform people. |
| Q: | What is special about Peterson's and CGS offering this award? |
| A: | It's just so important to have national leadership focus the spotlight on this issue. It's thrilling for an institution to win this award. But, of course, there are other incredibly deserving people absolutely committed to enhancing inclusivity. |
| Q: | How do you attract students? |
| A: | There are different levels at which that works. It's a major challenge to identify promising young scholars, then another to create a financial package sufficient to allow them to pursue graduate education. |
| Q: | What are the challenges you face in recruitment? |
| A: | In addition to the obvious challenges of identifying top students, success in recruiting and retaining students is also impacted by the structure of the curriculum and the climate of the campus. We are an academic and research-based institution. Thus, the unique perspectives brought to campus by diverse groups can and should change how and what we teach as well as how and what we research. |
| Q: | Can you give an example? |
| A: | For example, in counseling psychology. For years, in counseling psychology has been committed to developing multicultural counseling skills. It takes more than individual commitment to make this happen; it requires the actual creation of courses in multicultural counseling. It requires an approach to research and course creation that treats the community as a lab for good, basic science - research-based theories and courses. This approach to curriculum development may be easiest to see in the social and behavioral sciences but it is not limited to them. |
| Q: | How involved is faculty? |
| A: | The faculty is on board. We have incredibly dedicated people often working by themselves in discrete specialty clusters. Our proposal is about creating a forum for people to get together, talk and share ideas, best practices. |
| Q: | What do you do to retain students? |
| A: | We talked about the notion of a curriculum change and a climate change as vehicles for retaining students. We ask ourselves: is what we're doing relevant to the career aspirations of students? It's a curriculum question, and also one about professional development. Are we preparing them for faculty positions? Are we preparing them for their profession? What does it mean to have a successful career? So, there is a need to focus both on curriculum and professional development to retain the students and have them succeed. |
| Q: | What about role models? |
| A: | Role models are an important part of retention. And role models, like people who need mentoring, come in all sorts of genders and hues. Latinos can mentor Asians… but overall our faculty need to validate the experiences of students and reflect society. Obviously, our program can be a feeder for a more diverse faculty of the future. |
| Q: | What are you doing with regard to professional aspirations of students? |
| A: | In addition to our Preparing Future Faculty program, we have begun exploring ways to prepare students for rewarding scholarly careers outside of the academy. By using internships - non-profit and for-profit - we can take the students out of the region, out of the country and they can gain valuable experience. They know some of the questions and issues, they learn through sharing and talking about their experiences with their peers. |
| Q: | How do you engage faculty? |
| A: | I am convinced that these efforts to increase inclusivity form the core of a quality graduate experience. Our faculty are already committed to providing the best possible graduate education, so it is a very small step for them to turn their energies and imaginations towards efforts to create a more inclusive community. Our proposal focuses on the important role that directors of graduate studies can play in catalyzing the efforts of individual faculty and students and proposes a series of activities designed to help them develop the leadership skills necessary to successfully effect institutional change.
Directors of Graduate Studies play a crucial role in all aspects of the inclusivity agenda - from their own recruitment efforts, to leadership in graduate curriculum reform, through the mentoring of individual graduate students and the development of professional enhancement programs that maximize our graduates career opportunities and success. Because Directors play such a crucial role in our efforts, but often do so with very few resources and with little knowledge of either campus or national initiatives, we believe it is essential that we provide them with opportunities to share ideas and best practice models.
I am continually amazed to find unexpected people in unexpected places doing the most amazingly creative things to encourage diversity and inclusivity. We simply need to broaden the number of people and programs that are involved. We believe the best way to do so is to develop a critical mass of leaders who can bring the rest of their faculty colleagues along. |
| Q: | Any obstacles? |
| A: | No. We have a fabulous group of directors of graduate study. We have monthly meetings. The average attendance has increased (it was high any way). The directors of graduate study are eager to work together, to share ideas - our progress is contagious! |
| Q: | Any unforeseen benefits? |
| A: | The best thing is that we have great fun, listening to great ideas. We see people working together, our diversity provides for good conversation. |
| Q: | How will you measure success? |
| A: | We will measure the attitude change, but I am a bottom line person. If we see an increase in the diversity of our graduate student population, we will have a broader range of discussion. We have an awesome group of people here and their ideas and energy is what it's all about. |
