Dr. Al Carlozzi, Associate Dean, Graduate College, Oklahoma State University is
also a previous winner of the CGS/Peterson's award. His work with graduate
students at Oklahoma State University has exposed him to many different cultural
experiences including salsa dancing! For more about Dr. Carlozzi's efforts since
winning the award, read on.
| Q: | What was the impact of winning the Peterson's/CGS award at OSU? |
| A: | Winning the Peterson's/CGS award has mobilized campus commitment, actually, it was mobilized in the process of developing the plan that lead to receiving the award, but the award brought formal recognition of our efforts. It's great to have our efforts recognized on a national level. When we won the award, our effort was called "Graduate Plan for the Enhancement of Diversity" - and we've been at this now for several years.
The Graduate College is known on campus for our efforts, and we have presented at CGS conferences and at other venues, so our efforts have become known nationally. The people who put the program together, who put OSU's efforts on the map, Wayne Powell and Molly Tovar, have moved on, but our commitment remains. |
| Q: | How has the environment changed in this area since you won the award? |
| A: | There is increased pressure at the state level to be "careful" in how we talk about these efforts from a legal point of view. Some states are not allowing advertising about efforts to enhance diversity. We call some of what we do promoting graduate study for underrepresented groups - and actually, this designation is more open - to women, minorities, and people from different regions of the country and the world. The idea of diversity is not just targeted to one specific group. |
| Q: | How do you make the recruitment side of things work in this area? |
| A: | We have a small portion of our budget dedicated to support recruitment-related travel, and we have a tuition waiver program and incentive funds designed to recruit and retain graduate students. Considerations in assigning tuition waivers and incentive funds include the need for inclusiveness, particularly for underrepresented groups; enrollment status of the student (full-time or part-time); financial need; and the desire to recruit particularly talented and promising students to our graduate programs. |
| Q: | How does retention work for you at OSU? |
| A: | We very actively support our graduate students. We have many graduate student functions and organizations that are supportive of the diversity we have on campus. For example, I recently attended a "salsa ball" sponsored by OSU's Latin Dance Club. Many of our Hispanic graduate students are actively involved in this campus activity. I'm from New York and had never gone salsa dancing. My wife and I sat and watched for awhile, until one of our female graduate students asked me to dance, and a male graduate student asked my wife to dance. They each showed us a few steps, and we hardly left the dance floor after that. It was fun! Graduate College staff are in attendance at many student activities that reflect the diversity of our campus community. |
| Q: | It sounds as though you are very involved with your graduate student population. |
| A: | We have a very diverse staff, comprised of people of Hispanic, Native American, African American, and International backgrounds. Our staff is representative of the graduate student population here on campus. We also encourage our staff to go on recruitment trips; they represent the Graduate College. |
| Q: | So you take your diversity on the road. |
| A: | Right. |
| Q: | How do you get new students acclimated to OSU? |
| A: | We have an orientation for new students - both international and domestic - and we have a New Graduate Student Picnic to kick off each fall semester. We go out of our way to make new students feel welcome. We have an open and friendly environment for students. We want them to be part of the campus community. Many of our staff go to events like pow wows, the Native American Art Show, and other diversity-oriented campus activities. When people see that the Graduate College is invested in these things, that we value and appreciate diversity, students feel good about being here. It's an environment we try do our part to create here at OSU. |
| Q: | What about faculty involvement and support? |
| A: | Our faculty is aware and on board. Back when the plan to enhance diversity was being developed, I suspect that effort was required to sell the program. But many of the values we have pressed for have been internalized by the campus community. |
| Q: | How do you measure success? |
| A: | We're tracking trends in enrollment - every year, we have seen an increase in Native American graduate students - we had 173 enrolled in the fall of 2000, and now 202 enrolled in 2001. Our enrollment of African American graduate students has been flat these last two years, about 155 graduate students. I'm not sure why - we have more research to do. Our number of Hispanic students has increased by four this year over last year; we don't have very many Asian American students - about 96 in a total graduate student population of 4428. Our biggest increase has been in international students - 26% of our graduate students are international (1,163). They are clustered primarily in the Engineering, Computer Science and Business programs.
We have a lot of international activities at OSU - international food festivals, cultural night, etc., all well attended by our staff. We do what we can to make international students feel welcome on our campus. Some people think our universities should not have so many international students, but our view of diversity is inclusive of the world, as well as state and national communities. |
| Q: | You've done a lot to make your underrepresented students feel at home in Oklahoma. |
| A: | It's about the quality of the graduate education experience. It's not just about the numbers. We want the entire experience to be highly positive. |
