Academic Tuesdays: Feb. 14, 2023
Richard Collins, director of the UAF Graduate School
UAF Graduate School
— by Richard Collins, director of the UAF Graduate School
What does the graduate school do?
The Graduate School supports the creativity and productivity of our roughly 900 graduate students as
they pursue their discoveries here at UAF. We work with the Faculty Senate and oversee
graduate programs, academic processes and policies at UAF. We support grad students
and their progress through professional development and training programs, orientation
programs, social and wellness events, and scholarships and fellowships. We work closely
with departments and programs and their graduate coordinators. Our Graduate School
Student Advisory Board brings a comprehensive student voice to our work. GSSAB meets
with campus leadership, participates in orientation, and hosts campus town halls.
We encourage students to contact their board members. Look for details about the next GSSAB town hall meeting in early April.
Council of Graduate Schools Consultation
Three graduate deans (James Ahern, University of Wyoming; William Graves, Iowa State
University; Sheryl Tucker, Oklahoma State University) visited the Troth Yeddha’ campus
in spring 2022 and met with approximately 100 students, staff and faculty. Their visit
was a consultation that UAF invited from the Council of Graduate Schools to advise
us on general best practices and review graduate school operations, policies and practices.
The consultation is part of UAF’s strategic enrollment planning process. The graduate
school is working to implement their recommendations, which include: communicating graduate students’ accomplishments, managing data to
better inform decisions, and modernizing our graduate student experience. You can
meet our graduate students, most recently Nicole Jacobs from CNSM, from across our
university in our student spotlights.
Three Minute Thesis competition
This year we held our second Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT). This fall, in front of a live audience of about 60 people in Schaible auditorium
with roughly 40 people online, four students competed in our finals to represent UAF
at regional competitions. John Pennington, Emily Stidham, Aaron Salzmann, and Victor
Devaux-Chupin shared their scholarship and celebrated the breadth of graduate studies
at UAF. In three minutes each, they shared their scholarship and research exploring
government tribal relations in Alaska; the role plankton play in the oceanic carbon
pump; how literature records the human experience and northern experience contributes
to our wisdom and understanding; and how the past is a window to the future in the
study of glaciers and climate, respectively. Salzmann took first prize and will represent
UAF at the regional competition with the Western Association of Graduate Schools in
Portland in March.
The New PhD and author visit
We are excited to host visiting author Len Cassuto to the Troth Yeddha' campus March 6-8 2023. Cassuto has been a longtime observer and commentator of graduate studies and recently co-authored the book "The New PhD: How to build a better graduate education" with Robert Weisbuch. Cassuto argues for changes in graduate programs that better prepare graduate students both practically and intellectually to make contributions to society and a broad choice of careers. Cassuto will give two talks on campus on Tuesday, March 7, "Graduate School and Beyond: the Academy and Society” in the Schaible auditorium at 3 p.m., and “A Cultural History of Toughness” in the Murie auditorium at 7 p.m. Faculty and students will also have the opportunity to meet with Cassuto in small group settings. You can read a recent article and a recent radio interview that highlight the questions raised in “The New PhD.”
Graduate Student Fellowships in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
UAF’s Center for Innovation, Commercialization, and Entrepreneurship (Center-ICE) is launching a new fellowship program for graduate students to broaden their innovation and entrepreneurship skill sets. Fellows will have time and support to pursue their own entrepreneurial journey and
build the new skills and capacity they need to be the resilient innovators of tomorrow.
For more information please contact Peter Webley with the subject: I&E Graduate Research Fellowship 2023.
Other announcements
In other news, UAF instructors who teach online will have access to Honorlock, a remote proctoring tool for student assessments. Honorlock provides a seamless
integration with Canvas LMS so no additional logins are required, 60 percent lower
proctoring costs to students, and pop in proctoring options to assist students in
the process (short overview video). Faculty will be pleased with the "Search and Destroy" feature where Honorlock searches the internet to identify exam questions that have
been shared online. For more information you can contact UAF Testing.
The graduate school staff, Alyssa Enriquez and Mandi Gifford, and I look forward to hearing from you – what’s working, what isn’t? We are excited to work with you to support our graduate students and develop our graduate programs.