six priorities for 2011–2012
priority one
assessment and learning
mission To promote excellence in learning, the Graduate School coordinates the University’s graduate assessment initiatives, and pursues partnership and external funding opportunities to develop innovative structures in support of scholarly and professional development. goal Implement assessment plans for graduate education and work with the state to get new and revised graduate programs approved.
Highlighted Accomplishments Learning Outcomes. The Graduate School worked with graduate fields to articulate degree-specific learning outcomes and assessment plans. These plans are posted on the Graduate School’s website.
Cornell NYCTech Programs. The Graduate School worked with the leadership of the Cornell NYC Tech campus to begin developing new degree programs. New and Revised Programs: During the past year, we facilitated the following program and curriculum changes for graduate fields: • Asian
Religions and East Asian Literature merged to form one field of Asian Religion, Literature, and Culture.
• Civil
and Environmental Engineering removed its concentration in civil infrastructure from the on-line application due to dormant status of the concentration.
• Design
and Environmental Analysis renamed the concentration of applied research in human-environment relations to environmental psychology.
• Genetics
and Development became Genetics, Genomics, and Development and established a new concentration in genomics.
• Human
Development added a new concentration of aging and health to both of its subjects, Developmental Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies.
• International
Development and International Agriculture and Rural Development merged to become Global Development, which will offer two M.P.S. degrees: International Development and International Agriculture and Rural Development.
• Linguistics
An aerial architectural rendering of Cornell NYC Tech Campus (NYC)
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removed its minor concentration of romance linguistics from the on-line application due to dormant status of the concentration.
student spotlight • Policy
Analysis and Management consolidated concentrations within their Ph.D. program (from consumer policy, family/social welfare, health policy and management to one concentration— public policy).
• Applied
Statistics M.P.S. program was approved for official affiliation as a Professional Science Master’s program.
• Food
science and technology received a Sloan/ SUNY grant to further develop its proposal to affiliate its M.P.S. as a Professional Science Master’s program.
Graduate student Erika Johnson in her Hollister Hall lab, measuring water flow rates.
Erika Johnson has taught fluid mechanics to engineering students while working on research for her Ph.D. in environmental fluid mechanics. “Being a TA is a lot of work, but certainly has a lot of rewards—they ask a lot of difficult questions,” she says.
Cornell’s new Master’s of Professional Science in statistics
learn more
Learn more about learning assessment Visit the new graduate programs: •
Asian Literature, Religion and Culture
•
Genetics, Genomics, and Development
•
Aging and Health
•
Global Development
Johnson also led seventh- and eighth-graders last year at the “Expanding Your Horizons” conference, an outreach effort aimed at “trying to get girls interested in math and science.” Johnson was working for a NASA subcontractor in Florida when she met College of Engineering Dean Lance Collins at a conference. She came to Cornell to further her research on volumetric discharge, or the amount of water flowing in rivers and estuaries. Her work in the field and at Cornell’s DeFrees Hydraulics Laboratory will help agencies like the U.S. Geological Survey to conduct more effective and accurate stream monitoring, using remote sensing technology. “Dean Collins is big on turbulence, and there’s a potential for collaboration with people in civil engineering and earth and atmospheric sciences,” says Johnson, whose work has been supported by Sloan and Colman fellowships.
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priority two
student experience
mission Through programming and infrastructure, the Graduate School encourages the development of a diverse community, optimizes professional development opportunities, prepares students for a multiplicity of career paths, and helps students experience considerable flexibility, freedom, and independence in their academic programs. goal one Enhance graduate/professional student and postdoc life, particularly through partnerships with other units and through enhanced programming and student life initiatives.
Highlighted Accomplishments CIRTL: The Graduate School’s bid to join the national network, Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning, was successful and will lead to an enhanced partnership with the Center for Teaching Excellence and improved opportunities for future faculty development for graduate students and post docs, particularly in the STEM disciplines. Teagle Foundation Grant Preparing Graduate Students to Become 21st Century Engaged Teaching Scholars: A joint proposal from the Graduate School, the Center for Teaching Excellence and the Center for Community Engaged Learning and Research was funded by the Teagle Foundation to further enhance future faculty development efforts.
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Career Services: A partnership with central Career Services resulted in a recent hire who will focus on career development for Ph.D. students interested in pursuing opportunities in business, industry, government, and non-profit careers, and career development for international students.
Spouse/Partner Career Workshops: We developed partnerships with Human Resources and outside consultants to provide a workshop for partners and spouses of graduate students looking for work in the Ithaca area.
Personal Financial Management Service: The Graduate School partnered with ClearPoint Financial Services to provide personal financial management skill training and counseling to graduate and professional students. Surveys. As part of an effort to enhance our understanding of student experience, the Graduate School, in partnership with Institutional Research and Planning and the Survey Research Institute, is developing a series of four survey instruments that will be sent to the following groups: students who were accepted but did not matriculate, new matriculates, current Ph.D. students, and graduating students. Implementation is planned for 2012–2013.
goal five Enhance graduate student professional development opportunities.
engaging dialogue:
The Olin Lecture
Highlighted Accomplishments Office of Inclusion and Professional Development: With the establishment of the Office of Inclusion and Professional Development (OIPD) we expanded our ability to support students in gaining important transferable skills and enhancing educational and career opportunities for students. Postdoctoral Fellows and Associates. The Office of Postdoctoral Studies moved within the Office of Inclusion and Professional Development to foster greater programming synergies. Professional Development Programming: OIPD delivered and/or co-sponsored professional development events and workshops, including the following: • Writing
a Teaching Statement
• Developing
an Electronic Portfolio
• Converting
a CV to a Resume
• The
Postdoctoral Leadership Series
• Preparing
for a Non-academic Job
• Navigating
the Academy
• Research
Works in Progress
• Graduate
School 101
• Managing
Stress
• Mentoring • Finding • Body
an Academic Job
Language and Communication
• Faculty
Jobs at a Small Liberal Arts Colleges
• Women
in the Sciences Mentoring Conference
Olin lecturer, Dr. Steven Pinker, meeting with Cornell graduate student.
How would a Martian linguist describe our species? According to Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, a Martian linguist would look at our swearing as a window into emotion and indirect speech as one into social relationships. Pinker, named one of the 100 most influential scientists and thinkers in the world by Time magazine, gave the Graduate School’s 2011 Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Lecture on the “stuff of thought” and ‑engaged interdisciplinary groups of graduate students in provocative dialogue about visual cognition and the psychology of language. As part of a 20-year commitment to support graduate education, The Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Foundation was created at Cornell in 1987 to foster the intellectual exchange of ideas and help drive discussion of critical issues in the sciences and the humanities. Supported by the Foundation, distinguished guests meet with students, then lecture to the graduate community. Previous Olin guests have included Jane Goodall, Noam Chomsky, and Stephen Jay Gould.
learn more
Visit the Office of Inclusion and Professional Development’s webpages for a current list of programs
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March11/PinkerCover.html
Learn more about CU-CIRTL Visit Cornell Career Service’s enhanced web pages for the graduate community. 11