Contact:
Julia Kent
jkent@cgs.nche.edu
(202) 223-3791

Washington, DC – The fourth annual “ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admission through Completion” was presented to the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) during the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS). The award is sponsored by CGS and Educational Testing Service (ETS). Dr. Karen Colley, Dean of the Graduate College, accepted the award on behalf of UIC.

The award recognizes promising, innovative proposals to enhance student success and degree completion at the master’s or doctoral level, while promoting inclusiveness. The winning institution is selected based on the strength of its proposal to meet the award’s goals and to serve as a model for other schools; it receives a two-year, $20,000 matching grant.

UIC’s winning proposal seeks to fill gaps in the efforts of its Graduate College to promote the retention and success of underrepresented minority graduate students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Existing efforts that prepare minority students at UIC to enter graduate programs will be enhanced through a new program, “Promoting Success in STEM Graduate Education” (PaSSaGE) Scholars. PaSSaGE will provide ongoing mentoring, professional skills development opportunities, and financial incentives to promote retention and timely degree completion. 

Grant funds will be used to provide stipends to minority STEM students  as they transition into their graduate degree program, as well as later in a student’s course of study, when it will make available additional funding to each recipient who completes his or her preliminary/qualifying examination and advances to PhD candidacy within the timeframe appropriate for the student’s discipline. Scholars will receive funding to present their work at academic meetings or conferences. As they complete their PhD and move toward the next stage of their careers, PaSSaGE scholars will be eligible to receive an additional award for travel to interview for postgraduate job opportunities.

[Photo caption: The 2012 CGS/ETS Award. From left to right: David Payne, Nasser Zawia, Barbara Wilcots, Karen Jackson-Weaver, Karen Colley, Lunaire Ford, Samuel Attoh, Patricia Mooney-Melvin, Ralph Ferguson.]

“ETS is pleased to support UIC in developing new resources to help close the degree completion gap for many minority STEM graduate students,” said David G. Payne, Vice President and COO of ETS’s Higher Education Division. “Providing graduate students with the resources they need to navigate and complete their graduate study is an essential step toward student success, and ETS is happy to contribute to this effort.”

“The UIC proposal stood out among a very strong field by creating a financial incentive for minority STEM students to achieve the key academic milestones that are essential to degree progress,” said Debra W. Stewart, CGS President. “We are proud to support the students – at UIC and graduate schools everywhere – who will benefit from the implementation and evaluation of programs like the PaSSaGE Scholars.”

Contact:
Julia Kent
jkent@cgs.nche.edu
(202) 223-3791

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has awarded the 2012 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities to Dr. Monica Popescu, Associate Professor of English at McGill University. The awards ceremony was held on December 6, during the CGS 52nd Annual Meeting.

The Arlt Award is given annually to a young scholar-teacher who has written a book deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the humanities. Dr. Popescu becomes the award’s 41st recipient for her dissertation and book, South African Literature beyond the Cold War (Palgrave, 2010). She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Popescu’s book studies the ways in which contemporary South African literature imagines Eastern Europe during and following apartheid. Examining South African writers’ interest in Russian and Eastern European stories of revolution against state oppression, South African Literature beyond the Cold War offers a new account of the evolution and aims of postcolonial studies in relation to the Cold War and South African history. ” The chair of the selection committee for the award, Dr. Carolyn R. Hodges, Vice Provost & Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, noted, “Dr. Popescu’s dissertation and book make an outstanding contribution to research in her field in addition to demonstrating impressive interdisciplinary breadth.”
 

[Photo caption: The 2012 Gustave O. Arlt Award. From left to right; Noreen Golfman, Sally Pratt, Carolyn Hodges, Monica Popescu, John Stevenson, Philip Cohen.]

Created in 1971, the Arlt Award honors the first president of CGS. The winner must have earned a doctorate within the past seven years from, and currently be teaching at, a North American university. Nominations are made by CGS member institutions and are reviewed by a panel of scholars in the field of competition, which rotates annually among seven disciplines within the humanities. This year’s field was World Language and Literature, Comparative Literature, Drama/Theater Arts. The winner receives a $1,000 honorarium, a certificate, and travel to the awards ceremony.

Contact:
Julia Kent
jkent@cgs.nche.edu
(202) 223-3791

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, the nation’s most prestigious honor for doctoral dissertations, were presented to Björn B. Brandenburg and Junjie Chen at an awards ceremony during the CGS 52nd Annual Meeting. Dr. Brandenburg completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last year. Dr. Chen earned his doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011.

Bestowed annually since 1982, the awards recognize recent doctoral recipients who have already made unusually significant and original contributions to their fields. ProQuest, the world’s premier dissertation publisher, sponsors the awards and an independent committee from the Council of Graduate Schools selects the winners. Two awards are given each year, rotating among four general areas of scholarship. The winners receive a certificate, a $2000 honorarium, and travel to the awards ceremony.

“The work of these two extraordinary scholars represent the highest standards of intellectual rigor and indisputably, represent significant contributions to their respective fields,” said Mary Sauer-Games, ProQuest Vice President of Information Solutions.

The 2012 Award in mathematics, physical sciences and engineering was presented to Dr. Brandenburg for “Scheduling and Locking in Multiprocessor Real-Time Operating Systems.” His dissertation research addresses real-time and embedded systems that individuals use on an everyday basis, as in cars and computers, often without the awareness that these systems exist. The dissertation addresses questions key to resource-allocation for real-time operating systems (RTOSs), a project that allowed Dr. Brandenburg to develop a new multicore RTOS called LITMUS (LInux Testbed for MUltiprocessor Scheduling in Real-Time Systems).  Dr. Brandenburg is currently a tenure-track faculty member at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, where he is Head of the institute’s real-time systems group.
 

[Photo caption: The 2012 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards. From left to right; Mary Sauer-Games, Sheryl Tucker, Bonnie Melhart, Steve Matson, Bjorn Brandenburg, David Holger, Venkat Allada, John Roberts.]

Dr. Chen received the 2012 Award in social sciences for his dissertation, “When the State Claims the Intimate: Population Control Policy and the Makings of Chinese Modernity.” His research, an ethnographic study, examines the “human experience of China’s post-socialism and associated globalizing efforts as they are reconfigured in the seemingly intimate space of reproduction.” More specifically, Dr. Chen’s work explores the reproductive practices of peasants in northeast China, analyzing the ways in which these practices “intersect with the politics and policies of biomedicine and technology, as well as with those of gender, class, kinship, and ethnic identities.”  Dr. Chen is currently a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University as well as a research affiliate at Columbia’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute.

[Photo caption: The 2012 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards. From left to right; William Buttlar, Larry Lyon, Zhen Chen, Junjie Chen, Isaac Chen, Lynne Pepall, Marlene Coles, Mary Sauer-Games, John Roberts.]

More information about the CGS / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award is available at www.proquest.com/go/scholars or at www.cgsnet.org.

Contact:
Julia Kent
jkent@cgs.nche.edu
(202) 223-3791

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) Board of Directors has announced its officers for the 2013 term. The new board was seated at the 52nd Annual Meeting, December 5, 2012 in Washington, DC.

Dr. Robert Augustine, Dean of the Graduate School, Research and International Programs at Eastern Illinois University (EIU), became the 2013 CGS Board Chair. Dr. Augustine has served as the graduate dean at EIU since 2000. His achievements in this role include the establishment of criteria for assessing the quality of graduate programs and applying these criteria to increase program quality, enhance enrollments, develop new degree programs, and link funding to program quality. Additional accomplishments include the creation of the first graduate fellowships at EIU funded through alumni philanthropy, the creation of new assistantships in almost every graduate program, and the guarantee of yearly stipend increases for graduate assistants. Dr. Augustine earned his PhD from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and his B.S.E and M.S degrees from Illinois State University in communication sciences and disorders.

“In his role as graduate dean, Dr. Augustine has demonstrated extraordinary leadership and innovation in graduate education,” said CGS President Debra W. Stewart, “particularly in the areas of master’s education and promoting diversity.  We are honored that he will serve as the 2013 CGS board chair.”

The new Chair-elect is James Wimbush, Dean of The University Graduate School and Professor of Business Administration at Indiana University (IU). Prior to his appointment as dean in 2006, Dr. Wimbush served in multiple administrative positions including Chair of the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Chair of Doctoral Programs in Business, Chair of the Kelley MBA Program, and Associate Dean of the Faculties for the Bloomington campus. Dr. Wimbush is an acknowledged national authority on business ethics as they relate to human resource practices.

Beginning three-year terms on the board are Nancy Marcus of Florida State University, Steven Matson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and John Stevenson of the University of Colorado, Boulder. George Justice, the University of Missouri, and Allison Sekuler, McMaster University, will serve one-year terms on the board.

CGS is governed by a 12-member Board of Directors drawn from member institutions. Board members serve for set terms. Lisa Tedesco of Emory University will remain on CGS’s Executive Committee for one year as immediate past chair.

Citing data from the 2012 CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey, the Chronicle points to continued growth of international student enrollment.

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Council of Graduate Schools invites media participation at 52nd Annual Meeting, December 6-8, 2012
“Creativity and Innovation in Graduate Education”

What: Over 700 leaders in graduate education from North America and overseas will convene at the Council of Graduate schools’ 52nd Annual Meeting.

Time and Location: December 6-8, 2012, Washington, DC, Grand Hyatt

Media Registration: Approved media registrants may attend the event's open sessions free of cost. To request media credentials, please register online by 5:00pm EST on December 4, 2012.

Higher education leaders and other stakeholders will convene to discuss new trends and important questions in graduate education. The conference theme, “Creativity and Innovation in Graduate Education” will inspire discussion across six plenaries and a diverse range of concurrent sessions.

Featured speakers include:

• David Brooks, New York Times Op-Ed columnist
• Michael Bérubé, President of the Modern Language Association
• Larry Bacow, President Emeritus of Tufts University
• Jeff Selingo, Editor at Large, Chronicle of Higher Education
• Anant Agarwal, President of edX and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT
• Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran and Visiting Professor, Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute
• Nancy Nersessian, Regents’ Professor and Professor of Cognitive Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology
• Subra Suresh, Director of the National Science Foundation

Featured topics include:

• Online Learning in a Global Context and the Role of MOOCs
• Fostering Creativity and Innovation
• The Future of Graduate Education in the Humanities
• Advancing U.S. Competitiveness in Scientific Research and Education
• Practical Solutions for Tracking Graduate Student Careers
• Professional and Global Skills Development for Graduate Students
• Broadening Participation and Success of Underrepresented Minorities

Event Details

All events will take place at the Grand Hyatt, 1000 H Street, NW, Washington, DC. Sessions open to media guests begin Thursday, December 6.

Event home
Media agenda

About CGS

CGS is the only national organization dedicated solely to the advancement of graduate education and research. The organization draws its institutional members from colleges and universities significantly engaged in graduate education, research, and scholarship culminating in the award of the master's or doctoral degree. Current membership includes over 500 universities in the United States and Canada, and 25 universities outside the U.S. and Canada. Collectively, CGS institutions annually award more than 92 percent of all U.S. doctorates and over 81 percent of all U.S. master's degrees.

Contacts

Julia Kent, CGS Director of Global Communications and Best Practices
Mobile: (202) 740-5528 jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Nate Thompson, CGS Communications Associate
Mobile: (763) 229-8580
nthompson@cgs.nche.edu

There are many cultural differences scientists will experience as they cross borders for international research. Ethical norms in the lab may be among the most important of these differences, according to Science Careers magazine, CGS staff and principals on the EESE project.  

Professional Science Master's degree programs are proving beneficial to students, employers and institutions, CGS data shows.

Grad students in the sciences are more motivated to complete their programs and move forward into professional careers when they build industry connections and participate in collaborations, CGS dean-in-residence Richard Linton tells Nature magazine.