GRADUATE & PROFESSIONAL STUDENTS

Present: Carol Seager, Dean Johnson, Janet Roecker, Keith Ellis, Matt Beckendorf, Kim Huggett, Lois Greene, Aaron Quisenberry, James Owen, Melissa Manning, Amanda Thomas, Clen Marotz, John Augusto, and Cathy Thrasher

Committee Membership:
Introduction of committee members and their areas of responsibilities.

Carol has talked to Mary Karten at KUHR and she is willing to serve as a consultant to
our group to address the benefits and entitlements of GTA/GRA.

How the Priorities Came to Be:
The following are the priority groups as identified by Dr. Roney that came to her as areas
of concern.

• Strategic Recruitment Plan
• Strategic Retention Plan
• Expansion of Thematic Learning Communities
• Assessment of program effectiveness
• Increasing and supporting a diverse population of students
• Entrepreneurial strategies
• Wellness initiatives for the University Community
• Help Desk concept
• Services for graduate and professional students
• Student Success staff enhancement & development strategies
• Communication strategies

Our priority group will focus on graduate and professional students – are they aware of the various services afforded to them as students and how do we inform them of these services?

Our Charge:
Review the University’s services and programs to determine the level of awareness and accessibility for graduate and professional students. In particular create a means for Student Success departments to evaluate all websites, publications and communications to ensure that clear messages are present that indicate services are provided to graduate and professional students.

We will be involved in the “idea” process to identify what needs to be accomplished. This group will not be responsible for the implementation. This group will present information in the form of a 2-3 page report by the end of this semester.

Target Population:
Professional students – law (jd), pharmacy (pharmd), & social work (msw) Graduate students

What makes these students unique?

• older
• part time students
• working – both student and employee
• family (significant relationship and children)
• own their home
• stationary in Lawrence – don’t leave to go home during breaks
• International students where English is their second language

We need to get a baseline of information and may need to do a quick survey of graduate students.

The Graduate School has begun this year an application process by school/college. Perhaps a smaller type of new student orientation process would help graduate and professional students become aware of services available to them.

It was estimated that approximately 1,000 new graduate students come to campus each year and that there is approximately 4,000 graduate students on campus. There are between 35-36 Graduate Student Organizations and we would like to see that increased to somewhere in the mid 40’s. Our fees are reasonable at KU and are very comparable to other Big 12 schools.

Information is most commonly delivered to graduate and professional students by email, one on one from the professor who recruited the student and packets of information given out by the department. Carol suggested that our goal should be to have a level of consistency in dispersing the information. One suggestion was to have each department have a web page linkage to the Graduate School. It was also suggested that we should label as a service and not a benefit.

It was decided that information gathering would be the first step. James Owen, John Augusto, and Keith Ellis have agreed to help with the survey. It was agreed that no more than 10 questions should be on the survey and that it would be sent out through the list serve. John Augusto can provide the demographic information. Committee members are requested to send suggestions to James before our next meeting.

Submitted by Judith Pinegar