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Enhancing the Graduate Experience

Ike Colbert

In June 2002, I appointed a selection panel of graduate students and staff to develop guidelines and implement a process for collecting and evaluating proposals for enhancing the graduate experience. What follows is an edited version of the progress report they submitted to me in August 2003. For complete details about the proposal process, please refer to web.mit.edu/gso and click on "community building."

Last year, I received an allocation of $200K from the student life fee to be used for enhancing the quality of student life. The timing of this allocation was especially opportune since, for several years, the GSC (Graduate Student Council) had spearheaded an effort to explore the role of "community" in terms of enhancing the graduate experience. Using the student life allocation, I decided to offer funding for creative initiatives for enhancing the graduate experience through a request-for-proposal process.

In June 2002, I appointed a selection panel to develop guidelines and implement a process for collecting and evaluating proposals. They used the following evaluation criteria to evaluate proposals: creativity; feasibility; impact and the extent to which a community need is addressed; and whether or not the proposal would enhance community. In two rounds of proposals (July and December 2002), the panel reviewed 50 entries, of which 23 were funded at a total cost of approximately $67K. Funding for individual proposals ranged from $500 to $12K.

The panel identified some key themes that distinguished successful proposals. These themes, described below, inform the ongoing discussion of "community" and what it means for enhancing the graduate experience.

 

Socializing

Several proposals focused on bringing people together in a social context. For example, one opportunity was to focus attention on constituencies whose needs for and perspective on "community" might be unique, for example, students living off campus have different needs for getting together socially. Another proposal broadened the outreach for a social program that was already in place.

 

Integrating academic and social aspects of graduate life

Several proposals acknowledged that social events and activities are often the crucial underpinnings for promoting intellectual exchange among faculty and students. Creating this environment – where students learn to express their ideas, seek connections, and exchange criticism – is the heart of the graduate enterprise. One such proposal, the Physics Pride Campaign, was a departmental effort to develop a vibrant and healthy professional community despite the fact that students are dispersed across campus; the campaign brought together students and faculty for orientations, weekly socials, and weekly colloquia.

 

Communications/outreach

A wide range of proposals addressed the need to improve communications and outreach - from increased support of the international community, or students' spouses and partners, to encouraging collaboration among student groups in planning and implementing activities and programs. One interesting proposal recommended the use of video to capture and document "the vibrant social medium of graduate life," a unique and important way to reflect what is actually happening in the lives of students.

 

The arts

Several proposals focused on the arts as an important crucible for enhancing the graduate experience. Proposals sought to acknowledge creative expression, such as creating public venues for graduate student artwork, or to draw students to existing venues, such as receptions held in the List Center for the Visual Arts. Another proposal focused on strengthening communication and collaboration among graduate "arts" students.

 

Models for community building

A few proposals were instructive on two levels. Although they focused on an activity within a particular organization, they addressed the theme of community building in a manner that might be more broadly applied, for example, to other academic departments, student organizations, or activities. The panel saw the potential for creating models for community building based on such proposals.

 

Seminal ideas

In this process, I was looking for "seminal ideas," for example, a proposal that would fundamentally change the graduate community and the services provided to the community. Such an idea would be far-reaching and innovative and reflect the best thinking about programmatic change. Although they did not represent original ideas, two proposals were strongly indicative of the community building that I hoped to see.

The proposal Ramadan @MIT, a series of community dinners marking the end of the Islamic holy month, was submitted by the MIT Muslim Students' Association to "foster understanding between the different groups of people that make up the MIT melting pot." The attractive aspects of this endeavor included its appeal to a broad MIT audience (both graduate and undergraduate, faculty and staff); its social and intellectual content; the partnerships formed with campus cultural, religious, and living groups; and the opportunity offered by the dinner forums for "forging fellowship." In the progress report they submitted to me, the Association noted a key theme that students expressed again and again: achieving balance in their lives. In this case, the challenge was balancing spirituality with other aspects of the typical student's college experience.

For many of the same reasons, Weekly Wednesdays was an important idea. Although these get-togethers at the Muddy Charles Pub did not address specific intellectual content, their purpose was to "create opportunity for a diverse cross section of MIT graduate students…to come together on a regular basis in an informal and connective setting." The organizers were trying to "orchestrate serendipitous connections among MIT folks who would benefit from knowing one another," students as well as faculty. These Wednesday events attracted crowds of up to 200 students and, significantly, a wide variety of co-sponsors. Funding ensured that food was provided, and that graduate student groups with limited budgets were able to co-sponsor events.

 

Going forward

In past articles in this newsletter, I've offered a working definition of "community" as "opportunities for priceless encounters." Such encounters are the many and varied interactions that prepare students for community citizenship; they always include graduate students and may include others who share the responsibility for building community at the Institute. Each of the 23 proposals funded from the student life fee fund provides a unique context for such priceless encounters, whether running a marathon, rubbing elbows with colleagues at the Muddy Charles Pub, engaging in a dialogue on diversity, or showcasing one's research. Taken as a whole, these proposals help us to understand what today's graduate student wants and expects from the graduate experience. By listening carefully to what they say, we have the opportunity to engage in a profoundly different and positive dialogue about a new experience.

This work complements the earlier focus group research conducted by the Graduate Students Office (GSO). While focus group participants talked about the importance of community, the proposal authors offer concrete suggestions about community activities for enhancing the graduate experience. With this process, we've initiated a dialogue and created an effective mechanism for gathering fresh, creative ideas. In a bid to continue this important dialogue, the GSO has announced the third round of request-for-proposals which were due on October 15.

 

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the members of the Dean's Selection Panel who themselves have contributed significantly to enhancing the graduate experience in their design and implementation of this process. At the time of this report, they included Barrie Gleason, chair; Heather Fry, Ted Johnson, Alisa Morss (G), Alvar Otero (G), Abhi Shelat (G), Phillip Sun (G), Sally Susnowitz.

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