CGS invites organizations, corporations, foundations and other associations that have interest in promoting graduate education to apply for membership in the CGS Sustaining Membership Network.

The Sustaining Membership Network connects CGS member universities with industry and non-profit leaders to advance graduate education through meaningful partnerships. Membership in the Sustaining Membership Network gives companies and organizations:

• Exclusive opportunities for visibility among CGS graduate deans, major decision-makers on campus;
• Complimentary and timely access to insider knowledge about the concerns and advances in graduate education;
• Discounts on CGS meetings registration, exhibitor fees, workshops, print publications, and consulting; and more.

All CGS Sustaining Members receive our Premium Benefits, with additional benefits accruing with increased levels of investment.

Premium Benefits of the Sustaining Membership Network

CGS Annual Meeting

• Reduced rates on sponsorships
• Reduced rates on exhibitor registration
• Option to add one complimentary exhibit-hall only registration pass to your CGS Annual Meeting exhibitor registration, in addition to the two full registrations that are included with exhibiting (available only to sustaining members)
• Option for members to select exhibit table location (exhibitor registration required)
• Pre-registration list of Annual Meeting attedees in Excel format (exhibitor registration required)
• Reduced rates on individual meeting registrations
• Priority consideration for all Annual Meeting opportunities
• Opportunities to propose “in-conjunction-with” events at the CGS Annual Meeting
• Recognition in the meeting mobile app
• Opportunity to sponsor awards

CGS Summer Workshop & New Deans Institute

• Opportunity to attend the CGS Summer Workshop and New Deans Institute - corporate attendance is limited to members of the CGS Sustaining Membership Network and invited speakers and sponsors (registration required)

CGS Webinars

• Reduced rates on sponsored CGS webinars
• Priority scheduling consideration
• Detailed attendee report 

Access to graduate deans

• Opportunity to provide CGS-approved sponsored content for News Network, CGS's bi-weekly e-newsletter (once per calendar year)
• Invitations to CGS research forums and other select events
• Reduced rates for job listings on the CGS Career Portal
• Ability to request to view the CGS Dean’s Discussion List

Publications and information on the latest news, trends and best practices in graduate education

• Access to current and past issues of GradEdge, the only national newsletter dedicated to graduate education
• Full complimentary access to publications in the CGS Online Member Library, including the online membership directory
• Reduced rates for hard copies of CGS publications
• Automatic subscription to biweekly CGS News Network newsletters
   

Access to CGS staff expertise

• Opportunities to collaborate on research and best practice projects
• Tailored membership opportunities based on individual organizations’ needs

Levels of Investment (Annual)

Small Business Partners - $1,000 - $4,000 (tiered, depending on employee count)
Allies - $6,000
Collaborators - $25,000
Visionaries - $75,000 ($25,000 of which is a dues payment)

Corresponding Affiliates - $4,000 [qualifying educational nonprofit organizations (501c3, 501c4 or 501c6) or qualifying governmental organizations may join CGS as Corresponding Affiliates] 

For information about benefits and privileges of joining CGS, contact Adrienne Vincent. 

A recently released CGS publication is available online:

Online Graduate Education
This practical guide for graduate deans and administrators supports the development of quality distance education programs that are aligned with institutional mission and strategic direction. Touching on a range of issues from faculty professional development to assessment, accreditation, and financial structure, Online Graduate Education addresses the administrative policies and practices for improving access, cost-effectiveness and quality. 55 pages. June 2013.

CGS provides free electronic access to all our publications at the Member Library. Any administrator, faculty, or staff member of a CGS member institution may view, download, or print copies of CGS titles in PDF format (login required).

Print copies of this publication are also available for purchase in the Online Store. CGS members receive discounted rates. To order, access the publication in the Member Library. For complete details on CGS publications, visit cgsnet.org/publications. 

Nominations for the 2022 award should be submitted by April 29th.

Named in honor of the first president of the Council of Graduate Schools and first presented in 1972, this award is made annually to a scholar-teacher in the humanities.

The recipient must be teaching at a U.S. or Canadian university, have earned a doctorate within 7 years of the award date, and have written a book of scholarly importance in that same timeframe. Subjects fields are selected annually. Awards have been made in literature, history, linguistics, foreign languages, philosophy, archaeology, and musicology.

Important Guidance on Field Eligibility:

Your university is welcome to submit a nomination that is interdisciplinary, so long as the book draws heavily from the methods and scholarship of the current year's field of competition Religious Studies. Since CGS is not in a position to advise you on the eligibility of particular works of scholarship, it is up to your institution to determine whether the book sufficiently meets this criterion, and with the understanding that your nomination will be evaluated alongside other books in the field of competition.

Current Year Award Description

Fields of competition

Past Award Winners

Contact

Anna M. Naranjo

Attendees at the CGS 54th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, enjoyed engaging sessions, terrific speakers and exciting networking. Flip through this gallery of for an overview of meeting highlights. (More photos coming soon.)

The ability to resolve ethical issues that arise in international research is critical to the success of U.S.-trained scientists and engineers. It is also essential to ensuring the integrity of U.S. research with international partners. With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF #1135345), CGS completed a three-year, collaborative project to develop accessible and replicable models for preparing STEM researchers to navigate ethical challenges in international research collaborations.

Project Goals

• Identify and test learning outcomes for research ethics education in international collaborations
• Document approaches to using those outcomes to enhance the preparation of STEM graduate students
• Develop case studies based on successful programs and an online repository of graduate learning outcomes

Project Outcomes

Research Ethics Education in Graduate International Collaborations

Executive Summary

Full Report

Online Repository: Learning Outcomes & Assessment Tools

Press Release

Research Partners

Through a competitive process, the following institutions were selected to participate in the project as funded research partners:

• Emory University
• Northern Arizona University
• University of Oklahoma
• Virginia Tech

An additional six universities participated as affiliate partners:

• Drexel University
• Indiana University
• Loyola University Chicago
• Mississippi State University
• North Carolina A&T University
• Purdue University

Additional Resources

More information about the project goals and background can be found in a CGS Framework Paper written to guide the development of proposals.

Contact

Julia Kent

Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF #1135345)

Over the past several decades, researchers have highlighted the fact that there is a general underrepresentation of minority (URM) students—particularly African American, American Indian, and Hispanic students—in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields at the graduate level. The problem of underrepresentation in doctoral education and the academic workforce is exacerbated by the fact that attrition rates from doctoral programs tend to be very high.

With a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF grant #1138814, "Completion and Attrition in AGEP and non-AGEP institutions"), the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) examined patterns of completion and attrition among URMs in STEM doctoral programs across twenty-one institutions in the United States, including those institutions affiliated with NSF’s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program. The project has assembled the largest dataset of its kind to estimate the percentage of URM doctoral students in STEM fields who completed or withdrew from their program and the time it took them to complete the doctoral degree. The project also sheds light on the range of supports available at institutions to assist these students using input from URM doctoral students enrolled in STEM programs, as well as university personnel. Furthermore, as a part of the project, CGS convened the AGEP National Forum in Washington, D.C. in February 2017.

Project Outcomes

The project resulted in the following publication:

Doctoral Initiative on Minority Attrition and Completion

        Online Appendices
        Press Release

In the News:
Helping Minority Ph.D.’s in STEM: Something’s Working (Chronicle of Higher Education, 4/14/2015)
Missing Minority Ph.D.s (Inside Higher Ed, 11/4/2014)

Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) National Forum

The AGEP National Forum convened February 23-24, 2017, at the Grand Hyatt Washington. The forum had the following goals:

• To serve as a forum for exploring promising practices with the potential to significantly improve the diversity of graduate students and the professoriate in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields,
• To develop a network for sharing and fostering community among AGEP grantees, and
• To provide a platform for NSF to engage AGEP grantees by sharing its strategic priorities, policies, and procedures designed to facilitate STEM doctoral programs inclusiveness.

One of the highlights of the AGEP Forum was the Networking Reception and Poster Session. During this session, each AGEP Alliance and Project presented their work and activities, as well as its impact.

View the Agenda

View the Poster Abstracts

Proceedings from the Forum

Resources for Graduate Deans and Researchers

Data collection instruments employed in this project are available for public use, allowing non-participating graduate schools to collect their own data to benchmark against the project findings. Word/Excel and PDF versions of these instruments are available below.

Contact

Hironao Okahana

Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF #1138814)

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Who is eligible for access?

Can I forward an email notification to someone who isn't subscribed?

Can I post a reply via email?

'Reply' vs. 'Add new comment'

Can I change/delete a comment?

How do I search the discussion boards?

What can I do if email notification messages from the discussion board are sent to my SPAM folder?

How do I manage my email preferences / unsubscribe?

As a Sustaining Member or Corresponding Affiliate, how do I request that a post be made on my behalf?

Who is eligible for access?

The primary contact at each U.S. and Canadian member-institution is automatically subscribed to the CGS Dean's Discussion Board. Other graduate education contacts at member institutions may request access by emailing us at forum@cgs.nche.edu.

Sustaining Membership Network and Corresponding Affiliate members are eligible for read-only access to the Dean's Discussion Board and may request that a comment be posted on their behalf by contacting Julia Kent. 

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Can I forward an email notification to someone who isn't subscribed?

The Dean's Discussion Board is a private list. Non-subscribers who receive a forwarded copy of an email notification from the discussion board will not be able to reply to the subscriber community or view the discussion thread online.  

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Can I post a reply via email?

Yes. Users of the Dean's Discussion Board can skip the login process if they prefer. This is a new feature added recently in response to member feedback.

To post a reply directly from an email notification message:

• click 'Reply' in your email client
• add a new subject line (optional)
• type your message at the top of the body section
• click 'Send'

Your message will be delivered by email to all subscribers and also posted automatically to the discussion board web page.

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'Reply' vs. 'Add new comment'

In a discussion thread, you can respond to the original comment (text at top of page) by the person who created the topic by clicking 'Add new comment.'

If you are responding instead to a subsequent comment that was added to the discussion thread, click 'Reply' in-line with the relevant comment. Comments are nested to indicate which replies go with which comments.

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Can I change/delete a comment?

You will only have access to edit/delete the comments you have posted. Use the icons below the comment bubble to make changes.

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How do I search the discussion board?

In addition to the main search bar in the banner at the top of all pages of cgsnet.org (1), there is a search bar present on the page showing the list of topics within a discussion board (2).

(1)

(2)

Both search bars return identical results. The site will categorize the search results to help you find the relevant content. In the lower left column, several categories of results are shown. The results for "Forum topic" and "Forum comments" are the results where your search terms were found within the comments and topics of the discussion boards. 

To make the search feature user-friendly, our site displays results for both unrestricted and restricted content. If you are not logged in and you click a search result on a members-only page (e.g. forum comment page) you will be prompted to login before being taken to the page.

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What can I do if email notification messages from the discussion board are sent to my SPAM folder?

Make sure to add forum@cgs.nche.edu to the safe-senders list in your email client (e.g. Microsoft Outlook). If messages continue to be caught in your SPAM filter, contact your email administrator.

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How do I manage my email preferences / unsubscribe?

By default, you will receive email notifications in real time as new comments and replies are posted to the discussion board. If you would like to change the delivery settings for these notifications, please visit https://cgsnet.org/cgs-profile and click ‘Discussion Board Settings,' and then click ’Categories' to select the discussion boards from which you would like to receieve notifications. You can also adjust the delivery settings of your notifications using the options under 'Settings'.

To unsubscribe from discussion board emails:

• click the 'Categories' tab
• uncheck the names of the discussion boards (e.g. Dean's Discussion Board) from which you no longer want to receive emails
• click ‘Save’

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As a Sustaining Member or Corresponding Affiliate, how do I request that a post be made on my behalf?

Sustaining Membership Network and Corresponding Affiliate members are eligible for read-only access to the Dean's Discussion Board and may request that a comment be posted on their behalf by contacting Julia Kent. 

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The CGS Deans Discussion Board is an electronic forum where graduate deans and other senior staff exchange questions, ideas and institutional practices. Common topics include financial aid, admissions, joint and dual degree programs, and administrative policies, among many others.

The CGS Deans Discussion Board is owned and moderated by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS). Content is reviewed to assure that messages are appropriate for our subscribers.

Rules/Guidelines

1. Privacy. While user access to the discussion board is restricted to CGS members, please note that the “email” feature allows any user to email posts more broadly. Please use discretion when using the discussion board.
    
2. Check for open topics. Before posting a new topic, please check to see if there is already a topic open on the subject.
    
3. Please use descriptive titles for new posts. Avoid "generic" post subjects like "Help" or "Question." You will receive a better response to your posts by making your title more descriptive.
    
4. No advertising or links to advertising or "Spam" is permitted. Members may use the GradEdge newsletter to place paid advertisements for grant/fellowship opportunities, conferences, meetings, or other items that are relevant to the graduate education community. Career Portal may be used for posting career opportunities at your institution.
   1. Advertising or spam is defined as posting a link for the purpose of selling, soliciting or promoting something.
   2. Links promoting fundraising, advocacy, etc. are not permitted.
   3. Sharing of links to helpful and relevant web sites and resources is allowed if they are not used for a promotional purpose.
       
5. Posts that violate posting rules may be deleted.

 CGS reserves the right to change and update rules and guidelines for posting at any time.

CGS and other Higher Education Associations Send Public Comments to DHS Regarding DACA (11/29/21)

On November 29, the higher education community submitted public comments to the Department of Homeland Security regarding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Since the program was established in 2012 it has not undergone any formal rulemaking. This is an important step to further enshrine a program that many in the United States, including employers and institutions of higher education, have come to depend on, and allows qualifying undocumented people brought to this country at a young age to remain here.

CGS Joins Coalition Letter to Biden Administration Regarding National Science Foundation Funding (11/9/21)

On November 5, the Coalition for National Science Funding sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy regarding increased funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Fiscal Year 2023. NSF plays a critical role in advancing our nation’s competitiveness and addressing research and education challenges related to many Biden Administration priorities.

CGS and the Higher Education Community Continues to Support Afghan Students and Scholars (11/5/21)

In this latest letter to Secretary Antony Blinken, the higher education community asks the U.S. State Department to prioritize visa appointments for Afghan students and scholars and to grant them the needed flexibility in determining non-immigrant intent for F-1 and J-1 visa applicants. 

CGS Joins Letter on Importance of Supporting International Education (11/3/21)

On November 3, CGS joined a coalition letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in support of prioritizing and strengthening the Department of Education’s international and foreign language education and research role.

CGS Joins Letter on P-2 Visas for Afghan STEM Professionals (8/25/21)

On August 25, CGS joined a community letter to the Office of Science and Technology policy advocating the extension of evacuation assistance to STEM professionals with ties to international scientific networks. 

CGS Joins Letter to DOS on COVID-19 Travel Restrictions and NIE (07/20/21)

On July 20, CGS joined a community letter to the Department of State (DOS) regarding the current travel restrictions due to COVID-19 and seeking clarification on the national interest exemption (NIE).

CGS Joins Comments to Dept of Ed on Title IV (07/01/21)

On July 1, CGS joined a community letter to the Department of Education providing written comment on topics suggested by the Department as part of the Department's intention to pursue negotiated rulemaking on programs under Title IV of the Higher Education Act.

CGS Joins Letter on Presidential Proclamation 10043 (06/10/21)

On June 10, CGS joined a community letter to the Department of State requesting an updated brief on Presidential Proclamation 10043, which suspends and limits certain new and existing nonimmigrant visas.

CGS Joins Comments to Dept of Ed During Title IX Review(06/10/21)

On June 10, CGS joined the higher education community on comments to the Department of Education with recomomended changes to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

CGS Joins Letter to Biden-Harris Domestic Policy Council on Federal Student Loan Origination Fees (04/19/21)

On April 19, CGS joined a community letter to the White House Domestic Policy Council in support of S. 847, the Student Loan Tax Elimination Act, which would eliminate costly origination fees on federal student loans disbursed on or after March 27, 2020.

CGS Comments on NIH UNITE Initiative (4/8/21)

On April 8, CGS submitted comments to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) UNITE Initaitive in response to a Request for Information inviting insights and suggestions to advance and strengthen racial equity, diversity, and inclusion in the biomedical research workforce and to advance health disparities and health equity research.

CGS Joins Letter Requesting President Biden Champion the RISE Act (3/24/21)

On March 24, CGS joined a letter led by Research!America, requesting President Biden champion the Research Investment to Spark the Economy (RISE) Act (H.R.869/S.289), which would provide $25 billion for research relief.

CGS Joins Letter to DOS, DHS on Actions to Support International Students (3/18/21)

On March 18, CGS joined the higher education community on a letter recommending how the Department of State (DOS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can support international students' return to campuses and institutions in the fall 2021 semester.

CGS Joins Letter to DHS Secretary Mayorkas on Higher Ed Priorities (2/3/21)

On February 3, CGS joined a letter congratulating Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on his confirmation and sharing how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can support international students and scholars.

CGS Joins Letter to President Biden on IHEs' Role in Overcoming COVID-19 (1/29/21)

On January 29, CGS joined the higher education community on a letter to the Biden Administration outlining the ways that higher education institutions (IHEs) could be a resource in the fight against the COVID pandemic. 

CGS Joins Letter to Acting Secretary of Education on Scope of Emergency Student Funds (1/28/21)

On January 28, CGS joined the higher education community on a letter to Acting Secretary Rosenfelt asking that DREAMers and international students be made eligible for emergency student funds under HEERF II.

CGS Joins Community Letter to Secretary of State Blinken (1/27/21)

On January 27, CGS joined an introductory letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken including higher education priorities for international students and scholars.

CGS Joins Community Letter to DHS on OPT (1/26/21)

On January 26, CGS joined the higher education community on a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requesting support for Optional Practical Training (OPT) and STEM OPT applicants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CGS Joins TFAI Coalition Letter to President Biden (1/25/21)

On January 25, CGS joined the Taskforce on American Innovation coalition in sending an introductory letter to President Biden including priorities for research and development.