evidenced in the Table 7, and will directly impact the number and quality of students we can support and
attract in the future. Similarly, our Ph.D. TA stipend is not competitive when compared to our sister and
peer aspirant institutions. Both stipends must increase annually in the future to meet market value. We
also require more Ph.D. TAs if we are to sustainably grow our doctoral student body. Additionally,
intramural support for graduate student research in the form of summer stipends and research supply
budgets would greatly aid our program.
A second area of weakness is the relatively noncompetitive start-up packages and salaries that we
offer to potential new faculty members. We have had remarkable success in recruiting most of our top
candidates in the past few years. However, we have also failed to recruit our top candidate in a number of
cases because our offers were not at market value. The graduate programs are driven by the ability of the
faculty to develop novel research programs, attain grants, write papers and mentor students. We therefore
must improve our recruitment packages to maintain the vitality of the graduate programs. The low starting
salaries, poor startup packages, and high expectations have also played a role in faculty retention, as we
have lost several faculty members recently to better opportunities.
A third area of weakness is the large and growing faculty workloads in our department. Our faculty
are actively engaged in teaching and mentoring at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, while
maintaining high levels of performance in grantsmanship and scholarly output. Faculty workloads are not
only heavy but also growing, as increases in undergraduate enrollment are not being met with increases in
faculty numbers. The faculty embrace all these missions, but require more infrastructural support to help
maintain them. The addition of technical support staff and administrative staff would add immeasurably to
our department’s ability to continue to achieve excellence in all these goals.
A final area of weakness is faculty diversity. Our continued growth and strength as a department
relies upon our ability to diversify and we must continue our efforts to invite and encourage under-
represented students, faculty and staff to join us.
c. FUTURE DIRECTIONS
The targeted goals listed below, and strategies to achieve these goals, represent an effort to address
what we identify as our most serious weaknesses, while continuing to maintain and build upon our existing
strengths.
(1) Solicit funds to support the graduate programs. The substandard level of stipends for our M.S.
students, the lack of an adequate number of tuition remissions and scholarships, and the lack of student
health insurance are the most serious student welfare issues facing our graduate program. The department
will continue to request relief in these areas, which have reached the level of crisis. In addition, we will
continue to promote the incorporation of these additional student funds in our extramural grants. However,
the faculty simply cannot be expected to fully compensate for the current deficiencies through extramural
funding, considering the department’s and university’s shared emphasis on the mission of undergraduate
education. High quality models for graduate student support plans exist within our state and were
highlighted in our last program review. Our department would look forward to working with the university
to help enhance the level of support for all of our graduate students. Currently, the success of our programs
continues to rely heavily upon individual faculty to provide substantial support for their students. In lieu of
appropriate institutional support, this situation poses an immediate problem to the graduate program, as
extramural income is falling (see section 9.a) due to the current state of federal funding and overall
decreased funding rates for grants.
Strategies to address this problem, as outline in our department’s Long Rang Plan, are:
· Develop support structure within the department for multi-PI grants to support graduate student training
and diversity enhancement, and
· Explore funding opportunities with ORSP and the Graduate School to support these activities