On May 16, President Trump announced that the Administration is crafting a new “merit-based” immigration system that aims to significantly alter the recruitment and retention of those seeking U.S. visas. One of the stated goals of the proposal is to increase the number of highly-educated and highly-skilled international students and workers.

“CGS is committed to working with the Administration to ensure that the U.S. remains a competitive choice for international students. This is the second consecutive year we’ve seen a decline in application and first-time enrollment rates of international students at our member institutions. We also support efforts to retain their talent domestically,” said Suzanne Ortega, President of the Council of Graduate Schools.

CGS is, however, concerned that the proposal currently excludes a path forward for Dreamers. Also concerning is the potential adverse effect the proposal may have on the visa process for families and individuals seeking asylum.

“We remain steadfast in support of Dreamers and will continue to urge Congress to pass legislation that gives them an opportunity to become U.S. citizens. Additionally, we simply need more information about the Administration’s plan and the exact impact it would have on these stakeholder groups and our higher education system.”

As a first-year doctoral student in anthropology at Colorado State University, Ray Sumner believes public outreach and public archaeology are important aspects of his research. Sumner’s doctoral project is a multifaceted, interdisciplinary approach that relies on geography, archaeology, and history methods to better understand the 1865 Sacking of Julesburg, an event that succeeded the Sand Creek Massacre in which many Cheyenne and Arapaho people were killed.

Sumner uses traditional archaeological methods, such as excavation, but also employs emerging technologies, such as, aerial drone mapping, ground-penetrating radar, and thermal imaging to locate the lost stage stations, ranches, Indian camps and villages that are associated with this time period. He hopes his work will also serve as a rural economic development tool for heritage tourism in the area. Sumner says that, “Through my research process what I hope to achieve is for the Cheyenne and Arapaho to reclaim their agency and have people not just focus on the darkest days in Colorado’s history.”  He is in the process of initiating tribal consultation with a number of Native American tribal governments this summer and looks forward to incorporating their perspectives, voices, and concerns into his research.

Sumner was recently named a VPR Graduate Student Fellow at Colorado State and received the Innovation in Liberal Arts award at this year’s CSU Ventures Demo Day. In addition to his studies, Mr. Sumner is involved with the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and the American Legion, after serving 22-years in the United States Army. He’s the current Commander of Post 1879 of the American Legion and the President of the Colorado American Legion Press Association (COALPA). To learn more about Ray’s work visit the Colorado State University website.

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On Wednesday, May 8, the full House Appropriations Committee marked-up and reported out its Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS-ED) spending bill. The measure funds the Department of Education at $75.9 billion, $4.4 billion above FY 2019 and $11.9 billion above the President’s FY 2020 budget request. Funding levels for programs and agencies of importance to higher education and research, include:

• Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN): $24.05 million—$1 million above FY 2019; $24.05 million above the President’s FY 2020 budget request
• Federal Work Study: $1.4 billion—$304 million above the FY 2019; $934 million above the President’s FY 2020 request
• Federal TRIO programs: $1.1 billion—$100 million above FY 2019; $210 million above the President’s FY 2020 budget request
• Pell Grant: $6,345 for the maximum Pell Grant—an increase of $150 above FY 2019 and the President’s FY 2020 budget request
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF): $350 million for the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF); same level as the previous two years
• International Education and Foreign Languages Studies program (Title VI): $80.4 million—$15.29 million above FY 2019; $80.4 million above President’s FY 2020 budget request
• Fulbright-Hayes: $8.73 million—$1.67 million above FY 2019; $8.73 million above the President’s FY 2020 budget request
• National Institutes of Health (NIH): $41.08 billion—$2 billion above FY 2019; $6.9 billion above the President’s FY 2020 budget request
• Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Title VII and Title VIII: $854.9 million—$108.3 million above FY 2019; $550.2 above the President’s FY 2020 budget request
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): $358.2 million—$20.2 million above FY 2019; $358.2 million above the President’s FY 2020 budget request

These are preliminary funding levels, which may change as negotiations between the House and Senate continue. CGS submitted a letter to committee leadership in support of the bill, highlighting the critical importance of federal funding for student financial assistance, research, and workforce prorgams. Addtionally, CGS has updated it FY 2020 Appropriations chart to reflect the changes from this week’s markup. Further updates will be posted as the committee continues to complete its work.

Charlene Higgins, a graduate student in the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire, has worked with the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success (ORIS) for several years. ORIS, an ethnic community-based organization, aims to aid refugees resettled in New Hampshire and help them become self-sufficient. Higgins’s familiarity and passion for the work translated into her Master in Community Development capstone project.

The New American Sustainable Agriculture Project (NASAP), a program within ORIS, assists new Americans by helping them, “build sustainable farm enterprises that are consistent with their culture and lifestyle aspirations and that strengthen regional, sustainable food systems as a whole.” Higgins’s capstone project included helping the NASAP farmers increase their impact by providing technical assistance and training with an end goal of “effective co-op management and access to consistent, secure and profitable markets.”

“The co-op farmers are [now] equipped with additional tools, skills and knowledge to help them successfully reach their self-defined goals within the co-op, and within their communities,” Higgins says. “My education has benefited my work by providing me with the understanding that unique individuals-- with unique cultural backgrounds, life-histories, and personalities-- will have different self-defined needs, desires, and priorities.” To learn more about Charlene’s work visit the University of New Hampshire website.

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Photo Credit: Charlene Higgins

Truong Xuan Tran’s academic path has been defined by transition. He began his undergraduate career as an electronic and telecommunications engineering student at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology in Vietnam. In 2010, he decided to make two important life changes: to attend graduate school in the United States and to change his research area to computer science. He would need to learn a new discipline and academic culture simultaneously.

Both of Tran’s decisions paid off, however. He thrived in his master’s program in computer science at Arkansas State University, so much so, that he was accepted into a doctoral program in computer science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). Positive mentorship has eased Tran’s transition into doctoral work. His advisor, Ramazan Aygun, is a leading computer scientist in the field of protein crystallization and has co-written academic papers with Tran and invited him to present alongside him at conferences.

“Protein crystallization is a difficult process where thousands of trials may need to be set up for a successful crystalline outcome," Aygun noted. Computer models can speed these trials but may introduce errors. Aygun and Tran have introduced a novel decision-tree classifier – “else-tree” – that reduces the misclassification of data samples by labeling them as undecided instead of misidentifying them as another class. “The key point of the else-tree is that it postpones difficult data to classify by sending them to its else branch until a good attribute can classify those samples,” Tran concluded.

Though their collaboration has already proved fruitful, Tran and Aygun have an ambitious forthcoming research agenda. “We plan to investigate the proposed algorithm on other types of problems such as multi-class classification," says Tran. "We will examine the effectiveness of our method on other datasets. Especially, we will work on improving the else-tree to reduce the percentage of undecided samples while keeping the error minimum by working on other datasets." To learn more about Tran’s work visit The University of Alabama in Huntsville website.

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Photo Credit: Truong Xuan Tran

On April 3rd and 4th, 40 CGS member deans and graduate students attended CGS’s 2019 Advocacy Day in Washington, DC. The activities of the two-day event included a training session on effective advocacy strategies with CGS’s government affairs staff, and Congressional meetings on Capitol Hill. Participants met with 61 House and Senate offices of both parties to advocate on behalf of graduate education, research, and scholarship. Using CGS-prepared requests, advocates urged legislators to preserve graduate student borrowing and loan repayment options in a Higher Education Act reauthorization; strengthen support for federal student aid and research funding in Fiscal Year 2020; and support policies that promote the U.S. as a welcoming environment to attract and retain international graduate students.

More information on Advocacy Day can be found in the April 2019 edition of CGS's GradEdge newsletter. 

View photos of CGS's 2019 Advocacy Day.

Testimonials from participating deans and graduate students:

Dr. Karen Butler-Purry, Associate Provost, Graduate Studies, Texas A&M University; 2018 CGS Board of Directors Chair 

• "The First Amendment of the Constitution outlines the “right of the people….to petition the government.” Graduate education must embrace and champion this right.  We must make concerted efforts to speak up and to ensure that legislators, government leaders and policy makers understand our particular needs and priorities. The CGS Hill Advocacy Day provides a high-quality opportunity to practice such advocacy and I greatly appreciate the chance to join with my fellow graduate deans and the graduate community to promote our cause. Furthermore, CGS Hill Advocacy Day provided a valuable professional development opportunity for the Texas A&M University graduate students who joined me. The active development sessions in the art of advocacy and the practical application via meetings with legislative aides will pay dividends for years to come."

Dr. Jerome Kukor, Dean of the Graduate School, Rutgers University; 2019 CGS Advisory Committee on Advocacy and Public Policy Chair

• "The Legislative Assistants/Legislative Directors with whom I met were keenly interested in my major requests, viz., restoration of subsidized student loans for graduate students, and improvement of the loan terms for GradPlus loans, because many of these legislative aides are considering graduate school and would need to take out loans to do so. The cost of borrowing is a concern for them." 

Celeste Bremmer, I-O Psychology Master's Candidate, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

• "One of my favorite moments happened during the training workshop. We were tasked with creating a 6-word phrase to help brand graduate education that would spark conversation with our congressional staff. My favorite phrase we developed as a group was “learning it, creating it, and implementing it.” This is just one example from the event that illustrates when you connect diverse individuals with a similar passion, you’re truly able to make a greater impact. CGS made this possible, and I am grateful to have had this opportunity. I hope to continue advocating for graduate education and share this experience with others!"

Jonathan Parcell, Higher Education in Student Affairs Master's Student, Salem State University

• "To be part of the Council of Graduate Schools’ Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C. was a truly rewarding experience. I was a little nervous at first, but the training and preparation the members of CGS provided, gave me the confidence I needed to go to Capitol Hill.  This event gave me a chance to network with a number of other graduate students from different programs from around the country all advocating for graduate education. No matter which side of the political aisle you are on, this is a great opportunity get an inside look on what it is like to work on Capitol Hill.  It was a privilege to represent my university and meet with staff members of local senators and representatives sharing how graduate school has prepared me for the future. This experience boosted my interest in policy and I would recommend attending Advocacy Day to anyone who has an interest in this area."  

Ali Al Qaraghuli, Electrical Engineering PhD Student, University at Buffalo, SUNY

• "I found the CGS advocacy day to be a day of high importance, and definitely has added value to my career, particularly coming from a science/technology background and as an electrical engineering PhD student. Providing personal examples of how funding of such agencies of interest (such as NSF, NIH, Dept. of Ed, NASA, etc.) is the reason I am able to pursue my passion, and why funding for such organizations is crucial in the development of future technologies, especially concerning healthcare. I found the staff of the senators to be welcoming and receptive to suggestions, and the trainings and workshops provided by CGS definitely prepared me for all the interactions. I hope to participate in this event again next year if given the chance." 

Erin Wright, International Security Policy Master's Candidate, The University of Alabama in Huntsville

• "We met with representatives to put forth the policies that CGS and UAH are focused on. We dealt with every situation they had trained us for – people who were pressed for time, people who had tough questions, people who were not friendly. We had four meetings, but after the first one, it got a lot easier!"

Theresa E. Hernandez, Urban Education Policy Doctoral Student, University of Southern California

• “This was the first year ever that the Council of Graduate Schools invited graduate students to accompany their deans, so that we could tell our personal stories and put more of that human face on the appeal to support graduate education specifically. I decided to participate because it just sounded really unique as an opportunity—different than the research activities or the more local advocacy work that I’ve engaged in. I thought it would be a great learning experience to see how national policy advocacy happens.”

As a doctoral candidate in environmental epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, Amy Schultz studies the effects environmental factors have on our health. She is currently a leading research assistant on the CREATE: Cumulative Risks, Early Development, and Emerging Academic Trajectories project, which studies how children develop in their environments and seeks to identify sources of stress in preschool-aged children.

CREATE, a research study conducted by the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW), uses a Language Environment Analysis (LENA) device that measures the number of words spoken between the parent and child to learn more about the child’s role in conversation. In addition, data that measure air quality, noise levels, and stress hormones are collected. While this particular study is small, researchers hope that it will establish the feasibility of conducting larger studies to better understand how children’s environments affect their learning and development. More information about how noise, air quality, and other environmental factors affect children’s health and development will help experts determine whether to develop interventions.

In developing the protocol for CREATE, Schultz took on a lot of responsibility, including training staff members and managing large amounts of data. “I learned a lot about how to efficiently train and prepare for going in the field, and then also I’ve learned how to be flexible and adapt, to be open to trial and error,” Shultz said. To learn more about Amy’s work visit the University of Wisconsin—Madison website.

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The Council of Graduate Schools has released its 2019-2020 Federal Policy Agenda, outlining CGS's federal policy principales and priorities impacting graduate education.

These include: 

• Preparing a 21st Century Workforce by Investing in Graduate Education

• Improving Tax Policies to Support Graduate Students, Employers, and Employees

• Strengthening the U.S. Role in the Global Community 

• Advancing Research and Innovation

• Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg, CGS: (202) 461-3888 / khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Charles Ambler, currently associate provost and dean of the Graduate School at The University of Texas at El Paso, has been named the CGS Dean-in-Residence for 2019-2020.  Ambler has long been an advocate for diversity in graduate education, serving as a director of the McNair Scholars program at El Paso and leading a National Science Foundation (NSF) Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) grant in collaboration with Howard University. He is a member of the boards of CGS and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

The CGS Dean-in-Residence program was created to infuse a campus-based perspective across a variety of the Council’s initiatives. The program offers an opportunity for graduate deans, associate, or assistant deans at member institutions to spend an academic year at CGS’s Washington D.C. office. Each year the CGS president selects one applicant to pursue projects aligned with the dean’s interests and the Council’s needs.

Dr. Ambler, a historian of Africa who has had visiting scholar appointments at universities in Africa and the United Kingdom, will help the Council build strategic relationships with graduate education leaders in sub-Saharan Africa. This work will support CGS’s broader goals of supporting diversity and inclusion and helping CGS members internationalize their campuses.

“Dr. Ambler has spent his academic career dedicated to student success, mentoring, and ensuring access to quality graduate education,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “His expertise and leadership in African studies will help CGS members better understand the evolving place of sub-Saharan Africa in the global graduate education landscape.”

In accepting the appointment, Ambler noted that working at CGS represents “an exciting opportunity to combine my deep interests in both graduate studies and international education. The Council is an essential resource for anyone interested in graduate education, and I look forward to contributing to its mission.”

Ambler received his Ph.D. from Yale University and is author or editor of four books. In 2010, he served as president of the African Studies Association, the major professional organization for scholars, teachers, and practitioners with interests in Africa. He has served as dean at El Paso for fifteen years, during a period when UT El Paso reached R1 status. He will step down from the dean’s role and the CGS board in July; his Dean-in-Residence position begins on August 1.

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On Friday, March 8, CGS’s Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs, Lauren Inouye, participated in a roundtable convened by the White House. Invited attendees included representatives from higher education associations, employers, and universities. The discussion centered on F-1, M-1, and J-1 International Students and policies impacting them. Executive branch officials present for the discussion included senior advisors from the Domestic Policy Council, U.S. Departments of State, Homeland Security, Labor, Education, and the National Science Foundation. CGS is working with other higher education organizations to provide follow-up recommendations to the White House emphasizing the importance of the international student pipeline.