Graduate School Partnerships
The Graduate School has been engaged in strategic, long-term, mutually
beneficial, and sustainable partnerships with minority-serving institutions
(MSI) since 2000. The intent of Graduate School partnerships
is to facilitate both formal and informal partnerships between UW-Madison
Graduate School faculty and faculty at MSIs around the country.
While the nature of our relationship with these faculty spans a wide range
and the types of partnership activities vary, our primary purpose is to
help graduate programs make connections between our programs and targeted
students and to encourage success of targeted graduate students who choose
UW-Madison.
Our partnerships encompass a wide variety of activities. Some examples of these that we facilitate are faculty exchanges, joint research projects, jointly developed conferences and seminars, and collaborative summer research programs.
If you would like further information on Graduate School partnerships,
would like to become involved in a partnership, or would like a list of
the MSIs we partner with, please contact Dorothy Sanchez, Assistant Dean,
Office of Graduate Student Diversity Resources dsanchez@grad.wisc.edu
.
- What Makes a Graduate School Partnership?
- Criteria for UW-Madison Graduate School Partnerships
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Forming a Creative Graduate School Partnership
- Examples of Partnerships that work
- Partnership Benefits
What Makes a Graduate School Partnership?
- Mission
A mission to improve access and higher education opportunities for a greater number of targeted students (both underrepresented minorities and low-income) in the UW-Madison Graduate programs.
- Strategic Relationship
A strategic relationship that takes a focused approach to identifying graduate recruitment most likely to produce students who will succeed in our programs.
- Intentional and Focused Activities
Intentional and focused activities created by recruitment partners (i.e., faculty, staff, academic units and students) to interact and to foster success for targeted graduate students who choose UW-Madison.
- Strong Commitment
Creative recruitment of targeted underrepresented minority and low income graduate students requires daily engagement.
- Sustainability
Partnerships are sustained by the collaborative efforts and the strength built through mutual resolve. Nurturing the evolution of our partnerships enhances the longevity of partnerships.
- Personal Responsibility
Only personal dedication can build the framework to cultivate diversity in the graduate school and the community of scholars. Taking responsibility for diversity makes it happen.
Criteria for Creating UW-Madison Graduate School Partnerships
- Partnership(s) must have an established, direct relationship with faculty/institution/program for at least 2 years
- Partnership(s) to be directed at recruitment of targeted students (African-American, SE Asian, Hispanic, Native American and low-income)
- Partnership(s) must encompass sustained, focused recruitment activities
- Partnership(s) must include specific, identified faculty/staff from both institutions.
- Partnership(s) contact information will be shared with OGSDR so that Dorothy Sanchez, Assistant Dean, can contact the partnership institution to facilitate, when necessary.
Frequently Asked
Questions
Who creates these partnerships?
A Graduate School partnership is created by representatives, mostly faculty, of the partnering institutions who are authorized to negotiate terms.
What do the changing numbers of partnerships mean?
Graduate School partnerships ebb and flow; sometimes institutions lose a participating faculty member, or new technology makes a particular program highly sought-after. Without an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), institutions differ in their commitment to participation from year to year.
Does the Graduate School provide a list of partnerships to departments?
Yes, please contact dean Dorothy Sanchez at dsanchez@grad.wisc.edu for this list.
Can I get information/give input on Graduate School partnerships and student recruitment?
For Graduate School partnerships, Dorothy Sanchez, Assistant Dean, Office of Graduate Student Diversity Resources, maintains constant communication with partnership institutions, faculty and students. She also welcomes ideas for new or expanded partnerships and will work with UW-Madison departments or other institutions to create new initiatives.
Some Graduate School partnerships seem to disappear—does this happen often?
Some Graduate School partnerships lapse, while others are created. Some Graduate School partnerships that have been dormant for several semesters will regenerate.
Are all Graduate School partnerships formalized with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)?
MOUs are a formal step that does not suit every Graduate School partnership. We continue to work toward MOUs with our partners wherever possible.
What are the barriers to increasing under-represented minority enrollment?
Barriers include inconsistent commitment by programs and departments, lack of follow-through from first inquiry to enrollment, inadequate commitment of resources, “compartmentalizing” diversity efforts.
What are the positives we can show from Graduate School partnership efforts?
- heightened profile of UW-Madison at minority-serving institutions
- heightened profile of UW-Madison SROP
- more UW-Madison faculty involvement
- more collaboration between institutions
- an outstanding pool of graduate applicants
How do you measure successful Graduate School partnerships?
Success is measured by increased faculty involvement, access to a broader pool of targeted graduate scholar candidates and increased admission rates for targeted students. We also measure success by how thoroughly diversity is assimilated into the fabric of departmental decisions. We have found Graduate School partnerships do not necessarily show a cost/yield ratio, however.
Where do we go from here?
We monitor our Graduate School partnerships vigilantly. As we
collect hard data and work on our reports, we will be targeting our questions
to insure that every
level is fully engaged in our mission to increase diversity.
Forming a Creative Graduate School Partnership
These are a brain-storming set of ideas to be talked out alongside what fits institutions’ interests and needs as they work toward a partnership:
Examples of Partnerships that work:
- Summer research internships at UW-Madison followed by year-long applied research project at partnering institution which is jointly monitored and mentored by faculty of both institutions, with presentation or publication of results at end of year.
- Incremental partnerships which begin as joint summer research programs and progress to pilot partnerships that continue research through web-based technology.
- Post-doctoral and/or faculty exchanges which allow partnering institutions to share coursework, students and faculty to provide experience and research in an area of study.
- Short- and long-term faculty exchanges. Several of our departments at UW-Madison now engage in these. They range from exchanges lasting a few weeks during a semester in which two faculty are teaching comparable courses to semester-long exchanges.
- Short- and long-term graduate student exchanges (for example, a semester or a year) in which students from a partnership school come to Madison for coursework or research and students from UW-Madison reciprocate attendance at the partnership institution for courses or research.
- Joint teaching using distance-learning technologies; for example, through computers and video-conferencing. In the past, funds have been made available through UW Madison Instructional Technology grants as well as other funding sources.
- Jointly developed conferences. The key here is sponsorship and arrangement of these conferences via the faculty from both institutions.
- Jointly sponsored graduate student seminars or symposia. Our various partnerships hold these at alternating locations.
Partnership Benefits
For Faculty and Staff
- Enhance existing Graduate School partnerships between UW-Madison faculty and colleagues at minority-serving institutions
- Forge connections that open opportunities for faculty to create new Graduate School partnerships, to expand the number of faculty involved, and to increase the number of participating programs
- Help in Recruiting for SROP (direct link between undergrads and faculty)
- Support Student visits to UW-Madison (direct link to faculty and departments)
- Ability to offer Fee Grants (can be offered to Partnership Institution and SROP students)
For Prospective Graduate Students
- Fee Grants offered to students from Partnership Institutions
- Campus visits coordinated and costs shared
- Facilitation of contact with UW-Madison faculty and programs
Date last updated March 3, 2009