Initiatives announced to help graduate students
The School of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Student Senate have been working together to launch a series of initiatives intended to improve graduate education at Utah State University.
Dean Thomas Kent of the School of Graduate Studies said he has evaluated the program and has taken action to improve enrollment and graduate student satisfaction, despite the budget cuts all Utah schools took this year.
“When I first arrived a little over a year ago, I talked with President [Kermit L.] Hall and we agreed that we needed to pay more attention to graduate studies.” Kent said, “I asked myself, are we doing a good enough job recruiting, retaining and supporting our students?” Kent said. “The answer was no, so we need to do a better job.”
Even though USU took a major budget cut this academic school year, President Hall has agreed to allocate an amount of $400,000 out of a discretionary fund to be available to the School of Graduate Studies for next year.
“We’ll take whatever we can get, so we want to make the best use of it,” Kent said. “I am incredibly optimistic about the direction of graduate education.”
Kent said the funding will allow for the continuation of the initiatives which have recently been implemented, such as funded new dissertation fellowships, tuition waivers, funding support to help departmental recruitment and their ultimate goal: To increase doctoral enrollment.
Nancy Hyde, administrative assistant of the School of Graduate Studies, said she has worked at USU for 18 years under three different deans, and is quite impressed with the initiatives and strategies recently taken by Kent.
“I am very excited. I think the new direction that Dean Kent is taking will be wonderful for the School of Graduate Studies,” Hyde said. “He brought some wonderful ideas with him.”
This year, Kent said, has already been a change for the positive by improved quality of the students and by having the highest enrollment numbers in the past 10 to 15 years which are nearly record-breaking.
“The trend that we are taking is very positive. We are headed in the right direction and making progress,” Kent said.
The Graduate Student Senate has recently launched initiatives as well, with the passing of two bills on Jan. 29 which will greatly improve graduate education, said ASUSU Graduate Studies Vice President Erica Thomas.
The first bill increased the current budget of $1,848 to the amount of $15,000, or approximately 4.5 percent of the total ASUSU budget, Thomas said. This will go toward aiding graduate students on a departmental level.
“In order to develop strategies, we needed more money in our budget to make it a better program for the students,” Thomas said.
The second bill approved by ASUSU allots a percentage of the new funding to construct a Graduate Student Study Center, which will be located on the second floor of the Merrill Library, Thomas said.
Thomas said this study center will provide graduate students with computer use, low-cost printouts, copy-machine use, a quiet area to study and a place to conjugate as graduate professionals.
“It is hard to find a big, quiet place to study on campus,” Thomas said. “There’s a big difference between graduate and undergraduate students, and this is needed.”