by Skip Anderson
In its ongoing effort to improve Vanderbilt’s graduate education programs, Provost Nicholas Zeppos and Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Harry Jacobson announced recently the creation of a new position, the associate provost for graduate education. The membership of the search committee is expected to be announced soon.

“We are creating a new associate provost for graduate education who will work closely with the deans, but will report directly to the provost,” Zeppos and Jacobson wrote in a memo distributed last month to faculty members and deans.

William Smith will continue to serve as acting dean of the Graduate School during the interim, according to the memo.

“Until our new associate provost is hired, we see no reason to alter the current Graduate School as it now exists,” Zeppos and Jacobson wrote.

Shortly after arriving in 2000, Chancellor Gordon Gee emphasized the importance of the quality of the graduate programs at Vanderbilt. So much so, it was the second of five challenges he issued in his first address at the Faculty Assembly [see Sept. 5, 2000, Register].

“We must reinvent graduate education at Vanderbilt,” he said Aug. 31, 2000. “Enhancing our graduate program is essential not only to our University's national and international reputation, but also to the basic functioning of this University community.”

Since that time, a vigorous dialogue relating to the future of the Graduate School has been undertaken in a variety of forums, including the Strategic Academic Planning Committee, the Committee to Review the Graduate School, and the Academic Programs Subcommittee of the Faculty Senate, the Graduate Faculty Council, the Graduate Student Council, the deans of the eight schools with graduate programs.

“Every major forum to address graduate education has strongly recommended the need for significant new investments in institutional commitment to graduate education,” wrote Zeppos and Jacobson, responding largely to the report issued last year by the Committee to Review the Graduate School. “Dramatic and measurable improvements in graduate education must be one of the — if not the — top priority for Vanderbilt.”

Now taking a leadership role in the dialogue are members of a newly formed Graduate Education Task Force, which consists of deans Steven Gabbe (Medicine), Ken Galloway (Engineering), James Hudnut-Beumler (Divinity), William Smith (Graduate School); Roger Chalkley, senior associate dean of the School of Medicine; Alan Cherrington, chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics; Carol Burke, associate professor of English and assistant to the provost and Jay Clayton, professor of English. The committee is co-chaired by Peabody Dean Camilla Benbow and A&S Dean Richard McCarty.

Zeppos and Jacobson have asked the committee to develop a detailed strategic action plan, which is due by Jan. 15, 2003. It is expected to include recommendations on student and faculty recruitment; reward, tenure and promotion decisions; a system to evaluate graduate education; administrative support; the success of admissions program and satisfaction of graduate students; the diversity in the applicant pool; student aid; and the enhancement of teaching and research opportunities for graduate students to allow for professional and intellectual growth. The committee is also asked to recommend what services and functions are best done centrally and which are best done at the school or departmental levels.

In the memo, the authors indicated that they agree with most of the findings of the committee. Specifically, Zeppos and Jacobson agreed that there needs to be increased financial support for some programs, smooth coordination of trans-institutional graduate education, faculty accountability and adequate administrative services. They endorsed the recommendation for additional compensation and tenure consideration for faculty who demonstrate their expertise in graduate education.

Zeppos and Jacobson pointed to several steps taken recently to overcome these challenges: Deans from each school are working together to provide leadership to the Graduate School; Vanderbilt has created a $100 million Academic Venture Capital Fund and continued the $1 million recurring Discovery Grant Program; and the University is committed to the aforementioned position associate provost for graduate education.

However, they bluntly disagree with the committee’s report in two key areas: the recommendation for a “strong dean, and that a successful graduate program might compromise undergraduate programs.

“We must reject the notion that excellence in graduate education is somehow in tension with our undergraduate mission. They are complementary, and excellence in one will only reinforce excellence in the other.”

Posted 10/01/02 at 10 a.m.