will help improve programs for
future graduate students.
“The goal is really for us to
try to better understand the
doctoral student experience,”
Gonzalez said. “We have lots of
kinds of dry data (gender, race,
and
ethnicity
information)
about these students, but we
don’t know, at least on a large
scale, the details about their
experience
and
how
that
changes over time.”
For the 2017 MDES survey,
all participants were first-year
graduate students from multiple
disciplines.
Researchers
will follow up with these
students each year to track
how their experiences change
as they approach graduation.
John
Gonzales,
director
of
Rackham
Institutional
Research, explained the study
allowed researchers to obtain
information
from
students
beyond what was shared on
their applications. Topics the
questions
explored
includes
the diversity of the student
population,
students’
prior
experiences, and expectations
for graduate school and future
careers.
Because
many
graduate
programs require students to
complete some research during
their studies, the MDES team
was pleasantly surprised to
learn 86 percent of the first-
year students had experience
conducting
some
form
of
research at the undergraduate
level.
“Often we hear a notion
of how some students might
be unprepared (for graduate
school), so we ask about a
number of experiences that
people
have
coming
in,”
Gonzalez said. “Doing research
is one of the big experiences
that are critical in preparing
students to go to graduate
school, so we didn’t expect that
number to be so high.”
Joslin Musick, a Rackham
student
studying
molecular
and
integrative
physiology,
attributed
her
confidence
coming to graduate school to
her undergraduate preparation.
“I did feel prepared for
graduate
school,”
Musick
said. “This could have been a
combination of my course load
and my research that I had
done during my undergraduate
years.”
The Rackham Institutional
Research
team
also
asked
students about their career
expectations. About 72 percent
of surveyed students pursuing
a master’s in social sciences
reported they wanted to teach
after earning their degrees.
Seventy-three
percent
of
these students who chose both
teaching and research reported
wanting a tenure track position.
In comparison, only about 43
percent of surveyed students
pursuing
their
master’s
in
the
physical
sciences
or
engineering
reported
they
wanted to teach after earning
their degrees and 46 percent
wanted a tenure track position.
[twitter:https://twitter.
com/laura_schram/
status/1043072757288845314]
Gonzalez
explains
these differences in career
expectations between students
of the natural sciences and
those of the social sciences
is most likely related to the
nature of these fields and
their
corresponding
job
opportunities.
“This is probably a reality of
the kinds of job markets that
our students are expected to go
into and the kind of available
positions,” Gonzalez said. “So
if you think about students
of engineering, for example,
and the biological and health
sciences,
they
might
have
other opportunities in other
areas like start-up companies
... where they can go into the
private sector.”
While
natural
sciences
students have more options
to go into the private sector,
Gonzalez explains traditionally
humanities and social sciences
students tend to find more jobs
in education.
“Social science students, the
traditional pathway for a lot
of students in these fields is
tenure track faculty positions
or government,” Gonzalez said.
“So I think it kind of aligns
with their disciplines and the
expectations and realities of
those disciplines as well as the
markets that are out there after
they graduate.”
Chen hopes he will have the
same impact on his students as
his teachers had on him when
he was a young student with a
budding interest in chemistry.
In 2017, Chen even visited his
high school chemistry teacher
in Nanjing, China. His former
teacher turned 100 years old
last year and Chen gave him a
mug with a U-M logo as a gift.
Chen also came from a family
with an academic background,
so for him, working for a
corporation was just not as
attractive as teaching.
Currently, researchers are
in the process of collecting
data for the 2018 MDES survey.
Respondents will respond to
similar questions while in their
second year in graduate school.
The
Rackham
Institutional
Research team hopes to glean
new information from these
students to help future classes.
They also hope to reach out
to a new group of first-year
students
after
the
original
group of respondents earn their
degrees.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, September 26, 2018 — 3A
business school, and I really
liked that perception of it,”
Jacobson said. “They really
talked about social impact
and
nonprofit
sector
and
things like that. That’s kind of
what I wanted to do, and still
probably want to do.”
After
spending
three
semesters at the Business
School, though, Jamie felt
the culture there emphasized
certain
careers,
while
forgetting about others.
“I
felt
very
pressured
to follow the typical Ross
career path, whether that
be
investment
banking,
consulting or even marketing,
and I’d say marketing was the
least popular of the traditional
business tracks people tend
to
follow,”
Jacobson
said.
“There was always this, ‘Well,
a lot of people don’t do the
traditional recruitment and
we support you through all
of that.’ But all of the emails
that I got and consistent
talk about recruitment was
all
consulting,
finance,
investment
banking
and
sometimes marketing. It felt
very constraining.”
Jacobson
acknowledged
institutional
programs
for
students
pursuing
social
impact
exist,
but
said
a
majority of Business students
were interested in traditional
career paths, which is where
administration
focused
its
efforts on.
“It’s really tough, because
I think there are plenty of
people like me who want to
do social impact, and Ross
does
have
some
options
there and some programs
there,” Jacobson said. “To a
lot of students who don’t end
up wanting to do that, my
perception of that is that they
feel that all the social impact
and nonprofit talk is kind of a
waste of their time, whereas
on the other side I never really
intend to use accounting, so
that kind of felt like not a good
fit either.”
Business senior Liz Fawley
also plans to pursue social
impact work. While Fawley
admits
it
can
sometimes
be difficult to not follow a
traditional
business
path,
she
believes
the
Business
administration
is
trying
to
offer
opportunities
for
students like her.
“Our dean and associate
dean are very pro-positive
business and talk a lot about
developing
future
business
leaders to create a more
positive future,” she said.
“They really are passionate
about this –– I really do
think that it’s not just all talk.
They’ve spent a lot of money
on all the programs.”
According
to
Norman
Bishara, associate dean for
undergraduate
and
early
career
programs
at
the
Business School, the school
has over 100 organizations
dedicated to social impact
and
nonprofit
work.
One
such
organization
Fawley
is involved in, Net Impact,
combines students from all
majors to create positive social
and environmental change.
Finding this niche within the
Business School played a key
role in her decision to continue
with her field of study, Fawley
said.
“One time this summer, I
had to teach a Ross student
what a union is,” said Fawley.
“In Net Impact, everyone is
on the same page. You can
find your community within
Ross, and that is one reason
I’ve been able to stay level-
headed throughout the entire
process.”
Bishara
stresses
while
the Business School values
positive
business,
the
administration does not wish
to force students into one
career path or another.
“We
are
the
positive
business
school
and
have
been for a while now. More
than other schools around the
world, we really care about
business’ impact on society,”
Bishara said. “One thing I
don’t really love hearing is,
‘Ross wants this.’ There is no
Ross desire for students, other
than we want our students to
be engaged, have good lives, be
good citizens, be good leaders,
and it’s not in a certain field or
another. That’s not what we’re
designing at all. Yeah, there
are students who want to go
in certain directions, and we
want to support that, so we do
that for any student who wants
to go into any role. I think
there’s tons of opportunities,
and so if people aren’t finding
them, that’s a failure in some
way.”
Jacobson said while the
two sides of the Business
School each had strengths,
but seemed to compete with
each other rather than work in
tandem.
“Honestly,
I
think
that
they’re in a very strange
crux right now, where they
have a lot of kids and a lot of
alumni and just a lot of people
expecting them to continue
sending all these people into
Wall Street and to continue
developing really, really good
business students for that, but
then they also have this other
goal of being a social impact
business
school,”
Jacobson
said. “And I think right now
bridging the two identities of
the business school, as being
this
elite
institution
that
connects really big firms with
exceptional, well-performing,
passionate students, there’s
that side of it, but there’s
also the side of trying to
develop a social impact focus
curriculum, a social impact
focused
recruiting
process
and I think it’s really difficult
for those two to connect.”
Business senior Mohammad
Shaikh
hoped
to
pursue
positive
business
in
his
studies, but found the school’s
curriculum did not live up to
its branding of being a positive
business school.
“I think that Ross brands
itself as a business school that
cares about positive business,
positive business being defined
as business working to solve
society’s biggest problems,”
Shaikh said. “If you look at
their website, what they’re
about, that’s how they brand
themselves. What it looks like
right now, it seems like they
don’t really care about it. They
sort of just weave it into their
curriculum without making it
central. It seems like the core
business classes that you take
at any business school are 100
percent the central component
and
then
impact
positive
business initiatives are kind of
wrapped around very subtly.”
However, Shaikh believes
Business School Dean Scott
DeRue may change the culture
in a few years.
“Anytime
(DeRue)
goes
on anything, he talks about
(positive business),” Shaikh
said. “I do think that they’re
working to make that a bigger
part of their vision, because
he goes on different trips,
and this is his thing. I think
that in future years, because
he just started two years ago
I believe, I think in coming
years he’s going to hopefully
carry it out.”
Jacobson
thinks
making
it
easier
for
students
to
double major would allow
students
pursuing
social
impact
adequate
space
in
their schedule to take the
classes or electives they need
to supplement their business
degree.
“I felt like they’re telling me
to be social impact focused,
but then I’m focused mostly
on getting good grades for
recruiting, recruiting for a
bunch of firms, to be perfectly
honest, their main goal was
not social impact,” Jacobson
said. “As someone who was
trying to do a dual degree,
I didn’t have room in my
schedule at all to take an easy
class to inflate my grades.”
Shaikh believes the solution
lies with a realignment of
what society should value.
“On a larger scale, the
smartest people in my class
don’t go into the impact-
oriented
careers
because
they’re not valued by society,”
Shaikh said. “What’s valued by
society? The positions that, in
my opinion, contribute to the
problem. That’s the problem.
There should be an incentive
structure that’s built up, such
that if I’m someone who wants
to go into a career that helps
others, and I’m very smart and
qualified, I should have a very
clear avenue to that path. And
in my opinion, even if you’re
not
someone
who’s
super
passionate about impact, I
think that the world demands
that there’s more talented
people in these spaces that are
helping others.”
work with the structure of student
organizations.”
Greene elaborated on the student
liaison program, which he and
CSG Vice President Isabel Baer, an
LSA junior, created. The program
allows student organizations to
communicate and meet with each
other through a CSG forum. He said
the goal of the program is to allow
for a more collaborative culture on
campus.
“The idea is to really build
that
cross-student
organization
collaboration, but really tap into the
ownership of our fellow Wolverines
and into our campus community,”
Greene said. “Because to me, it’s
planting the seeds for the long-term
investment that’s going to allow for
the cultural and social shift on our
campus.”
The meeting continued with
community
concerns,
where
two members of the University
community
talked
about
their
boycott of Israel, relating it to Prof.
Cheney-Lippold’s refusal to write a
recommendation letter for a student
to study abroad in Israel. After, CSG
members nominated for certain
executive positions were confirmed.
The representatives ended the
meeting
by
discussing
various
resolutions, including one aiming to
amend elected representatives’ office
hours to make them more efficient
and useful. LSA sophomore Benjamin
Gerstein, an LSA representative and
chair of resolutions, emphasized
the importance of office hours and
listening to community concerns.
“A lot of what we talk about and
a lot of our goals on CSG is to be the
mass representative of our schools,
and office hours provides you the
opportunity to hear perspectives
other than our own on what is going
on in our communities,” Gerstein
said.
ROSS
From Page 1A
RESEARCH
From Page 1A
CSG
From Page 1A
campus environment. Sellers
called for better cooperation
between
institutions
within
the University and more focus
on developing the skills of
minority faculty and students
instead of just recruiting them.
“We,
like
many
other
predominantly
white
institutions that have had these
relationships, have tended to
think about them in a model that
is more consistent with what
happened in terms of the negro
leagues,” Sellers said. “When
we
integrated
baseball,
we
didn’t fully integrate baseball …
what we said was we will let the
talent play everywhere, but not
the management. … We have to
change that paradigm.”
Edmund
Graham,
the
Minority Serving Institutions
coordinator at Rackham, hosted
a
panel
following
Sellers’
speech
that
featured
Dina
Stroud, the executive director
of the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-
to-PhD
Bridge
Program.
The program helps Vanderbilt
University graduate students,
specifically
underrepresented
and
minority
students,
complete their master’s degrees
and place them in a position to
later acquire a Ph.D.
Stroud highlighted some of
the measures the program has
taken to better suit minority
needs, including the need to
tailor the graduate program
to the students’ needs and
career ambitions. Stroud also
encouraged students to take
part in committees pertaining
to minority students and share
their thoughts on how the
programs can better suit their
needs.
Providing
consistent
mentorship and mental health
services was also of utmost
focus. Despite this, Stroud said
the program’s efforts are met
with massive obstacles. Stroud
noted lack of funding from
institutions as a key issue, in
addition to problems with the
application
and
acceptance
process.
“We have made the most
progress in terms of holistic
admissions… but we are still
pushing back against GREs and
numbers,” she said. “And I feel
like we even took a bigger step
backwards, actually, this last
year when we … had no fee for
our graduate application, and
now we have a fee … It’s a push
all the time.”
Stroud
also
pointed
to
systemic racism as a persistent
issue.
“You get frustrated at times
opening doors to a place … that’s
still not welcoming all the time,
and you have to tell them, ‘This
is the systemic racism that you
are going to have to encounter,”
she said. “Are you going to get
treated differently because you
are at Fisk? Yes.”
The
panel
also
featured
Brian Beckford, a presidential
postdoctoral
fellow
at
the
University
who
served
as
the Bridge Program project
manager in the Department
of Education and Diversity for
the American Physical Society
in College Park, Maryland.
The Bridge Program focuses
on
increasing
the
number
of physics Ph.Ds awarded to
underrepresented
minority
students at Maryland.
Beckford
stressed
the
importance
of
supporting
diversity inclusion programs
until
academia
is
more
inclusive
of
minority
and
underrepresented communities.
“These efforts are going to
be continued, in my opinion,
to be overlooked at times, to
be unrewarded, to be under
volunteered … and it’s going to
fall on a specific group most
of the time to continue these
efforts,” he said. “Until there
is a larger participation and
until access to participating in
academy is changed, I think you
have to have these programs in
place.”
Beckford called for the need
to focus on sustaining these
programs
through
funding
and
participation.
Beckford
specifically
highlighted
the
importance of support from
tenured
professors
when
creating one of these programs.
“You
have
to
(have)
20
percent at minimum tenured
faculty that are willing to be
involved,” he said. “If you are
smaller than that, I think you
are starting with one leg cut off.
It’s just going to be new junior
faculty. … It’s really hard to get
going.”
Naomi
Wilson,
a
Ph.D
candidate at the University and
President of Rackham student
government, asked the panel
how graduate students can play
a role outside of recruitment
in assisting minority graduate
students.
Stroud
responded
by
encouraging
a
student
mentorship
program
for
minority and underrepresented
students
and
increasing
graduate student involvement
through
activities
and
workshops meant to educate
other students.
“You can do professional
development
type
of
presentations,
you
can
put
abstracts in some places to
do workshops, or you can be
designing some things … really
start brainstorming as to what
we want to see and how you can
make that happen, and faculty
listening to them when they tell
you what they want to see and
how you can help them make
that happen,” she stated.
Beckford
responded
by
encouraging graduate student
involvement in the admissions
process, and requesting review
of
the
graduate
program’s
professional development.
“In part of your annual
review… request to have a
large component where there
is a professional development
component or something that is
discussed,” he said.
DEI
From Page 1A
comes as the University has
attempted to build its presence
through conferences and years
of partnership initiatives in
Detroit, where the school was
originally founded in 1817. Some
of the University’s programs,
such as Semester in Detroit,
have also been problematic.
Companies like General Motors
and Quicken Loans have also
made efforts to increase their
presence in the city.
Grigsby asserts problems such
as the city’s access to education
are left largely unaddressed
while business development like
Columbia Street increases. She
believes it is cause of concern
for native Detroiters, who want
to see their city grow and want
to make sure Detroiters are not
left behind.
“Along with the people living
in Detroit, I don’t say there’s a
revitalization because they’re
only really developing some
parts of the city,” Grigsby said.
“In some parts of the city, people
are having their water shut off
because they can’t afford water,
or they can’t afford to live where
they are or they can’t afford to
get the jobs or opportunities
they need to succeed. There are
things like that where they’re
not trying to improve public
services but instead trying to
improve the parts of Detroit
that they want to make look
pretty. Midtown and Downtown
are at least fine in that aspect,
people are coming to games and
promote the city. But you have
to make sure the people who
live there are taken care of first
in my opinion.”
Grigsby
suggested
hiring
workers from Detroit for the
new stores in the development.
“You could try and get local
people involved,” Grigsby said.
“If they hire Detroiters, that
could at least make a better
impact on the city.”
MDEN
From Page 2A
“We have made
the most progress
in terms of holistic
admissions”