The results from the external and internal reviews of the SIUC Graduate School are in, and the school’s dean says the school will remain fully functional without any program deletions.

Richard Falvo, Graduate School dean, said he has many plans for the school, including a new five-year plan.

We are planning what to do over the next five years by looking carefully at enrollment data and international enrollment, Falvo said. There are no program cuts on the horizon.

Advertisement

In response to an Illinois Board of Higher Education mandate that all schools review their graduate programs, the SIUC Graduate School in February recommended that 11 master’s and doctoral degrees be eliminated or merged with other programs.

Falvo said the focus in the next five years will be the addition of money to programs, making a stronger position for the dean and adding attention to research shops.

An internal review of the Graduate School dean is conducted every five years. This time the review was conducted June 16 and June 17, and the review team consisted of faculty from the Graduate School, administration and the University community.

The review took place two weeks before the formal resignation of former dean John Yopp.

One problem found during the review was that some members of the University community, graduate students and faculty believed that they were not treated with enough courtesy from certain staff members of the Graduate School.

Falvo said this issue is being evaluated.

We are working on this right now, but the problem is, we get just as many glowing letters about the staff as we do bad ones, Falvo said. We know what the problem is, and we are taking care of it.

Advertisement*

Sarah Blackstone, chairwoman of the Graduate Council, was a member of the internal review team.

We tried to look at the whole school in preparation for the search for a new dean, Blackstone said.

Blackstone said the internal review team interviewed Yopp, Graduate School staff and administrators for suggestions of improvements.

The internal review team also wrote in its report that there is a problem with the coordination and administration of research shops, such as the Coal Research Center and the Fisheries Research Center. Also, funding for these shops must be stabilized because they are a vital research tools.

Falvo said that there is very little money available for the shops right now.

The Central Research Shop (at 908 S. Elizabeth St.) is being closed, and if the money is not available for repairs, it will be moved to another location, Falvo said.

Falvo said that there will be no lay-offs, however.

Another main idea in the internal review was that retention and recruitment efforts need to be increased, especially for international students.

Falvo said this is more of an SIUC problem than a Graduate School problem. He said the problem is that the tuition rate for international students is much higher than in-state tuition.

We are not admitting as many international students and this cannot reverse itself until the University decides what to do about the tuition rate, Falvo said.

John Preece, chairman of the Graduate Council and professor of Plant and Soil Science, was a member of the internal review team. He said the Graduate Council agreed that members of the SIU Board of Trustees should get a copy of the documents from both reviews to help understand graduate education.

The Graduate School has been implementing changes and working with the staff, Preece said.

Blackstone said the external review was more global, and focused more on day-to-day operations and where SIUC fits in with the rest of the country.

This external review team consisted of Oklahoma State University Dean Thomas Collins and Indiana State University Dean George Walker.

The external team stated that the research shops need to address safety and regulations, some personnel are being overly bureaucratic, and some senior staff members need to have well-defined goals.

My view is that the (external) review was a pretty realistic assessment of the University and graduate education at SIUC, Preece said.