Task Force on Graduate Education

Task force on graduate education

The task force on graduate education is a strategic planning group working to develop a comprehensive analysis of graduate and professional education at IU Bloomington. The task force and its working groups will ultimately craft a vision for the ideal graduate experience, and will make recommendations for both long- and short-term actions, some of which will be implemented during the Fall 2022 semester. In addition to sharing progress on this website, Provost and Executive Vice President Rahul Shrivastav will continue to send regular emails on updates and action steps.

Feedback submission form

Do you have constructive feedback to share with the Graduate Education Task Force? Share your thoughts here.

Graduate Education Taskforce: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group

Recommendations for Immediate Action

October 14, 2022

Alter language from “underrepresented minority” to “historically excluded” across all IU-related communication. IU and other institutions did not become predominantly white spaces by accident or happenstance. Research in areas such as history and sociology provide evidence of the ways people were deliberately and systemically excluded over time and the ways this exclusion continues. It is critical that we signal our awareness of this historical and current context and that we are willing to have conversations on these and other difficult topics.
More information:
- Toward ending the monolithic view of ‘underrepresented students:’ why higher education must account for racial, ethnic, and economic variations in barriers to equity (Center for First-Generation Student Success NASPA/Suder Foundation initiative)
- Enhancing campus climates for racial/ethnic diversity: educational policy and practice (Project Muse: The Review of Higher Education)
Reinforce and expand UGS initiatives and efforts to recruit historically excluded graduate students. Additional efforts can be made to better advertise IU’s graduate programs and facilitate the recruitment of individuals from historically excluded groups. Funds should be increased for recruitment visits and for targeting HBCUs, Latine-serving institutions, and colleges that do not already offer graduate programs. More effective cross-campus information about IU’s graduate programs should also be disseminated to create a stronger internal pipeline. Partner with and advertise IU’s graduate programs through cultural centers (such as the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center and La Casa) on our campus and others to expand recruiting to professional, state, and national organizations that serve historically excluded groups.
Join the National Name Exchange Program and other similar applicant identification programs. By joining, IU will gain immediate access to a larger potential pool of graduate applicants from historically excluded communities across the country (National Name Exchange,Council of Graduate Schools).
Increase the President’s Diversity Recruitment Fellowship to a $30,000 stipend per year for five years. As the most prestigious graduate student fellowship on campus, the stipend level for this fellowship should be revisited every two years. IU is not competitive with other universities on fellowships, which hampers our ability to attract the best historically excluded applicants. Therefore, the goals for this fellowship are to recruit the very best students from historically excluded populations and strive to maintain—or increase—the number of fellows.
Foster community by supporting interaction in informal settings. Create a new and/or separate dedicated space for graduate students with the capacity to facilitate fun shared cultural experiences through food, music, art, language, and conversation. The space will be for all graduate students and use of the space will not be defined by any attribute other than “graduate student.” This will help improve community among historically excluded graduate students.
Foster community beyond academic units. Graduate students are often limited to relationships within their academic unit, which consequently slows down community development. To foster community, the graduate school should offer a conference/roommate search-type of online forum for students to connect with each other, especially for international students.
Ensure all grievance policies are designed to give graduate students confidence that their concerns are taken seriously. Community is threatened by policies and procedures that have inequitable outcomes. This working group endorses a position within UGS for an ombudsperson to help historically excluded graduate students find a clear path to navigate grievance policies and other bias incidents. On a broader scale, update and promote a central information hub for graduate student resources hosted by the University Graduate School at IU Bloomington.
Strengthen IUPD’s work with other university and community partners. We must ensure that IUPD is at the cutting edge of training in diversity, equity, and cultural sensitivity policies—and, more importantly, that these policies are enacted and applied consistently. In addition, historically excluded graduate students are often apprehensive to report incidents of bias, so that consistent application of cutting-edge policies is critical for students to feel safe and to increase their sense of belonging at IU. Given this apprehension, revisit mechanisms for reporting incidents of racial bias and public safety.

Recommendations for Immediate Action

September 9, 2022

The Health and Wellness Working Group of the Task Force on the Future of Graduate Education was charged with addressing the short- and long-term needs for all aspects of graduate student well-being. The working group considered the common and unique needs of graduate students at all levels and in all disciplines. Our recommendations for immediate action reflect the desire to build a community that has robust access to mental health care, to alleviate acute and chronic stressors, and to provide ready access to information and resources.

Community. Create supported events and a dedicated, centralized space available for all graduate students, through which they can develop a sense of community across the campus. For example, this might include a provost-sponsored monthly event in the IMU Vault. More importantly, given the present plans to retool the former University Club for student space, graduate students should have priority booking at a separate space, where they can host regular events and lectures and set aside blocks of time for quiet study. While a pass scan system could potentially be used for a locked space, this may require hiring a staff member and/or graduate student(s) to oversee the space.
Access to campus leadership. Create an advisory committee of graduate students composed of leaders of campus graduate student organizations, similar to the Dean of Students Cabinet of Student Leaders, and recommend that the dean of the Graduate School and provost meet regularly with this group. Task and fund the Graduate School to implement a regular assessment/survey of graduate student needs, health, and well-being, such as gradSERU.
Grad Prep Week. For graduate courses, institute a grad “prep” week the week before finals, in which there are no class meetings or new assignments in graduate courses.
Graduate student medical care. Although health and wellness resources are available to all students, the committee recommends the following to improve upon and address the unique needs of graduate students:
1. Mental health treatment. Ensure that any graduate student who needs ongoing access to a mental health specialist is granted continuity of care, whether that be in-house or as a monitored referral.
2. Expand the number of dedicated grad student counselor(s) and those located in a discrete location not frequented by undergrads. This is essential for graduate students as they serve as SAAs now or in the future. Add another prescriber (NP or MD/DO) for managing medication needs, particularly for mental health services.
3. Address specialized health care needs for graduate students. Provide resources and referral for specialized health care needs such as women’s health, LBGTQ+, and others.
4. Health insurance coverage. Ensure that SAAs have insurance that covers physical and mental health care when they are on an approved leave of absence.
5. Wellness. Ensure continuation of the newly added access for SAAs to the Healthy IU programming.
6. Short-term SAA sick leave policy. Develop a transparent policy for time off due to sickness that protects the SAA’s position and defines the respective responsibilities of the SAA and department to meet ongoing work obligations.
Health-related resources. Given IU's current effort to develop a central website for health information through IU’s Chief Health Officer, ensure that specialized resources, information, and opportunities for graduate students are developed and included with a clearly marked pathway to that section indicated on the landing page.
Financial stress. Financial insecurity remains a significant mental health issue for graduate students. Build on the stability provided by the recent increase in stipends and coverage of mandatory fees to:
1. Remove additional fees. This includes removing the international mandatory fee, covering G901 fees for SAAs, and eliminating the gap between academic fellowship stipends and the new SAA stipends.
2. Financial advice. Develop financial advice resources tailored to the specific life-stage and situation of graduate students through MoneySmarts.
Campus-wide graduate mentorship programs and grievance process. The development of academic relationships and the ability to redress grievances that surround them are crucial to graduate student success. We recommend establishing minimum expectations and improving the transparency of:
1. Academic grievances at the department and school level for graduate students. Creation of a simplified guide to academic grievances is required. This includes providing guidelines for student dismissal, productivity, plagiarism, and ethical issues in a lab, and requiring departments/schools to make their processes clear and accessible.
2. SAA grievances at the department and school level and create a simplified guide to the SAA grievance pathway.
3. Mentoring practices, in collaboration with the Graduate Mentoring Center, and require departments/schools to make these guidelines clear and accessible as well as ensure that accountability mechanisms are in place.

Additional updates

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion working group has been constituted and has met twice, and the Curriuculum and Academic working group has been constituted and will begin to meet soon.

Previous updates

The Financial Support Working Group delivered its initial recommendations to the Task Force Coordinating Committee, which then forwarded them to the Provost and to the BFC. These initial recommendations focus on Student Academic Appointees:

Overall

To ensure that prospective graduate students are making decisions based upon full information about their financial support package, departments will provide prospective students with detailed, transparent information about SAA positions, stipend and other support amounts, years of support, tuition and fee remission, and health insurance. Departments should also provide students with the recent, average time to degree, number of credit hours required to complete degree, and the number of years the financial support package is intended to support.
For recommendations that require additional financial investment by academic units, the campus should provide one to two years of cash funding to allow units time to adjust budgets and assume responsibility for ongoing costs.

Fees

Starting Fall 2022, the campus should require the College and schools to remit "Tuition and Fees" for SAAs to ensure that mandatory fees are also regularly covered. Course-related fees connected to graduate programs of study should be covered for SAAs as part of their Tuition and Fee Remission.

Stipends

Stipends should be tied to the median, by discipline, of R1 public Big Ten Midwestern universities to ensure IUB’s competitive position for recruiting and retaining top graduate students. Departments may propose a different peer group based on their top competitors.
The minimum campus stipend for 0.5 FTE SAAs should be increased to $21,000 by Fall 2022 (FY23). VPR should provide transitional financial support for principal investigators of federal research projects where needed.
A mandatory review process for SAA stipends should be conducted every two years to ensure that a) all schools and departments remain competitive, and b) that no unit falls below the campus minimum.
For IU’s next fundraising campaign, the campus should identify graduate fellowships and other forms of graduate support as high priorities.

Appointments

The SAA FTE standard should be regularized to 0.5 FTE to avoid reductions in FTE levels as a budgetary cost savings measure. Appointments lower than 0.5 FTE should require approval by VPFAA.
Further research should be conducted to understand fully the differential workloads of SAAs and to develop recommendations to address inequities.

The working group will continue their consideration of long-term recommendations for financial support for all graduate and professional students. These recommendations will be included in the final strategic plan.

Finally, the Health & Wellness Working Group has been constituted and will begin meeting next week. Initial recommendations of this group are expected by the end of August.

The working group on financial support has met a third time, and membership for the health and wellness working group has been finalized. The task force will continue to review all comments submitted through this form, including those related to SAA compensation and workload, graduate student well-being, and other ideas for improving the educational experience for all graduate students. The task force plans to submit several recommendations to the provost and Bloomington Faculty Council to consider for Fall 2022 implementation and will continue to work through the coming year on many other issues of concern to our graduate students and faculty. In addition to the recommendations for immediate action, the task force will deliver long-term objectives and actions as a new strategic plan for graduate education at IU Bloomington, sometime during the 2022-23 academic year.

This past week, a new SAA Council in the College—which is home to more than half of all IU Bloomington SAAs—hosted its first meeting, co-chaired by history professor Padraic Kenny. This work will complement the work of the BFC’s re-constituted campuswide SAA Affairs Committee. An open, unfilled seat remains available for representation from the IU Graduate & Professional Student Government (on all committees). We have received over 150 feedback forms on the task force on topics ranging from increased funding to mental health support to ensuring that undergraduate courses continue, uninterrupted, this academic year.

As of July 8, 2022, the working group on financial support had met twice as a full group and once in breakout groups that discussed SAAs, fees, and stipends. Membership for the working group on health & wellness will soon be finalized. Committees will also discuss graduate student housing; curriculum and academics; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and career and professional development. The coordinating committee has met seven times since May 18. An open, unfilled seat remains available for representation from the IU Graduate & Professional Student Government (on all committees).

Task Force Working Groups and Members

David Daleke, co-chair	Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, IU School of Medicine and Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Health Sciences
Marietta Simpson, co-chair	Distinguished Rudy Professor of Music, Voice, Jacobs School of Music and Past President of the Bloomington Faculty Council
Michael Adams	Department Chair and Provost Professor of English, College of Arts and Sciences
Chelsea Brinda	President, Graduate and Professional Student Government; PhD student in Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education
Kay Connelly	Professor of Informatics and Associate Dean for Research, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering
Michael Kaganovich	Department Chair and Professor of Economics, College of Arts and Sciences
Sarah Lubienski	Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, School of Education
Rebecca Slotegraaf	Professor of Marketing, and Associate Dean for Research, Kelley School of Business

Michael Adams, co-chair	Department Chair and Provost Professor of English, College of Arts + Sciences
Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, co-chair	Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies, College of Arts + Sciences
Iman Alramadan	Senior Lecturer of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Hamilton Lugar School, College of Arts + Sciences
Matt Bochman	Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, College of Arts + Sciences
Nayah Boucaud	PhD student, Informatics, Luddy School
Jarrod Burgh	PhD student, Economics, College of Arts + Sciences
Kim Geeslin	Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, College of Arts + Sciences, and Associate Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs
Krista Glazewski	Department Chair and Professor of Instructional Systems Technology, School of Education
Paul Graf	Teaching Professor of Economics, College of Arts + Sciences
Aimee Heeter	Vice Provost for Finance and Administration
Desiree Ippolito	PhD student, Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education
Richard Nash	Professor Emeritus of English, College of Arts + Sciences
Noah Stoffman	Professor of Finance, and Chair of Doctoral Programs, Kelley School
Kevin Zumbrun	Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, College of Arts + Sciences

David Daleke, co-chair	Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, IU School of Medicine and Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Health Sciences
Bernice Pescosolido, co-chair	Distinguished Professor of Sociology, College of Arts + Sciences
Dana Anderson	Associate Professor of English, College of Arts + Sciences
Loukisha Anderson	PhD student, Higher Education and Student Affairs, School of Education
Yoosoon Chang	Professor of Economics, College of Arts + Sciences
Ellie Cothren	PhD student, Economics, College of Arts + Sciences
Jacob Emery	Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Comparative Literature, Hamilton Lugar School, College of Arts + Sciences
Lynn Gilman	Clinical Associate Professor of Counseling and Educational Psychology, School of Education
John Keesler	Associate Professor, School of Social Work, IUB Program
Eddie Mony	Doctor of Music Education student, Jacobs School of Music
Tuli Mukhopadhyay	Professor of Biology, College of Arts + Sciences
Kathleen Myers	Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, College of Arts + Sciences
Bill Ramos	Associate Professor of Health and Wellness Design, School of Public Health
Christan Royer	Director of Benefits, IU Human Resources
Marcy Shepardson	Associate Professor of Accounting, Kelley School of Business
Brad Stepp	Interim Director, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
Tislam Swift	Doctor of Music student, Jacobs School of Music
Marcey Tidwell	Registered Nurse, IU Student Health Center
Louis van der Elst	PhD student, Intelligent Systems Engineering, Luddy School, Representative, Graduate and Professional Student Government

Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, co-chair	Associate Professor, Departments of History and Gender Studies, College of Arts + Sciences
Rebecca Slotegraaf, co-chair	Professor of Marketing, and Associate Dean for Research, Kelley School of Business
Drew Bogenschutz	Director, Disability Services for Students
Greg Carter	Assistant Professor, School of Nursing-Bloomington
Denvil Duncan	Associate Professor, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Kenzie Givens	PhD student, Intelligent Systems Engineering, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering
Constance Cook Glen	Teaching Professor of Music, Jacobs School of Music
Lucia Guerra-Reyes	Associate Professor, School of Public Health
Brittani Jackson	PhD student, Kelley School of Business
Shakoor Karim	Director, Community & School Partnerships, Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs
Suha Lasassmeh	Lecturer, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering
Gavin Mariano	PhD student, Higher Education and Student Affairs, School of Education
Paola Mattey Mora	PhD student, Epidemiology, School of Public Health
Daniela Puzzello	Professor of Economics, College of Arts + Sciences
Howard Simms	Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, University Graduate School
John Urheim	Professor of Physics, College of Arts + Sciences
Lesley Weaver	Assistant Professor of Biology, College of Arts + Sciences
Joel Wong	Professor of Counseling & Educational Psychology, School of Ed

Michael Kaganovich, co-chair	Department Chair and Professor of Economics, College of Arts + Sciences
Catherine Pilachowski, co-chair	Department Chair and Professor of Astronomy, College of Arts + Sciences
Damir Cavar	Associate Professor of Linguistics,College of Arts + Sciences
Danielle DeSawal	Clinical Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, School of Education
Manuel Diaz-Campos	Department Chair and Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, College of Arts + Sciences
Will Geoghegan	Clinical Associate Professor and Chair of Kelley Direct, Kelley School of Business
Nana Gletsu Miller	Associate Professor of Applied Health Science, School of Public Health
Brad Heim	Professor and Executive Associate Dean, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Tim Hellwig	Associate Chair and Professor of Political Sciences, College of Arts + Sciences
Justin Hodgson	Associate Professor of English, College of Arts + Sciences
Srinivasan Iyengar	Professor of Chemistry College of Arts + Sciences
Chris Judge	Professor of Mathematics, College of Arts + Sciences
Jonathan Leslie	PhD Student, Economics, College of Arts + Sciences
Volodymyr Lugovskyy	Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Economics, College of Arts + Sciences
Heather Reynolds	Director of Graduate Studies and Professor of Biology, College of Arts + Sciences
Meredith Park Rogers	Acting Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education
Nicole Rizzo	PhD Student, English, College of Arts + Sciences
Selma Sabanovic	Professor of Informatics and Associate Dean for Graduate Education, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering
Scott Shackelford	Professor of Business Law & Ethics, Kelley School of Business
Patrick Shih	Assistant Professor of Informatics and Director of Graduate Studies for Data Science, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering
Shenika John Jordan	Doctorate of Music with Certification in Vocology Student, Jacobs School of Music

Sarah Lubienski, co-chair	Department Chair and Professor
Sean Nicholson-Crotty, co-chair	Director, Graduate Mentoring Center, University Graduate School
Chris Andrews	PhD Student, School of Education
Travis Brown	Senior Executive Assistant Dean of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Commercialization
Erin Bruce	Associate Director of Employer Relations, Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design
Tyron Cooper	Associate Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology; Director, Archives of African American Music and Culture
Michelle Crowe	Director of Communications, IU Libraries
Pat Donahue	Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director, Career Development Center
Benjamin Draper	Co-Founder and Research Scientist, Megadalton Solutions
Amanda Duba	MFA student in Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design
Kelly Eskew	Clinical Professor of Business Law & Ethics
April Grudi	Assistant Clinical Professor, O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Heather Hundley	Associate Professor
Katie Kearns	Assistant Vice Provost for Student Development, University Graduate School
Antino Kim	Associate Professor of Operations and Decision Technologies
Jane McLeod	Executive Associate Dean and Professor of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences
Sarah Pietraszek-Mattner	Manager and Executive, O&G Geoscientist
Trevor Verrott	Graduate Career Coach, Walter Center
Larry Zhang	PhD Student at Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering

Members to be announced.

In the news

President Whitten and Provost Shrivastav act on additional task force recommedations for graduate students

September 13, 2022

Following July recommendations from the Task Force on Graduate Education, we announced an increase in Student Academic Appointee stipends that will now place our minimum stipends in the top half of the Big Ten, our commitment to ensuring that this status will be maintained, and coverage of mandatory fees.

President Whitten and Provost Shrivastav act on task force recommendations for graduate students

August 2, 2022

IU is moving forward immediately to address two crucial elements of the Task Force recommendations.

November 17, 2022: Progress report
November 3, 2022: Aligning our priorities
October 21, 2022: Updates from Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
October 6, 2022: IUB 2030 and wellness updates
September 22, 2022: Updates on the task force on graduate education
September 13, 2022: President Whitten and Provost Shrivastav act on additional task force recommedations for graduate students
August 25, 2022: Updates going into the Fall 2022 semester
August 11, 2022: Further steps on task force reccomendations
August 2, 2022: President Whitten and Provost Shrivastav act on task force recommendations for graduate students
July 27, 2022: Updates coming from financial support committee
June 16, 2022: Updates regarding the task force on graduate education
June 9, 2022: Next Steps and Key Principles for the Task Force on Graduate Education
March 28, 2022: Graduate Student Listening Sessions: Three Important Updates

Office of the Provost & Executive Vice President

Task Force on Graduate Education