FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                              

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

Washington, DC – The Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Dr. Judith Stoddart, senior associate dean, The Graduate School at Michigan State University (MSU), is the 2019 Winner of the Assistant and Associate Deans Leadership Award. The awards ceremony was held during the CGS 59th Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN.

The award was created by the CGS Board of Directors to recognize individuals who have demonstrated exemplary commitment to graduate education by demonstrating creativity and innovation in response to institutional challenges and/or limited budgets or resources; building partnerships both internal and external to the graduate school; identifying and obtaining resources, both internal and external to the graduate school; effectively advocating on behalf of graduate education; fostering inclusiveness in the graduate community; and engaging student voices (including diverse voices).

Dr. Stoddart becomes the award’s first recipient for her valuable contributions to the Michigan State University graduate community. Her many accomplishments include developing new institutional guidelines for mentoring and advising, launching an internal grant program for departments that develop 3-year systemic change projects to recruit and retain traditionally underrepresented students, and formalizing a network among MSU and HBCUs that focuses on cross-institutional mechanisms for enhancing and expanding pathways to the professoriate. Stoddart serves on the steering committee for the Big 10/ACM Mellon Undergraduate and Faculty Fellows Program for a Diverse Professoriate and works with the advisory team for the gradSERU data project.

“Dr. Stoddart lives an extraordinary career of commitment to securing individuals’ aspirations through higher education. Her commitment to elevating higher education in general, and graduate education in particular, by creating more inclusive and more engaging spaces at MSU and beyond is a hallmark of her dedication,” said Thomas D. Jeitschko, dean of the Graduate School and associate provost for graduate education, Michigan State University. “Indeed, throughout her career, her focus has always been on finding resources—often through small grant programs (including some through CGS) or smaller-scale collaborative efforts—that she would leverage into programs, partnerships, and practices that would contribute to impactful and long-lasting institutional change.”

“Our committee viewed the pool of nominated colleagues for this award as exemplary,” stated William F. Tate, selection committee chair, and dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education, Washington University in St. Louis. “Dean Stoddart stood out among this outstanding group of leaders. Her invested leadership at Michigan State University resulted in transparent graduate program improvement including building a pathway for greater access for graduate study among underrepresented student groups. Her efforts represent the very best in intellectual leadership of graduate education. She establishes a high bar as the inaugural awardee.”

Nominees for the award must be a current assistant or associate-level dean at a CGS member institution (Regular or Associate) with primary administrative responsibility in graduate education. Assistant or associate deans whose graduate deans currently serve on the CGS Board are not eligible to be nominated for the award during the dean’s active years of board service. Nominations are made by CGS member institutions and are reviewed by a committee selected by the CGS Board of Directors. The winner receives a $1,500 honorarium and is invited to plan and participate in a session at the CGS Summer Workshop on a topic of their choosing.

CGS gratefully acknowledges Liaison’s financial support of the Assistant and Associate Deans Leadership Award.  Liaison, a higher education enrollment marketing and admissions management company, is a CGS Sustaining Member.

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For Immediate Release:

Contacts:

Katherine Hazelrigg, CGS

(202) 461-3888 | khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Ally Norton, ETS

(609) 683-2092 | amnorton@ets.org

Washington, DC – Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and Educational Testing Service (ETS) presented Wayne State University (WSU) with the 2019 ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admission through Completion. Dr. Ingrid Guerra-López, dean of the Graduate School, accepted the co-sponsored award on Wayne State’s behalf during the award ceremony at CGS’s 59^th Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN.

The ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education recognizes promising, innovative proposals to enhance student success and degree completion at the master’s and doctoral levels while promoting inclusiveness. The winning institution is selected on the strength of its proposal to meet the award’s goals and to serve as a model for other schools. The winner receives a two-year, $20,000 matching grant.

Wayne State University’s program, “Success for Underrepresented students in Graduate Education (SURGE),” is an innovative, multi-faceted approach to increase inclusiveness and to build a steady pipeline of underrepresented students prepared for master’s programs. In partnership with WSU student support services and current graduate students, SURGE combines intensive peer mentoring, inclusive mentoring and leadership training, and scholarship funding to provide students with the support they need to be competitive applicants to a WSU master’s program.

“We are honored and grateful to be the recipient of this important award from ETS/CGS. SURGE embodies Wayne State University’s commitment to prepare a diverse student body to thrive, and positively impact local and global communities.  This initiative is designed to address common challenges faced by students from underrepresented backgrounds,” said Ingrid Guerra-López, dean of the Graduate School.  “SURGE will strengthen students’ support network, promoting a sense of belonging, a growth mindset, and specific skills that will prime them to be competitive applicants to WSU graduate programs.”

“We are grateful to ETS, whose support makes possible this innovative way to promote best practices among graduate schools, said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “The program Wayne State has developed addresses some of the most common barriers to graduate school that underrepresented students face, mitigating cost burdens, addressing feelings of isolation, and providing a network of mentors experienced with the graduate application process.”

“Wayne State University is being recognized for the university’s approach to addressing diversity and inclusion in graduate education by investing in support for underrepresented students as they navigate the graduate application process.” said David G. Payne, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of ETS’ Global Education Division. “Their program focuses on building a pipeline through mentorship, scholarship and leadership training – all critical pieces to ensuring an accessible, inclusive and diverse graduate program.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:    

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

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has awarded the 2019 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities to Dr. Nasser Mufti, associate professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The awards ceremony was held during the CGS 59th Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN.

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. Mufti becomes the award’s 49^th recipient for his book, Civilizing War: Imperial Politics and the Poetics of National Rupture (Northwestern UP, 2017). He received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Irvine in 2012.

In Civilizing War: Imperial Politics and the Poetics of National Rupture, Mufti situates the place of civil war within the politics of empire by examining the “historical transformation of civil war from a civil affair into an uncivil crisis.” Through comparative readings of Thomas Carlyle, Benjamin Disraeli, Friedrich Engels, Nadine Gordimer, and others, Mufti demonstrates how these authors and intellectuals articulated a “poetics of national rupture” that came to signify the metropolitan nation and its colonial “others.” Through Civilizing War, Mufti “shifts the terms of Edward Said’s influential Orientalism to suggest that imperialism was not only organized around the norms of civility but also around narratives of civil war.”

“We are so pleased to present this year’s Arlt award to Dr. Mufti for the outstanding scholarship in his recent book Civilizing War. The Arlt award recognizes exceptional work by early-career humanities faculty, and Dr. Mufti’s work is an important contribution to understanding the complexities of imperialism and the inherent incivility of civil war,” said Dr. Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools.

Created in 1971, the Arlt Award honors the first president of CGS, Gustave O. Arlt. The winner must have earned a doctorate within the past seven years, 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, and Drama/Theater Arts. The winner receives a $1,000 honorarium and travel to the awards ceremony.

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For many, graduate study holds the promise of a better life and more secure financial future for the student and their family. Veterans share this interest in financial security when charting a career path after their military service ends. Tyler Mobra, a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Oklahoma - Tulsa, is one such student veteran. After serving as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army and being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, Mobra was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for heroic or meritorious service.

Returning home was difficult for Mobra. His valiant military career was over, and he was beginning to feel the financial squeeze of raising two children on a medical retirement pension. Though his children were young, he realized that they couldn’t “sleep on bunk beds forever,” and that providing for them the lives he wanted would require a new career. In these challenging times, support came in two forms. Operation Homefront helped Mobra acquire a mortgage-free home through their Homes on the Homefront program. This new home helped ease the immediate financial strain on Mobra and his family. Without this support, the Mobras would “be living paycheck to paycheck” without any hope of saving for the future.

If Homes for the Homefront helped alleviate Mobra’s immediate financial squeeze, the University of Oklahoma - Tulsa provided him a path to a financially stable and fulfilling career. Mobra has been working towards his doctorate since 2010 with the hopes of becoming a university professor. In acquiring his doctorate, he has already completed certification to teach grades K-12 in Oklahoma. His research focuses on how Oklahoma has responded to widespread teacher shortages in the state.

With his financial insecurity behind him and a promising career ahead of him, Mobra will be able to impart some of the heroism and life lessons he learned during his military service to the next generation of students. His story is a reminder of the role university communities can play in supporting American veterans and their families, as well as the ways graduate education can help students achieve financial security.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Image Credit: The University of Oklahoma – Tulsa

Many graduate students learn the importance of experimentation to good research through coursework, mentorship, and controlled lab environments. Wayne Johnson, a doctoral student in management at Cornell University, took a completely different path. As the leader of an Army counter-bomb unit in Eastern Afghanistan, Johnson had seen how bomb defusal and removal strategies designed for troops serving in Iraq were failing in Afghanistan. “After a month of heavy losses, I realized radical experimentation was needed,” he said. Johnson found that the new methods worked well and he was reassigned to the Army Research lab to teach what he had learned to others.

Johnson’s improvised counter-bomb strategy and time at the Army research lab taught him that “research was a powerful microphone to project voice and knowledge far beyond my reach as a tactics instructor.” As his interests shifted into the field of organizational behavior, Johnson wondered if he import the lessons he learned from his military service to other organizations. He thought the best path for achieving this goal would be to complete a Ph.D. in management at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Business.

The transition was not easy. The writing requirements were more than Johnson expected and he felt that he was behind his peers who had already spent years studying organizational management at the undergraduate level. “I chose subjects for which I did not have deep experience or knowledge,” he noted, “so that naturally led to a steeper learning curve.”

One area that Johnson found did translate to graduate school was leadership. He had seen both successful and unsuccessful leaders in the Army and found that successful leaders were constantly engaged with their associates instead of only engaging when there was a problem or issue. “I learned that I should take time often to go find someone who usually only hears complaints and tell them, hey, I don’t have any complaints because you’re doing such a great job.” He found once a peer or subordinate felt valued as a person they were more likely to listen to and accept criticism. “It’s true that people often don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Johnson’s care for others has animated much of his service since leaving the military. He volunteered for a suicide hotline for three years. His experience working for the hotline taught him “how deep a need people have to be validated and heard.” Listening to others has always been a core component of Johnson’s worldview and one that will serve him well in the classroom.  To learn more about Wayne’s work, visit the Cornell University website. 

Image Credit: Cornell University

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

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

Washington, DC — Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) announced grant funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for The Humanities Coalition, a new effort that will expand CGS’s work to understand and support the careers of PhDs. This latest endeavor seeks to further enhance our understanding of humanities PhDs and their careers and to refine humanities-specific strategies for curricular change and program improvement. One component of the new initiative is additional research to better understand the nature of early career transitions for humanists.

The project, a component of CGS’s Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement project, builds upon three earlier phases of CGS Best Practice and research initiatives: a feasibility study supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; a survey development phase supported by Mellon, Sloan, and the National Science Foundation (NSF); and a data collection phase supported by Mellon and NSF.  There are currently 70 universities contributing data to the project.

Through a competitive sub-award process, the new effort will select ten U.S. doctoral-granting institutions to develop and assess initiatives for better supporting humanities PhD students transitioning from graduate school into the workforce. CGS has also received additional support from Mellon to expand the number of institutions currently collecting data about the careers of PhD students and alumni in the humanities.

“The PhD Career Pathways project has already provided valuable information about the careers of humanities PhD alumni and the career aspirations of humanities PhD students,” said Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools. “With The Humanities Coalition, we hope to learn more about the kinds of transitions humanities PhDs face as they move from graduate school to career. Humanities PhDs have a wide variety of career pathways in front of them. We need to make sure they know what they are and how to access them.”

Richard Kurin, distinguished scholar and ambassador-at-large at the Smithsonian Institution and member of the CGS Employer Roundtable, provided a perspective from a large employer of humanities degree holders. “We know from CGS’s work on PhD career pathways that humanities PhDs are employed in all major sectors of the economy, and there is no doubt they play a critical role in leading and supporting cultural institutions,” Kurin said. “I am delighted to see that CGS is building on its important work by helping universities develop and refine practices that will help support successful transitions from humanities doctoral programs to a wide variety of career pathways. This can help fulfill the professional aspirations of talented, creative and accomplished scholars and also improve the institutions and causes they serve.”

Over the five-year project, an advisory committee (listed below) will guide CGS’s efforts to increase the impact and reach of the project and provide insights for addressing challenges and opportunities specific to various humanities disciplines. CGS will issue a Request-For-Proposals (RFP) to CGS member institutions to participate in the project as funded partners and will continue to work with its current partners to collect data in both STEM and humanities fields.

Advisory Committee Members:

• Carlos Alonso, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University
• Antoinette Burton, PI, Humanities without Walls; Director, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities; Professor of History and Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Susan Carvalho, Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School, The University of Alabama
• Joy Connolly, President, American Council of Learned Societies
• Elizabeth Dolan, Deputy Provost for Graduate Education, Lehigh University
• Patricia Easton, Executive Vice President and Provost, The Claremont Graduate University
• Daniel Fisher, Project Director, Humanities for All, National Humanities Alliance
• James Grossman, Executive Director, American Historical Association
• Paula Krebs, Executive Director, Modern Language Association
• Preselfannie Whitfield McDaniels, Dean, Division of Graduate Studies, Jackson State University
• Mary Papazian, President, San José State University
• Rob Townsend, Director of the Humanities Indicators and Director of the Washington Office, American Association of the Arts and Sciences
• Maren Wood, Co-Founder, Beyond the Professoriate

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By Hironao Okahana and Enyu Zhou

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) is a member association of over 480 U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities. Member universities vary in size, scope, and way that graduate programs are organizing and administering. Based on responses from the 200 universities that participated in the 2019 CGS Survey of Organization & Administration of Graduate Education, this brief provides selected insights into how graduate education is organized and administered in the U.S. and Canada. The finding affirms that the majority of responding institutions organizes the responsibilities of graduate education within an organizational unit** led by a dean. This organizational structure provides graduate education administrators with leadership roles that are similar in stature and expectations to those of  academic colleges and collegiate deans. We also found that in addition to supporting graduate student success, the organizations responsible for graduate education, particularly at research-intensive institutions, also oversee postdoctoral trainees.

**The term “graduate schools” is formally or colloquially used to refer campus organizational units that hold the responsibility for graduate education across different fields of study. Although formal organizational labels vary between institutions (e.g., Graduate School, Graduate College, Office of Graduate Education, Graduate Division, etc.), in this brief, all such units are referred as “graduate schools” regardless of their formal names.   

Key Findings:

• Overall, more than 64% of institutions responding to the survey indicated that their formal administrative name includes “Graduate School” or “Graduate College,” while 24% reported that their name includes a variation of “Office of Graduate Studies” or “Graduate Division.” The survey affirmed that 48% of graduate education organizations are led by a “Dean” and 27% are led by an “Associate/Vice Provost and Dean”. (Figure 1)

• Roughly 48% of the graduate schools from R1 institutions have responsibility for postdoctoral affairs. While 31% of respondents from master’s colleges and universities and 20% of respondents from R2 and R3 institutions indicated that, in addition to graduate education, graduate schools are also responsible for research administration. None of the R1 graduate schools reported responsibility for research administration as an area of their oversight. (Figure 2)

• The average number of staff members supporting graduate schools was reported as 22 full-time equivalents (FTEs) at participating R1 institutions, 10 FTEs at R2 and R3 institutions, and 5 FTEs at master’s colleges and universities. The average number of graduate assistants and student assistants working in graduate schools was the highest at R2 and R3 institutions. (Figure 3)

• Approximately 50% of respondents indicated that their graduate schools have decision-making authority for setting academic policies governing graduate programs, establishing graduate admissions policies, monitoring the academic progress of graduate students, responding to academic grievances, and managing graduate admissions technology. In other areas, such as review of new and revised programs, development of new graduate programs, and review of/development of online graduate programs, more respondents noted that they have formal input into the decision-making processes at their institutions. (Figure 4)

Takeaway Points:

• Based on the survey, the majority of institutions organize graduate education roles and responsibilities within  a Graduate School or Graduate College, led by a dean, affirming that these organizational units and their leaders have roles and responsibilities that are similar in stature to academic colleges and collegiate deans at their home institutions. In other words, campus leaders of graduate education are at the same tables with collegiate deans and other senior academic leaders, ensuring that the interests of graduate education are represented in these ranks.

• At R1 institutions, 48% of graduate schools oversee postdoctoral affairs. This finding underscores the essential leadership roles that graduate schools provide to support the experience and success of postdoctoral trainees. In the same ways that graduate schools support the mentoring and career and professional development activities for graduate students, they are also positioned to provide these support services for postdoctoral trainees.

• Compared to R1 institutions, graduate schools and their deans at other types of institutions were more likely to have broader areas of responsibilities beyond graduate education. Given the relative sizes of graduate programs, it might make sense that these units oversee other areas; however, they also have relatively fewer FTEs to support their units. It may be the case that graduate education administrators at these universities are asked to do more with less. 

• The findings highlight a central role in which graduate schools can play in setting academic policies and standards for graduate programs, such as graduate student admissions policies, graduate student academic progress, and grievances. However, they also amplify that in other areas, roles and responsibilities of graduate schools include insights that influence a broad range of decision-making processes across the institution. Influencing faculty hiring or curricular decisions underscores the importance of nurturing collaborative relationships with academic colleges and programs, as well as with other campus units, such as student affairs units in promoting interests of graduate education and graduate students.

Conversation Starters:

We encourage graduate education units to engage in conversation about various models for organization and administration of graduate education at your institutions. Some of the questions that you may want to ask as a self-reflection or to your campus colleagues (i.e., college deans, graduate program directors, etc.), as well as with stakeholders include:

• What kind of organizational structure does your unit have? How does the organizational structure align with your unit’s goals and priorities?

• Where is your unit housed? Which areas of responsibilities does your unit cover? How many staff lines does your unit have? How does organizational placement reflect institutional priorities for graduate education?

• How does your unit engage other units on campus? What types of formal and informal interactions do graduate deans (or equivalents) have with their campus peers? What types of formal and informal interactions do rank and file staff members in your unit have with their counterparts in academic colleges, graduate programs, and other units?

• What different functions does your unit have? What kind of staffing levels does your unit have for different functions?

Additional Resources:

The Organization and Administration of Graduate Education. This publication provides an overview of the structures, leadership, and strategies that define contemporary graduate education. It also provides case studies from selected graduate schools addressing pressing issues.

CGS Strategic Consultation Services. The Council of Graduate Schools provides strategic consultations to member and nonmember institutions, boards, and state agencies to offer guidance as they make tactical decisions about the administration of graduate education.  Our consultations draw upon extensive best practice and benchmarking research as well as the insights of experienced graduate deans from around the country.

About the Data Source:

The Council of Graduate Schools, Survey of Organization & Administration of Graduate Schools was distributed to CGS member institutions and members of the four regional graduate school affiliations in Spring 2019 (US, N=195; and Canada, N=5). This brief is based upon the participants who reported working in one of the four institution types based on the 2015 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The Basic Carnegie Classification categories are aggregated to four categories as follows: Universities with Highest Research Activity (R1 Institutions), Universities with Higher Research Activity and Universities with Moderate Research Activity (R2 and R3 Institutions), Master’s Colleges and Universities (Master’s Institutions), and Other Institutions. The sample size by institution type is as follows: R1 Institutions (N=71), R2 and R3 Institutions (N=65), Master’s Institutions (N=52), and Other Institutions (N=12).

Author Contribution and Acknowledgment

The brief was prepared by Hironao Okahana and Enyu Zhou. H.O. conceived and designed the project and data collection instrument, as well as supervised the findings of this work. E.Z. performed data cleaning and analysis, prepared the figures and table. Both authors discussed and contributed to the final brief. CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega and CGS Senior Vice President Robert M. Augustine, as well as Radomir Mitic, Janet Gao, and Christian P.L. West provided feedback to earlier drafts of the brief. CGS Best Practices Team, CGS Research and Information Services Committee, CGS Committee on Master’s Degrees, and CGS Consultation Working Group provided feedback to an earlier version of the data collection instrument.

“As veterans, we’re trained to fight, but we’re not really trained to come home,” said Megan Lowry, a master’s student in social work at The University of Oklahoma—Tulsa. Lowry knows this first-hand and is determined to make a difference.

While serving in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2005-2008, Lowry faced tremendous trauma. “I had four traumatic brain injuries and a dozen fractures to my face and head alone. My back had three disks that were pushed in and pinching my spinal cord. I would lose feeling in my legs,” Lowry said. “I ended up snapping the ligaments in both of my knees, and my right ankle was destroyed.”

Not long after, a fellow Marine violently assaulted her. She was nervous to report it, but she was more concerned that he would do it to someone else. The experience was a trying one, and her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) wreaked havoc on her life.

“It got to a point where my PTSD was so bad that I couldn’t work. I was terrified to go to the grocery store,” Lowry revealed. “There were days where I never got out of bed.” She sought treatment at a Houston VA medical center. Afterwards, she started taking sociology classes at Tulsa Community College and later at the University of Tulsa. While there, she transitioned from military service to community service, becoming an advocate for veteran’s rights, indigenous peoples, eating disorders, military sexual trauma survivors.

She also become a service dog trainer with American Humane’s Pups4Patriots™ program. “I’m super passionate about getting veterans service dogs because… losing some of my brothers and sisters to veteran’s suicide which is extremely painful. I can speak from my own personal experience, my service dog has saved my life, and I want that to help other veterans.” The Pups4Patriots program trains service dogs for veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injury, which can contribute to veteran suicide rates.

“Even if I don’t wear my uniform anymore, my service is never going to be over,” said Lowry. “Just knowing that something happens, whether it’s on American soil or worldwide, I have the heart to be there and help out.” Lowry graduated with a B.A. in sociology from The University of Tulsa, where she received the Marcy Lawless Service Award. You can learn more about the Pups4Patriots program on the American Humane website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Image Credit: The University of Oklahoma – Tulsa

First-time enrolment of Indigenous and Latinx students in US graduate-level programmes rose between autumn 2017 and 2018, according to a report from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) in Washington DC, which represents more than 500 universities, mainly in the United States.

On November 5, the Joint Committee on the Research Environment (JCORE) convened a full-day summit bringing together representatives from federal research agencies, academia, industry, and higher education organizations to discuss ways in which the community can promote and improve upon issues related to the research enterprise, including transparency, integrity, coordination, and workload. Kelvin Droegemeier, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, shared his vision for sustaining American leadership through collaboration across our Nation’s multi-sector research environment. CGS's government affairs staff attended on behalf of the association. A summary of the conversations can be accessed here.