UM breaks into National Top 50 for producing African-American Doctoral Graduates

A Message from the Dean

NSF Grant helps Engineering Student turn Elementary Classrooms into 'School of Rocks'

Endowment supports Nation's First Doctoral Fellowship devoted to study of Life and Work of William Faulkner

New Recruiting Program yields Results

Cricket Invades Campus

Increasing School's Diversity a Top Goal for Two New Deans

Biology student nets Rare Squid in Bering Sea Summer Adventure

'Gumbo' grant seeks to Increase Inclusion among members of the Graduate Community

2003-04 Awards:

Dissertation Awards
Honors Awards
Travel Awards

Contributions

This year has seen change and national recognition for the Graduate School.

Last summer, we faced uncertainty due to the movement of Associate Dean Dr. Don Cole to a new administrative position within the University and the retirement of Assistant Dean Dr. Judith Cole. These two individuals together had nearly 15 years in the Graduate School.

We selected Dr. Christy Wyandt, who previously served as associate professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutics, to be the new associate dean of the Graduate School, and we selected Dr. Tyrus McCarty, associate professor of mechanical engineering, to be the interim assistant dean. Both have hit the ground running. Dr. Don, in the meantime, has become assistant to the chancellor for multicultural affairs, a position to which he brings great energy and leadership.

Our national recognition came in terms of the Peterson's/Council of Graduate Schools Award for Inclusiveness in Graduate Education. This is an annual award given by the national society of graduate schools. Our student group, the Graduate Student Council, and I prepared an application for this award titled, "Graduate Student Gumbo: A GSC Led Initiative for Building an Inclusive Graduate Community." It described several of our current programs that enhance the environment for diversity at the graduate level and proposed some new activities.

To our great delight, we were selected as this year's winner, and four of our GSC leaders and I proudly accepted the award at the December 2003 national meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools in San Francisco. The monetary amount of the award is pretty modest, but we are extremely proud of the recognition the award brings. Promoting diversity, whether this involves increasing the population of our ethnic minority students, creating a supportive environment for international students, bringing together students from various disciplines, or enhancing the interactions between students and faculty, is the focus of this award. Such events and activities as a cricket tournament, student-to-student writing coaches, and diversity discussion groups are examples of our efforts.

We are proud to note that Black Issues in Higher Education listed UM among the top 50 producers of African Americans earning doctoral degrees. Last year UM awarded 15 percent of its doctoral degrees to African Americans, which is roughly three times the average (5.5 percent) of other peer flagship public universities in the Southeastern Conference. Another major event during this past year was our hosting of the annual symposium for the Alliance for Graduate Education in Mississippi (AGEM). This two-day conference brought more than 300 faculty, prospective students and speakers to campus in January 2004 to discuss topics related to graduate education, including programs to enhance access and support for minority students.

So this has been a very busy year for us, and we think that some good things are happening. We hope that you will keep the Graduate School in mind and will pay us a visit if you return to campus.