Focus Area B: Integrating graduate programs and research centers with the rest of the institution

The Commission on Institutions of Higher Education charged us to report on progress in integrating graduate programs and research centers with the rest of the institution:

The expansion of graduate education [at UMass Dartmouth] raises issues of governance and integration, along with resource allocation.... We anticipate learning, in the 2003 report, that the university has successfully completed integration of the various academic components of the institution. (Report of findings, October 19, 2000)

The findings asked UMass Dartmouth specifically to address two standards: 3.1 on Organization and Governance, which stipulates, "... through its organizational design and governance structure, the institution ... assures provision of support adequate for the appropriate functioning of each organizational component," and 4.20 on Programs and Instruction: "the institution offering both undergraduate and graduate degree programs assesses the relationship and interdependence of the two levels and utilizes the results for their individual and collective improvement."

The four main concerns found by the NEASC 2000 visiting team were:

• Planning for, allocating resources to, and evaluating graduate programs. Concerns include planning for new graduate programs that is consistent with the mission and budgetary realities of the campus; ongoing evaluation to ensure continuing quality and purpose; having a sufficient and stable portion of the instructional resource dedicated to graduate programs while maintaining stability and integrity in undergraduate programs; and having a stable cycle of graduate course offerings.
• Integrating the School for Marine Sciences and Technology with the rest of the campus. The visit report noted that "The Center [for Marine Science and Technology] has recently become an inter-institutional School, giving it the ability to hire its own faculty members, without requiring that those faculty be tenured in discipline departments on the main campus." The report suggested the need to clarify "what the relationship of the new School will be to the existing departments," how "faculty associated with the School will relate to their counterparts on campus," and "to what extent the School will serve UMass Dartmouth students."
• Supporting faculty scholarship. Concerns include supporting the new emphasis on faculty scholarly productivity through planned, stable grant matches; start-up funding and appropriate teaching loads for new faculty; library and database access; space and equipment.
• Structure and administration of graduate education: In the words of the visit report, "The governance structure that served the institution well when the University focused almost exclusively on residential undergraduate education for its geographic region may not best facilitate mission expansion in a rapidly changing educational environment." The report suggests, "It seems to be the appropriate time to review the structure and administration of graduate education."

Graduate education is key to UMass Dartmouth's mission to support regional education, conduct research and provide innovative public service, advance knowledge, and act as a catalyst and partner for development of the region, the Commonwealth, and beyond. Integrating graduate education and research within overall campus priorities is essential for UMass Dartmouth to become a connected teaching, research, and knowledge centered enterprise that is responsive to 21st century learning needs. Balanced development of both existing and new graduate as well as undergraduate programs is fundamental to UMass Dartmouth's plans for growth.

Graduate education and scholarly endeavor are emphasized throughout the institution's planning process reported in the previous chapter. As a major next step in institutional planning, UMass Dartmouth will articulate a comprehensive structure and priorities for graduate education and formulate strategies for achieving those priorities.

4.1 Planning for, allocating resources to, and evaluating graduate programs

Between the NEASC visit in 2000 and today, the university and its colleges and departments have made much progress in providing stable resources to graduate programs, supporting student and faculty scholarship, and integrating pedagogical levels and across-discipline interactions.

4.1.1 Program review and planning

Although AQAD program reviews are treated in detail in the discussion of campus planning and assessment above (see page 25), it is appropriate to reiterate that AQAD reviews ensure a cycle of program reviews of graduate as well as undergraduate programs. AQAD also brings a focused attention on graduate programs in fields whose specialized accreditation reviews occur only at the undergraduate level (Chemistry and the Engineering fields).

Planning is covered in detail in the discussion of campus planning and assessment above. The plans give much weight to expansion in graduate programming, consistent with regional needs: expanding the range and number of master's programs; expanding at the doctoral level, especially in joint or cooperative programs; and expanding part-time programs for working adults. The significance of graduate programming was acknowledged in 1997 when the Graduate Planning Statement was approved by the Faculty Senate giving a specific place to graduate level considerations in planning. UMass Dartmouth's enrollment planning process has developed projections separately for the graduate level. The next steps in graduate enrollment and program planning are (1) to project numbers for specific graduate programs, (2) to determine the "mix" of programming to traditional and part-time populations, (3) to continue to enhance support for research, scholarship, and creative endeavor, and (4) to focus individual graduate program plans within these parameters.

4.1.2 Providing instructional resources to graduate programs

Since the NEASC visit in 2000, provision of resources to graduate programs has become more stable and better integrated within departmental and college priorities.

Graduate programs with significant funded research - Chemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Textiles, and Marine Science/Technology - have achieved relative stability and flexibility. Funded research activity provides direct support for graduate students; and there has been an 89% increase in research assistantships between 1999 and 2002. Indirect cost recovery revenues provide an increasing level of support for faculty development, research support, and equipment purchase; and research-active faculty can buy-out from some teaching. Indirect cost recovery revenues have increased by 39% between fiscal 1999 and fiscal 2002, when they had reached $1,364,000. Funded research helps bring to graduate students a wide range of projects for their theses and dissertations together with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.

Some academic units that do not have the benefit of relatively large amounts of research income still have systematic means of balancing resources between graduate and undergraduate levels. For example, Nursing has a high degree of integration between graduate and undergraduate levels, as required by their external accreditation (NLN), and uses systematic enrollment management to provide resources to both levels. In another example, the Charlton College of Business has made individual departments responsible for graduate teaching assignments by assigning graduate courses to each department instead of using a general "MBA" prefix. This change has facilitated a stable course scheduling cycle for graduate as well as undergraduate levels. There has also been good progress in the degree to which the College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) supports graduate instruction. Analyses of teaching loads and assignments in the college show a significant and stable dedication of the instructional resource to graduate instruction. For example, in academic year 2001-2002, 32% of the sections offered in the studio arts programs of the college were at the graduate level, and of those 88% were taught by full time professors with tenure or on the tenure track.

Still, some departments make hard choices to meet demands for general education, undergraduate, and graduate instruction, as exemplified in the Psychology, Professional Writing, and Biology programs in the College of Arts and Sciences. With a large number of undergraduate students and faculty losses due to retirements, Psychology has undergone a planning process to adjust offerings at the lower division level to free up instructional capacity for undergraduate and graduate majors. English, with a large undergraduate program as well as the MA in Professional Writing, a heavy general education role, and recent faculty losses, has the advantage of being able to supplement their teaching resource and support their graduate students by using teaching assistants. Biology, also with many undergraduate majors, high demands for service teaching, and heavy retirement losses, has opted to keep its graduate program small and tightly focused to the research interests of its faculty. Each of these departments has found its way to set priorities in accordance with its college's planning process, which requires departments to identify goals for each major, option, and graduate program and to tie hiring and budget requests to their successful implementation.

The Master of Arts in Teaching has no undergraduate counterpart; its faculty are drawn from a range of content-area disciplines: biology, chemistry, English, physics (departments that have graduate programs) and French, history, mathematics, political science, Portuguese, sociology, Spanish (programs not otherwise engaged in graduate education), as well as education. Faculty who participate are typically motivated personally and professionally to engage in the pedagogy of their fields, and those from departments not otherwise engaged in graduate education enjoy teaching at the graduate level. Still, it is often difficult for these faculty members' departments to free them to teach an MAT course; and in practice the MAT program uses a relatively high proportion of part-time instructors.

One approach to expanding instructional resources is to develop graduate programming through Continuing Education. Part-time versions of the MBA and MAT programs are under development through the Division of Continuing Education - not as new programs, but as coordinated, cohort-based offerings to market-driven populations. A collective of school districts is planning with us to offer MAT courses to cohorts of their teachers, for example. These enterprises promise to meet regional needs and support program expansion outside traditional funding patterns.

This expansion of academic opportunity exemplifies the roles that Continuing Education is playing in UMass Dartmouth's enrollment strategies. While realizing opportunities to expand sources of revenue, it extends the institution's mission by serving a broader regional population. Continuing and non-traditional education, as well as graduate education, are key elements in the enrollment strategies under development in UMass Dartmouth's planning. Our enrollment strategies emphasize expanding graduate-level educational opportunities through both certificate and degree programs in Continuing Education as well as "day" programming.

4.1.3 Approving new graduate programs

University of Massachusetts System Trustees and then the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education (BHE) must approve addition of new academic degree programs. A preliminary application that is read at the UMass and BHE levels must demonstrate significant needs assessment. If approval is given, the full proposal contains, among other expected elements, sections on budget resources and program and learning outcomes and how they will be assessed. The addition of any graduate program requires an on-site visit of expert reviewers, organized by officers of the central University of Massachusetts administration. UMass Dartmouth's campus-level review for new programs - through curriculum committees reporting to the Faculty Senate, which recommends to the Chancellor - requires a full disclosure of budget, impact on existing programs, and library and other infrastructure needs. An administrator in the Provost's Office works with the Dean and departments to ensure full compliance with the criteria and provides liaison with the UMass central office. The BHE requires a follow-up report after three years. Any new program then falls within the 5-year AQAD program review cycle.

This process for adding programs has been used effectively in recent, successful proposals for graduate programs: MS in Mechanical Engineering (approved 1997); MS in Computer Engineering (approved 2001), MS, PhD in Marine Science and Technology (approved 2001); PhD in Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (approved 2002). Because new program proposals must outline program and learning objectives and plans for assessing their achievement, the above new programs have "hit the ground running" in having a functional assessment process from the beginning. New programs have been founded on solid commitment of planned resources.

4.1.4 Integrating pedagogical levels and across-discipline interactions

At UMass Dartmouth, some faculty teach only at the undergraduate level but all faculty in the five colleges who teach graduate students also teach undergraduates. The Graduate School for Marine Science and Technology, with only graduate programs, nevertheless involves advanced undergraduates in its courses and research projects. Reports from the graduate programs (included in the Team Workroom) give many examples of cooperation between the graduate and undergraduate levels, including advanced undergraduate and graduate students working together in research labs and art studios, interacting in internships and clinical settings, and participating together in seminars. A growing number of departments use senior/graduate courses (so-called 400/500 classes), and graduate students sometimes give seminars that undergraduates attend or teach focused units in undergraduate courses.

Furthermore, UMass Dartmouth enjoys an unusual amount of cooperation across academic fields in research and graduate instruction. A recent inventory brought out research collaborations between Textiles and Mechanical Engineering, Electrical/Computer Engineering and Nursing, the Counseling Center and Nursing, and the Center for Teaching and Learning and Mathematics. There are cross-disciplinary graduate research assistantships in Textiles, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Marine Science and Technology, and Professional Writing. Such interdisciplinary involvement is appropriate to evolving strategic plans: the draft ten-year vision includes the statement, "Interdisciplinary initiatives have been integrated into the culture of the university."

4.2 Integrating centers with the rest of the campus

When the NEASC team visited in spring 2000, what is now the School for Marine Science and Technology was still the Center for Marine Science and Technology. In establishing the School as a sixth academic unit and initiating Masters and Doctor of Philosophy programs in Marine Science and Technology there, UMass Dartmouth took a major step to integrate this unit into the academic and governance structures of the campus. In addition, UMass Dartmouth now ensures its research centers' engagement with institutional priorities through a comprehensive review process.

4.2.1 School for Marine Sciences and Technology

UMass Dartmouth has a long association with the ocean environment and a history since the early 1980s of expanding interdisciplinary activity in marine sciences and technology. In early 1993, the Governor of Massachusetts authorized construction of the Center for Marine Science and Technology (CMAST), a $10m marine science research and instructional facility in New Bedford, 10 miles east of the Dartmouth campus. The facility opened in September 1997.

In June of 2000, CMAST became the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST). A sixth academic unit was deemed the best structure to support interdisciplinary work, arguing against a traditional departmental structure built from existing academic departments. The new unit was authorized to hire and award tenure to faculty with primary appointments at SMAST, but it also invites joint appointments for faculty in other academic units. The 2002-2003 General Catalogue lists nine SMAST faculty and an additional nine faculty with joint appointments in one of the collegiate departments but permitting full voting privileges in the School. Current joint appointments represent the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Economics, and Physics. SMAST participates equally with the five colleges in faculty and academic governance. The Director of SMAST is a member of the Provost's Council and the Chancellor's Executive Council.

SMAST's research productivity is shown by fiscal 2002 grant expenditures totaling $3,276,000. However, developing an academic as well as research program has advanced SMAST's integration into the university. While administrative and governance issues of C/SMAST were being resolved, UMass Dartmouth became actively involved in developing the University of Massachusetts Intercampus Graduate School for Marine Science and Technology (IGS) along with faculty from the Amherst, Boston, and Lowell campuses, to offer MS and PhD degrees in Marine Science and Technology. Governance bodies at each campus debated these proposals; the UMass Dartmouth Faculty Senate gave its approval in late 2000; the University's Board of Trustees gave approval in early spring 2001; and the Commonwealth's Board of Higher Education authorized the awarding of the degrees at its meeting on October 2, 2001. The first graduate students were admitted in spring 2002 to the four campuses participating in IGS.

Although the degrees are jointly awarded by the four campuses, each student chooses one "home campus" at which s/he is matriculated. One year after program initiation, the Spring 2003 Marine Science and Technology enrollment at UMass Dartmouth is 11 graduate students. Enrollment targets call for a "steady-state" of 35 Marine Science and Technology students at UMass Dartmouth each year and 10 degrees awarded annually from studies and research done at this campus. In addition, some graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in other degree programs at the Dartmouth campus do research work at SMAST's modern laboratories. SMAST's staff, faculty, and academic programs are subject to all campus and university processes and criteria for access to resources, faculty and program evaluation, and administrative integrity. The academic program receives AQAD reviews on a five-year cycle, the first scheduled for 2006-07.

4.2.2 Research Centers at UMass Dartmouth

The Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center (ATMC) is a relatively large undertaking. Unlike SMAST, however, it has no plans to offer independent academic programs or hire independent faculty. ATMC is a center for research and partnership with industry located at a site in Fall River. Its main objective is to leverage university resources for economic development of the region; but, in parallel, the center utilizes the economic resources of the region to enhance the research and educational missions of the university.

The ATMC integrates activities of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and a professional staff of engineers and technicians. It provides a range of opportunities for faculty and students to work on research projects with commercialization potential:

• When faculty research results in a technology that has commercial potential, the technology is hardened at the ATMC for patent application and licensing. This work may include designing and building of a prototype, testing the technology, or developing manufacturing processes for producing a new product.
• When a company approaches ATMC for solving a problem or developing a new technology for a new product or process, a research contract is developed for faculty and graduate students. This results in thesis and dissertation opportunities as well as intellectual properties for the university.
• The research capabilities of faculty and graduate students are enhanced by utilizing the equipment and research laboratories at the ATMC. The ATMC also has an internship program for undergraduate students.

The ATMC's research and development directions are linked to the research interests of faculty, who offer the innovations and provide student researchers to work on ATMC projects. The ATMC is funded by a state appropriation for economic development and currently generates 20% of its budget from contracts. It reports to the Dean of the College of Engineering.

Other Centers at UMass Dartmouth provide a range of functions in campus programming, public outreach, and economic or cultural development. In different ways, they also provide opportunities for faculty and student research or internships, with academic as well as commercial or public applications. Those that play significant roles in research are the Center for Business Research, Center for Policy Analysis, and Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture.

A policy on Academic Centers and Institutes, approved in 1998, establishes programmatic, fiscal, and administrative criteria for these entities. By this policy, the Centers listed above including the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center receive a formal review on a five-year cycle. The review considers the center's mission, achievements, oversight structure, fiscal and space resources, relationship to campus units, and impact on UMass Dartmouth faculty and students. Each review ends with a recommendation to the Chancellor for continuation, modification, or termination. At the conclusion of this academic year one full cycle of center reviews will have been completed.

Centers have come to be an established and accepted aspect of UMass Dartmouth's institutional life. Centers serve as engines for institutional change, reflecting faculty interests and institutional values as they evolve or as new ones come into existence. Each of the centers referenced in this section was founded within the last six years. As an example of expansion in a center influencing academic programs, the Center for Portuguese Studies' achievements in outreach, fundraising, and research helped support a decision to move Portuguese faculty from the Department of Foreign Literature and Languages to their own academic department, the Department of Portuguese, which is currently preparing an application to add a graduate MA in Portuguese Studies.

4.3 Supporting faculty scholarship

It is widely accepted across campus that it is good and necessary to nurture new faculty in concrete ways. Our grants-rich programs support new faculty well - by providing initial reduced teaching loads, start-up funds, research space, and graduate assistants - but also expect refereed publication and success in grants funding. Departments whose faculty do not bring in significant revenues from grants - MAT, MBA, Nursing, Professional Writing, and Psychology - have more difficulty funding benefits to new faculty and to faculty who are active in graduate education and publication. Still, a reduced load in the initial year has become common across campus, and some start-up funding is available for many new hires.

UMass Dartmouth's funded research activity continues to expand: over one year, fiscal 2002, sponsored research grew by approximately 25%, bringing the total sponsored research support to $16.4m. Such growth brings with it needs for space and supportive services. Space and support are also important to enhance scholarship in other programs across the campus.

The NEASC 2000 visiting team noted space for research and scholarship as a concern, especially given UMass Dartmouth's expansion to the doctoral level. Although there is a wide-spread feeling that space is tight on the main campus, many will also acknowledge that research space is not allocated for maximum efficiency of use. Research labs, arts studios, faculty offices, and the library are all important locations for scholarly work in many fields. About 35 faculty offices are still shared, however; and the library facility does not now offer carrels or research office space to faculty or graduate students. Some tools are coming into place to address research space, through both the development of a facilities master plan (see Chapter 5 below) and a change in the faculty contract giving administrators flexibility in assigning space. Anticipated new building construction - including the Charlton College of Business building and a SHARE Foundation building - will make available much-needed space for expansion of other programs.

UMass Dartmouth has improved both pre- and post-award grant support since the 2000 visit. A reorganized office of Grants and Contracts reports directly to the Provost. This office now has a director, assistant director, administrative assistant, and grants coordinator (a new position that will focus on identifying research opportunities and proposal development). Post award grant/contract support is provided by an office within the Division of Fiscal Affairs, consisting of a director and one grants accountant. Support is provided in the areas of budgeting, financial analysis, and compliance to about 300 active awards. This office is also responsible for the financial negotiation of the UMass Dartmouth's indirect cost recovery rate.

Indirect cost recovery resources are used to support and strengthen the UMass Dartmouth research agenda. The current formula gives 30% to the principal investigator, 20% to the academic department, 10% to the college dean, and 40% to the university. A portion of the university's share supports research grants administration. Matching funds are made if, and only if, the funding agency requires them. Faculty research initiation funds, critical to the establishment of a scholarly agenda and in recruiting new faculty, currently come 1/3 each from the Department, Dean, and Provost. Partnership in funding of matching and research initiation funds is critical to supporting the UMass Dartmouth research agenda and maximizing resources available. Partners may include internal units or individuals such as a college, department, or the Provost; principal investigators; and external sources such as other grants, businesses, and agencies. Changes to the distribution algorithm have been suggested by a variety of individuals, and there has been considerable discussion regarding what, if any, changes should be made.

The campus continues to strive to provide adequate library support for graduate programs. Costs for books, periodicals, and databases are especially significant in the sciences and engineering. The proposal to add the MS and PhD in Marine Sciences and Technology, for example, included a commitment to provide $20k for each of the first three years to help defray some of the cost of supporting resources. "Services, reciprocal agreements, and collaborative activities may be more significant to graduate students and faculty than funds specifically allocated to meet their needs," according to the Dean of Library Services. The UMass Dartmouth library has many cooperative arrangements. The most significant is the Boston Library Consortium that provides faculty and students access to 18 other research libraries in the region. Access is supported by a virtual catalogue which, though currently limited to books, may eventually include journals. A change to the current indirect cost recovery allocation formula proposed by the Provost assigns 10% to the library, thus recognizing the tie between research/graduate programs and library support.

Accompanying growth in graduate education, UMass Dartmouth has seen significant increases in numbers of international students, staff, and faculty. UMass Dartmouth has addressed the needs of international students by creating an international student support office that assists with life issues as well as visa statuses. Providing employment-related support to international individuals is an increasing challenge, because appointments of international research staff, post-doctoral scholars, and visiting scholars have increased markedly and because increasing numbers of newly hired UMass Dartmouth faculty are non-citizens seeking H visas and then permanent residency. A few years ago the visa needs of the relatively few such individuals were readily supported within the Provost's Office as a part-time assignment to an administrative staff member. In order to deal with the increased workload we are now working to move employment visa support to the Office of Human Resources.

4.4 Structure and administration of graduate education

The Office of Graduate Studies handles administrative functions such as admissions, special academic approvals, appeals, and final approvals of theses and dissertations; issues assistantship contracts; and certifies students' degree completion. The Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Graduate Studies has responsibility for this office and provides leadership in the development of graduate programs for the university. The Deans of the respective colleges have academic responsibility for graduate as well as undergraduate programs in their colleges. For each graduate program, a faculty member is identified as the Graduate Program Director. Graduate students customarily work with the Graduate Directors on matters concerning qualification for admission, performance, and progress toward their degrees under guidance from departmental or college faculty graduate committees. In many aspects of graduate programming, including the awarding of assistantships, department chairpersons also have responsibility.

The Graduate Program Directors comprise the Graduate Council. This body makes recommendations to the Provost on matters of academic policy, procedure, and degree requirements; general admissions requirements; new graduate programs or program modification; and planning. The university also has a University Research Committee, which recommends on matters of policy and procedure for faculty research activity and makes awards of certain campus research grants.

This structure for graduate administration and governance has remained essentially unchanged since the NEASC review in 2000, with the following improvements:

• A position for graduate recruitment, reporting to the Director of Admissions, was announced in late 2002 and is slated to be filled in spring 2003.
• International student support (44% of our Fall 2002 degree-seeking graduate students are international) has been enhanced by the creation of an administrative position, the Coordinator for International Students in the Division of Student Affairs, in 2001. Improved orientation for international students is one benefit.
• The University Research Council is active in reviewing and making recommendations regarding research policy development, providing peer review for our internal grant programs and making recommendations for funding, and encouraging collaborative research initiatives within our campus and the UMass system.

As UMass Dartmouth continues to expand in graduate education, it will be appropriate for the institution to consider a more aggressive leadership model that identifies graduate program responsibilities as a distinct administrative portfolio. Although current processes give good attention to academic policy and quality, there is an emerging need to make a systematic examination of policy consistency and program progression across all programs, especially at the doctoral level, and to continue to strive to make graduate programs a significant, visible campus activity. Attention may also be needed to enhance the Graduate Council's role, through a clarified relationship to other structures in faculty and campus governance.

4.5 Summary of progress and remaining challenges

UMass Dartmouth has made much progress in integrating graduate programs. Standard 4.20 on Programs and Instruction stipulates, "the institution offering both undergraduate and graduate degree programs assesses the relationship and interdependence of the two levels and utilizes the results for their individual and collective improvement." UMass Dartmouth is in compliance with this requirement. As this chapter has shown, the academic areas are supporting graduate instruction appropriately to its mission importance for the institution. UMass Dartmouth also provides appropriate support for faculty scholarship.

Standard 3.1 on Organization and Governance stipulates, "... through its organizational design and governance structure, the institution ... assures provision of support adequate for the appropriate functioning of each organizational component." We have improved many aspects of the administration of functions related to graduate level research, faculty support, instruction, and student services. We are in compliance with this standard.

Furthermore, questions about the integration of centers have been resolved by making the School of Marine Sciences and Technology a UMass Dartmouth academic entity and by implementing a program of on-going assessment of academic centers.

To further enhance graduate education, UMass Dartmouth continues efforts to:

• Balance support for graduate programs: The colleges and institution need to continue to support and value their graduate programs, regardless of their sources of funding.
• Enhance the status of graduate programming and improve administrative structures: The colleges and institution will continue to enhance the status and visibility of graduate programs and to strengthen their administration.
• Apply results of institutional planning: The colleges and institution will focus planning and resource allocation processes for graduate programs. A task for 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 will be developing and beginning to implement a comprehensive graduate planning strategy.