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In a meeting with faculty and student representatives of the graduate school today, University of Louisville Provost Dr. Shirley Willihnganz announced plans to dissolve the graduate school by the end of the year.
The plan, which Willihnganz said is still flexible, would mean the end of the current system in which graduate students compose a graduate school separate from the rest of the university. The students, faculty and at least some control of the degree programs will be moved to the individual colleges and schools within the university once the plan is put into place.
“After a year or more of a lot of conversations, my sense is that we cannot get to the kind of strengthening of graduate education we need,” Willihnganz said. With a centralized graduate unit like the one currently in place at U of L, there are “endless border disputes.” She explained that either everyone thinks issues are someone else’s responsibility or everyone claims them as their own.
Under the current system, she said, “the graduate school and the dean are considerably weakened.
Graduate students on hand at the meeting had mixed views and a barrage of questions about the changes. Of chief concerns were potential problems with representation among policy-making bodies at the university and worries over funding for graduate students projects.
Graduate Student Council President Tim Brauch, who is the mathematics department, worried that the new graduate school structure will eliminate two sources of financial support for graduate students: money allocated annually from the Student Government Association budget and about one and half times the amount SGA provides from the graduate school each year. This year’s figures were about $18,000 and $37,000, respectively.
Willihnganz assured Brauch that the money issues would be resolved. “We can figure that out,” she said. “There’s nothing to say that money can’t still be there.”
Brauch and other GSC members were also worried that, because the graduate school will no longer be a separate school, it would lose its representation within SGA. Willihnganz said the university will need to look at solutions for the problem, but told Brauch that the council – at least in some form – will persist through the transition period.
Dr. Ron Atlas, the current dean of the graduate school, was also on hand to help address concerns. “Graduate students have to feel their needs are being served,” he said. “We have to make sure we do no harm to the graduate council or the graduate school moving forward.”
Atlas is known by students and faculty alike for making sure that graduate students receive sufficient financial support, including working to increase stipends for graduate assistants.
The future of Atlas’ position is still unclear, like some other aspects of the plan, however. Willihnganz plan includes creating an associate or vice provost for graduation education, which would parallel a similar position which oversees undergraduates.
Willihnganz said adding the associate provost in her office would help ensure central oversight of graduate education programs. Faculty members at the meeting seemed especially concerned about this area, some voicing worry that they may have to jockey for resources and attention within their individual colleges and schools after the changes take effect.
Willihnganz’s explanation of the plan seemed at least somewhat preliminary as she explained there are still wrinkles to iron out. Besides financial issues for GSC, the university still needs to devise a mechanism for overseeing dissertations and solidify preliminary plans to handle interdisciplinary degree programs.
Graduate students Jonathan Johnson, who works as an assistant in the graduate school office, and Henry Luka, the GSC secretary, also questioned the Provost about campus resources for graduate students. “Services currently being provided by the graduate school may not be met under the new system,” Luca said.
But Willihnganz said that’s what her office is for. She said she has been looking at more ways to connect graduate students with one another to help create a peer group for the unique population. “People are retained because they make connections,” she said.
Next, the plan will likely go before the U of L Board of Trustees as an information item. Details about whether the Council on Post-Secondary Education will have to approve the plan are still unclear, but Willihnganz said the changes are most likely something that will only need to be handled within the university.
As the plan is pushed forward, a transition team will be established to provide input about the process, Willihnganz. “You’re input into this is going to be very, very helpful,” Willihnganz told students.
If all goes as scheduled, Willihnganz said the last students graduating from the existing graduate school will do so in December and incoming students will be recruited in to the new structure.
Look for more information about the changes in the graduate school in the April 17 edition of The Cardinal.
