The Graduate School is looking for ways to improve after Eastern announced that the number of graduate students is down from previous years.

The graduate program now faces competition globally in regards to student interest and application, which has a huge affect on leadership, said Robert Augustine, dean of the Graduate Schools.

Augustine said that he plans on improving by implementing “The Path Forward” initiative.

The Graduate School is currently holding summits with each of the colleges in order to evaluate the initiative and to give feedback for the best way to tailor it to the institution. Yesterday’s summit was focused on the College of Arts and Humanities.

The initiative is aimed to attract the best candidates for the graduate program and to improve student scholarship, mentoring and to provide leadership opportunities, Augustine said.

The three main pillars of the initiative are to focus on relationships within the university, with business partners and with legislators.

For the university focus, the Graduate School plans to bring its attention to student recruitment for its programs.

Olaf Hoerschelmann, professor and mass communication studies coordinator, said when he surveyed his spring graduate students, not a single one said they were drawn to the program from a graduate fair.

Lori Henderson, publicity and promotion specialist of the Graduate School, said her research shows that the climate is changing for graduate student recruitment. When she recently attended a college fair, she found that face-to-face interaction had value for attracting graduate interest.

“I had students lined up all the way back who hadn’t heard of our graduate programs,” she said. She added that there is an economical value to networking on this aspect with other universities as well.

Of the three pillars, Bonnie Irwin, dean of College of Arts and Humanities said in order to adapt to the changing times, the university is considering using online outlets to reach graduate students as well.

Chris Kahler, professor and arts graduate coordinator, said he had a few problems with The Path Forward.

“What I’m missing from the corporate model is the sense of mentorship,” he said. “That’s where (our graduate program) stands out and how (the graduate program) will survive this.”

Augustine said the initial program improvement was The First Choice Initiative.

The initiative, which was introduced in 2005 by the National Council of Graduate Schools, was the first program aimed at improving graduate education.

Another goal of the initiative is to increase minority representation in the graduate school.

Currently, minorities make up 17 percent of undergraduate students and eight percent of graduate students, Augustine said.

A forthcoming part of the initiative is to introduce the Banner Enrollment Funnel Process. For this process, Josh Norman and Jim Toner, Information Technology Services leaders, will be responsible for collecting metrics for the past three years for the graduate school.

These metrics will be used to determine the culture of the graduate school in order to find ways to improve, Augustine said.

Shelley Holmgren can be reached at 581-7942 or meholmgren@eiu.edu.

Dean of the graduate school Robert Augustine introduces a video presenting some of the work in the report The Path Forward: The Future of Graduate Education in the United States Tuesday in the 1895 room of the Martin Luther King Jr. Union. (Danny Damiani

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