Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost

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Implementation of the Plan to Restructure the Oversight and Support of Graduate
Education to Enhance Excellence

February 20, 2009

TO:

• Steven Crouch, Dean, Institute of Technology, Chair
• David Bernlohr, Department Head and Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics, College of Biological Sciences
• Boyd Cothran, Vice President, Council of Graduate Students, Ph.D. student, Department of History, College of Liberal Arts
• William Durfee, Vice Chair, Faculty Consultative Committee, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Technology
• Timothy Ebner, Department Head and Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School
• Lincoln Kallsen, Budget Officer, Office of Budget and Finance
• Timothy Kehoe, Director of Graduate Studies and Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts
• Kristi Kremers, President, Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, Ph.D. student, Department of Educational Policy and Administration, College of Education and Human Development
• Nita Krevans, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Classical and Near Eastern Studies, College of Liberal Arts
• Mindy Kurzer, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences
• Vince Magnuson, Vice Chancellor for Academic Administration, University of Minnesota Duluth
• Jennifer McComas, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education and Human Development
• Robert McMaster, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education
• James Parente, Dean, College of Liberal Arts
• Henning Schroeder, Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, College of Pharmacy
• Kathryn Sikkink, Regents Professor, Department of Political Science, College of Liberal Arts
• Cathrine Wambach, Chair, Senate Committee on Educational Policy, Associate Professor, Department of Postsecondary Teaching and Learning, College of Education and Human Development
• Elizabeth Wattenberg, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health
  

FROM: E. Thomas Sullivan, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

RE: Implementation of the Plan to Restructure the Oversight and Support of Graduate
Education to Enhance Excellence: Recommendations due April 17, 2009

Thank you for agreeing to serve on the team responsible for recommending the implementation plan for restructuring the oversight and support of graduate education as described in the February 9, 2009 document that the University’s Senior Vice Presidents and Twin Cities collegiate deans submitted to President Bruininks.

The February 9 document identifies the new approach that the University will take to enhance the excellence of graduate education. The plan is designed to advance graduate education by providing a structure for oversight and support that better enables programs to thrive, and by conserving administrative fiscal resources in order to provide new and additional funds for investment in our graduate students and the excellence of our graduate programs. The plan describes the general structure of the new organization and the general roles and responsibilities of the graduate faculty, collegiate deans, and the new Office of Graduate Education. The implementation team is charged with formulating detailed recommendations consistent with the key aspects of this reorganization:

• Develop recommendations for how the specific functions and responsibilities currently carried out by the Graduate School should be reassigned. These recommendations should identify the functions and responsibilities that should be assigned to the Office of Graduate Education, the functions and responsibilities that should become the responsibility of colleges and graduate programs, and those that should be assigned to other University administrative units. These recommendations also should identify those functions and responsibilities that should be handled in a collaborative fashion across the University’s graduate programs and which functions and responsibilities should be handled at the collegiate or program level.
• Identify the processes and activities that should be eliminated because they are duplicative, unnecessary, or contribute little to the quality of graduate education.
• Identify potential additional responsibilities collegiate units and graduate programs may face as a result of your proposed reassignment of functions as well as potential efficiencies, benefits, or cost savings to those units.
• Identify how a new Office of Graduate Education and its vice provost should help to enhance the excellence of graduate education, and specific responsibilities that should fall to this new office or be overseen by this new office.
• Identify the appropriate relative roles of the Vice Provost and Dean for Graduate Education and collegiate deans with respect to terminal master’s programs, entry-level master’s programs, professional degree programs, applied doctorate programs, and Ph.D. programs.
• Estimate the number of employees you anticipate will be required in the Office of the Vice Provost and Dean for Graduate Education and describe the roles they should play. Address any critical resource issues such as space and technology.
• Identify cost savings that can be achieved by reason of this reorganization both in the colleges and in the transformed new Office of Graduate Education.
• Establish the timeline that should guide the reassignment of functions and responsibilities and any changes in processes.

There is a broad range of consultation that will be required in order for you to make reasoned recommendations that you are confident will enhance excellence and achieve cost reductions. At a minimum, you will need to consult with faculty, graduate students, DGSs, DGS assistants, collegiate deans, current Graduate School staff, the Office of International Programs, the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Office of Equity and Diversity, the Office of Human Resources, the Provost’s Interdisciplinary Team, Academic Student Resources (Registrar), Office of Admissions, coordinate campuses with graduate programs, the library, and the Office of Student Affairs. I encourage you to be broad, planful, and inclusive in your consultations. Additionally, once you submit your recommendations to me, I will post them for a public comment period. I may reconvene the implementation team to evaluate comments received and consider whether any recommendations should be changed.

I have asked Steve Crouch, Dean of the Institute of Technology, to chair the implementation team, and Dr. Katherine E. Himes from my office to serve as staff to the team to assist the team in its work. Katherine received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2007 in Neuroscience; she brings with her valuable perspective as a recent graduate student herself.

I look forward to receiving your recommended implementation plan no later than April 17, 2009, and would appreciate periodic updates from the chair on the team’s progress.

Thank you for your contribution to this important University endeavor.
Enclosures (4):

• Implementation Team List
• Announcement Memorandum
• Restructuring the Oversight and Support of Graduate Education to Enhance Excellence
• Questions and Answers
  

cc: Sharon Reich Paulsen, Associate Vice President and Chief of Staff

Implementation Team

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