Report of the External
Committee
on Doctoral Education in the Sciences
at The
Background
In
the fall of 2004, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein invited an external advisory
committee of distinguished educators to review the consortial organizational
structure of the
From February 22-24, 2006, a committee of four scientists [Norma Allewell (Maryland), Maureen Goodenow (Florida), Thomas Rosenbaum (Chicago) and Robert Silbey (MIT)] met with faculty, doctoral students, and administrators at CUNY to discuss CUNY’s doctoral programs in the natural sciences [biology, biochemistry, chemistry and physics]. The schedule of meetings is given in the Appendix.
The City University of New York is
a unique institution, whose important role in
It is important to acknowledge that although we consulted with a broad spectrum of constituencies, we necessarily saw and heard from a relatively small number of people in a two-day visit, and our report is based on this limited experience. The senior leadership with whom we met is quite impressive and the dedication and ability of most of the faculty and administrators is equally so.
Summary of findings
In the last five or so years, CUNY has made extraordinary investments in the sciences, particularly with the cluster hiring initiative, by hiring excellent young research scientists into faculty positions with reasonable startup costs (although still not at the level needed to compete with other institutions in the New York area). In addition, there have been capital improvements, new laboratories and more are planned. This has resulted in a strengthening of the infrastructure for science at many of the CUNY campuses, but there has not been corollary attention paid to the doctoral programs, even though CUNY has managed to recruit a cadre of talented and dedicated students.
The doctoral programs in biology, biochemistry, chemistry and physics currently have a combined enrollment of almost five hundred doctoral students, making them an important part of the educational programs of CUNY. These doctoral programs are highly prized by all the faculty and administrators with whom we met.
We believe that in order for CUNY
to have excellent doctoral programs, resources must continue to flow to the high
quality programs. City College and
Hunter College are the strongest in this enterprise, but there is strength to be
found throughout the system. To
allow the gains of recent years to decline or even remain static would be costly
not only in terms of the loss of investment and human capital, but also a loss
to undergraduate education in the sciences at all the senior campuses. We wish to emphasize the latter point: high
quality undergraduate education in science requires that undergraduate students
participate in high-level research.
We list below some general strategies that the committee felt would be effective in improving the quality of the doctoral programs.
Strategies for improvement
I. The campuses should take advantage of the faculty retirements in the next few years that will allow for more junior faculty hiring. Replacing less research active faculty with research active faculty is the quickest way to strengthen the programs on the campuses.
II. Presidents of all the senior campuses should put together a strategic plan outlining a commitment of resources to support research in the sciences that defines the direction of their efforts. For example, research activities in the stronger campuses (City and Hunter) can consolidate their strengths with strategic hires in fields close to their existing strengths or enlarge their strengths by hiring in new subfields. The other campuses should hire strategically to build a critical mass in the fields that they already have strength, and should not aim to build up strengths in every area. Where appropriate, they should partner with other campuses to promote interdisciplinary and interdepartmental research in order to utilize resources most efficiently. This will also increase the visibility and viability of scientific doctoral research in the CUNY colleges.
III. The admission and support of graduate students must be improved. Admissions decisions come too late in the year to be competitive with other institutions. Stipends are put together in a manner that can only be described as Byzantine and ineffective. Students have to pay different amounts of tuition depending on campus and the manner in which their stipend was put together.
IV. Develop joint ownership of the graduate program by the Graduate School and the individual College campuses.
In thinking about the above general
ideas, the committee felt that there were some straightforward changes that
could be implemented on a reasonable timescale that would improve the quality of
the programs for students, faculty and the administration.
I. Admission and mentoring of doctoral students
a. A committee of research-active faculty, not executive officers or other administrators, should govern the admissions process for each program. The committee should be empowered to allocate a number of 5-year packages so that they can make offers to the best students in a timely fashion. The first year of funding should come from a central source, with subsequent years being covered by a faculty member in partnership with his/her respective college. The students should be accepted to CUNY, not to a specific campus (see point c. below).
b. Offers of admission should be made early, perhaps by rolling admissions, starting before the beginning of the calendar year.
c. Full support should be offered to first year students with no teaching requirement for the student. In this way, first year students can learn enough in the first year to make intelligent choices about research groups and mentors (perhaps with rotations into various labs) as well as concentrate on making progress on their courses (and perhaps decreasing the time to degree). By the end of this first year, the student must identify a mentor who has the funding to fully cover the stipend for the next few years. Given the duration of federal grants, it is often impossible to guarantee grant-based funding for more than 2-3 years. However, the mentor and his/her college must partner to support the package developed when the student was recruited (see point a. above). The student will have an affiliation with the college of that faculty member (see point h. below).
d. Mentoring of doctoral students should be limited to research-intensive faculty supported by external grants, except in the case of junior faculty. [We understand that this goal may take some time to realize, but it is important to impress on the faculty the need to find external funding for their research, as in every other high level doctoral program in the country].
e. CUNY should provide tuition remission for all doctoral students.
f. Find ways to shorten the time to the Ph.D. degree: a shorter time will make both the graduate student and the mentor more productive. Raising the stipend and including health insurance so that students do not have to work at other jobs may be key.
g. Each doctoral student should have a faculty advisory committee that will meet at least annually with the student to develop goals, provide guidance and advice, and to monitor progress. A brief written report will document progress of the student toward completion of degree.
h.
Students who are doing research on a particular campus
should be given an ID card and the privileges of a student on that campus. We heard that the students do not have
access to athletic facilities, health centers, etc on the campus at which their
research group sits.
II. Faculty
issues
i. Junior faculty should have more time to achieve tenure and promotion as is done in all other high-level doctoral programs (normally seven years). This will also facilitate continuity for doctoral students in their labs and permit development of research programs that can compete for extramural funding.
j. Faculty mentors of doctoral students should have an active research lab and a recent history of external funding (for mid-level and senior faculty) or a potential for such funding (for junior faculty).
k.
Faculty mentoring doctoral students in research should
be given teaching credit.
III. General
l. We recommend that Ph.D. degrees should be awarded jointly by the Graduate Center and individual campuses, e.g. Ph.D. in Biology from Hunter College and the Graduate Center of The City University of New York. This allows the campuses to showcase their doctoral programs for Federal granting agencies, for fund raising in general, as well as for ranking of CUNY on a national level.
m. Develop state-of-the-art videoconferencing to link campuses, including the Graduate Center, for teaching, so that students at all the campuses have easy access to courses no matter where they originate or are held. This will increase the pool of students for each course and avoid duplication of courses. Videoconferencing can also extend educational opportunities for faculty and graduate students by providing access to seminars and conferences across the campuses of CUNY. It will be important to include such facilities in the new Advanced Science Research Center to facilitate interactions with the other campuses.
n. The Graduate Center could play a redefined role in doctoral education in the sciences. It should focus on admissions, fellowship support, student services and institutional research. It should remain a center of intellectual life, a place where faculty and students can come together for seminars and meetings. The graduate students with whom we met were pleased with the present resources of the GC. The recently appointed GC President appears committed to enhancement of doctoral studies in the sciences and poised to assist in the implementation of change.
External Committee for
Doctoral Education in the Sciences
Robert
J. Silbey (Chair)
Dean
of Science & Class of '42
Professor of Chemistry
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Bldg.
6-123
Cambridge,
MA 02139
(617)
253-8900
silbey@mit.edu
Dr.
Silbey has been a member of the faculty of the Department of Chemistry of M.I.T.
since 1966; he was chairman of the department from 1990 to 1995. He subsequently served as head of the
Center for Materials Science and Engineering and in 2000 was appointed Dean of
the School of Science. Dr. Silbey
has written more than 250 papers, he is also coeditor of a standard textbook in
the field, Physical Chemistry. He is a Fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science and is a member of the National
Academy of Sciences. Dr. Silbey
graduated magna cum laude from Brooklyn College in 1961, with honors in
chemistry. He earned his Ph.D. at
the University of Chicago. In
2004 Dr. Silbey was the commencement speaker and recipient of the honorary
degree, Doctor of Science from Brooklyn College
Professor Silbey's primary research concerns
the
theoretical studies of a) the low temperature thermal properties of glasses, b)
energy and electron transfer and relaxation in molecular aggregates, c) the
optical and electronic properties of conjugated polymers and d) in collaboration
with Professor Field, the dynamics of highly vibrationally excited
molecules.
Maureen M.
Goodenow
Professor,
Stephany W. Holloway University Chair for AIDS Research
Director of
Research and Academic Affairs
Department
of Pathology, Immunology, & Laboratory Medicine
University
of Florida
(352)
392-3429
goodenow@ufl.edu
Dr.
Maureen
Goodenow, a professor and co-director of experimental pathology holds a
prestigious endowed chair named the Stephany W. Holloway University Chair in
AIDS Research. Dr.
Goodenow, a molecular geneticist, is zeroing in on a viral gene believed to
regulate the timing of AIDS symptoms.
In a related study, she uses molecular biology techniques to investigate
how differences in the virus determine the biological course of the
disease. Dr. Goodenow is Associate
Director of the University’s Training
Grant in Cancer Biology and served as coordinator of the Graduate Program in
Immunology and Molecular Pathology.
She served on many leadership committees, including the Dean’s Committee
for the reorganization of Basic Sciences and on the Dean’s Faculty Research
Advisory Board. She also serves on
NIH special review committees for AIDS-related areas.
Norma
M. Allewell
Dean,
College of Chemical and Life Sciences
2300
Symons Hall
University
of Maryland
College
Park, MD 20742
(301)
405-2071
allewell@umd.edu
Dr.
Norma Allewell leads and oversees the academic, administrative and financial
activity of the College of Life Sciences at the University of Maryland. She received her doctorate degree in
molecular biophysics and biophysical chemistry from Yale University, gaining her
bachelor's degree in biochemistry from McMaster University. From 1991 to 1998 Dr. Allewell was a
faculty member at the University of Minnesota where she chaired the Department
of Biochemistry and became Vice Provost.
Dr. Allewell's research deals with the molecular mechanisms of biological
function and regulation of multisubunit proteins. Her current research, in collaboration
with Dr. Mendel Tuchman at the Children's National Medical Center, deals with
the biochemical basis of diseases of nitrogen metabolism. She is the past
president of the Biophysical Society and is a Fellow of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science. Dr.
Allewell has served on many Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) panels for
undergraduate programs in the biological sciences in addition to NIH and NSF
panels. She has also been a member of the advisory board for the Brookhaven
Protein Data Bank, the National Research Council (NRC) space studies board
committee on space biology and medicine, and the NRC task group on institutional
arrangements for space station research.
She is a current member of the Board of Directors of the Federation of
American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and the NSF Biological
Sciences Advisory Committee.
Thomas
F. Rosenbaum
VP
for Research and for Argonne National Laboratory
The
University of Chicago
(773)
702-1383
Dr.
Thomas Rosenbaum is John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor and the Vice
President for Research and for Argonne National Laboratory at the University of
Chicago. He received his bachelor's
degree in physics with honors from Harvard University, and both an M.A. and
Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University.
Dr.
Rosenbaum oversees a combined research enterprise of more than $800
million. In addition to his
responsibilities for research across the University and for Argonne, he chairs
the Science Council, charged with the coordination and promotion of scientific
research at the University and Argonne.
Dr. Rosenbaum is an expert on the quantum mechanical nature of
materials––the physics of electronic, magnetic and optical materials at the
atomic level––that are best observed at temperatures near absolute zero (minus
460 degrees Fahrenheit). He
conducted research at Bell Laboratories and at IBM Watson Research Center before
he joined the Chicago faculty in 1983.
Dr. Rosenbaum directed the University's Materials Research Laboratory
from 1991 to 1994, and the University’s James Franck Institute from 1995 to
2001. He recently served on the
National Research Council Solid State Sciences Committee and is Deputy Chair of
the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne National
Laboratory. His honors include an
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a Presidential Young Investigator Award and
the William McMillan Award for Outstanding Contributions to Condensed Matter
Physics. Dr. Rosenbaum is an
elected fellow and Centennial Lecturer of the American Physical Society.
External Committee on
Doctoral Education in the Sciences
Wednesday,
February 22nd
Committee members arrive
6:15 pm Dinner with Chancellor Goldstein, EVC Botman, Dean Small
Thursday, February
23rd
9:00 am Driver will take group from the hotel to the Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue and 34th Street
9:30–10:30 am President Bill Kelly
Provost Linda Edwards
10:45–11:30 am Science Executive Officers
Gerald Koeppl (Chemistry)
Richard Chappell (Biology)
Lesley Davenport (Biochemistry)
Sultan Catto (Physics)
11:45–12:30 pm Group of science faculty from City College and Hunter College
12:30–1:30 pm LUNCH with group of doctoral students
1:30–2:00 pm Free time
2:00–2:45 pm Group of science faculty from Queens College, College of Staten Island, Lehman College, Brooklyn College, York College
3:00–3:45 pm University Faculty Senate Representatives
4:00–4:45 pm President Christoph Kimmich, Provost Roberta Mathews, Dean Louise Hainline – Brooklyn College
5:00–6:00 pm Committee members meeting
6:30 pm Dinner with Senior VC Dobrin, VC Zavelle, VC Malave
Friday, February
24th
8:30 am Driver will take group from the hotel to the CUNY Central Office, 535 East 80th Street & East End Avenue
9:00–9:45 am President Gregory Williams, Provost Zeev Dagan, Dean Maria Tamargo – City College
10:00–10:45 am President Jennifer Raab, Provost Vita Rabinowitz – Hunter College
11:00–11:45 am President James Muyskens, Provost Evangelos Gizis – Queens College
12:00–12:45 pm President Marlene Springer, Provost David Podell, Dean Gail Simmons – College of Staten Island
1:00–2:00 pm LUNCH with EVC Botman and Dean Small
2:00–2:45 pm President Ricardo Fernandez, Provost Anthony Garro – Lehman College
3:00–3:30 pm Committee members meeting
3:30–4:30 pm Chancellor Goldstein, EVC Botman, Dean Small
4:30 pm Depart CUNY Central Office