Wednesday, December 4, 2013

CGS offers a full schedule of interactive, cutting-edge workshops that provide participants with helpful strategies, information sharing opportunities and resources to bring back to their campuses. All workshops are half-day sessions with a fee of $75 per session. Please carefully review the schedule as you register. The pre-meeting workshop registration fee includes workshop materials and morning coffee. Lunch will be on your own on Wednesday.

Fundraising as a Critical Instrument for Improving Graduate Education
9:00-11:30 am
In times of financial stress private fundraising is both more essential and more challenging. This workshop will explore how a graduate school can secure philanthropic support when it has to compete with undergraduate colleges and professional schools on universities' fundraising priority lists. Deans will share best practices on how to implement targeted fundraising for the graduate school within the larger context of the university. They will also address the use of internal and external strategies for collaboration for setting priorities and communicating development objectives within and among university units.

Technology Solutions for Tracking Student Progress
9:00-11:30 am
How are graduate schools using technology for purposes of assessment and accountability? This workshop will provide a hands-on experience with two different systems offered by universities that have successful student tracking programs. Graduate deans will demonstrate technology-based tools that enable collection of student progress and achievement data serving departments, colleges and graduate schools. Workshop participants will experience two different systems that help identify obstacles in student progress and also provide positive information about student success.

Assessment and Review of Graduate Programs - Doctoral
9:00-11:30 am
This workshop will address issues related to the evaluation of doctoral programs. It will focus on outcomes assessment and external reviews as well as reviews conducted by regional accrediting commissions. In addition, novel approaches to internal and continuous assessment of program quality will be discussed. The facilitators will present best practices for external reviews, describe the planning and implementation of outcomes assessment, and then discuss ways to integrate the two forms of evaluation to enhance the quality of doctoral education.

Assessment and Review of Graduate Programs – Master’s
9:00-11:30 am
Assuring quality is central to effective management of graduate programs. This workshop will address the evaluation of master's level programs and emphasize outcomes-based assessment. A best practices summary will be followed by descriptions of outcomes assessment representing various stages in the development of the assessment process. The facilitators will discuss strategies for making program assessment meaningful and manageable, dealing with faculty resistance, assessing student learning, integrating outcomes assessment with program review, and meeting accreditation requirements.

Addressing Challenging Graduate Student Situations: Comprehensive Approaches and Techniques
9:00-11:30 am
This workshop will help graduate deans and staffs recognize and deal with difficult graduate student situations. Topics and case studies will include the broad scope of student problems (alcohol, drugs, mental health concerns and stress); how issues manifest themselves; Title IX complaints; faculty concerns; harassment; veiled and direct threats; suicide ideation and self-harm; and how best to use a variety of campus resources.

Engaging Social Media to Improve Graduate School Services
9:00-11:30 am
Use of technology is critical to a 21st century graduate school and most graduate deans have developed strategies for enhancing functionality and operations. However, social media can also assist in implementing effective communication strategies, creating innovative approaches to information and using the interactivity of Web 2.0 efficiently. This session will provide an overview of social media,discuss principles and implementation strategies, and share promising practices as well as lessons learned. Please BYOD (bring your own device)!

Legal Issues
2:00-4:30 pm
This workshop will cover a wide range of legal issues affecting graduate students, including but not limited to race conscious admissions, immigration reform, collective bargaining, intellectual property, copyright and tech transfer, and student record issues. There will also be time reserved for an open Q&A with the audience.

Online Graduate Education: Establishing, Managing and Supporting Successful Programs
2:00-4:30 pm
Few institutions have not been affected by the recent, rapid growth of online education. Online, distance programs pose special challenges for universities in areas of organizational structure, technological infrastructure, program funding, faculty engagement and development, student services, assessment, and accreditation. This workshop will examine some of the challenges and potential solutions associated with the delivery of quality online graduate education.

Achieving Diversity, Inclusiveness and Excellence: Approaches that Work
2:00-4:30 pm
Increasing the participation and graduation of underrepresented groups in graduate education is a national imperative. Leaders from institutions with successful diversity and inclusion programs will describe strategies and techniques implemented on their campuses that have resulted in increased applications from students from underrepresented populations and admissions of students from these groups into graduate programs. Speakers will also describe successful approaches to increasing retention and graduation of underrepresented students in graduate programs.

Graduate Schools' Role in Financial Aid
2:00-4:30 pm
While deans have long been aware of forms of support such as assistantships and fellowships, graduate schools are increasingly engaged with need‐based aid and other loans as part of the financial package and support for graduate students. This session will discuss an array of funding sources and prepare graduate deans to ensure that optimal packages and information about funding options are offered to students.

Fostering Career and Professional Development: Mentoring Across the Student, Faculty and Institutional Divides
2:00-4:30 pm
Are students and faculty on the same page about professional development needs? Does your institution facilitate graduate student career success? How can your graduate school bring stakeholders together around critical issues in career and professional development? Using Michigan State’s Career Success and PREP models as case studies, this interactive workshop will help you plan coherent partnerships and programs across campus, and explore research‐based methods for measuring their outcomes.

Advocating on Behalf of Graduate Education
2:00-4:30 pm
Become a stronger advocate for graduate education within and outside of your institution. Employers and policymakers all too often focus on undergraduate education and professional schools as representing the breadth of higher education, overlooking master’s and doctoral programs. Graduate school deans, faculty and students need to understand what policy and political obstacles exist. Learn to leverage your program’s strengths into powerful and effective advocacy.