Graduate Council Minutes
2/23/16
Present: A. Arora, C. Border, T. Cummings, C. DeFilippo, H. Flores, S. Hansen, J. Hornak, D. Jacobs, B. Lawrence,
C. Licata, T. Trabold, L. Underhill, J. Venkataraman,
Announcements
The proposal for an MS in Media Arts & Technology was presented to Academic Senate and passed.
The PhD in Mathematical Modeling was approved by NYS.
PhD Hooding Ceremony: There are still ongoing discussions regarding the PhD Hooding ceremony at
Convocation. The Provost, Dean of Grad Studies, and Chair of Grad Council met with the PhD directors to
come up with an agreement. There is still pushback on the agreed upon steps in the procedure. More to follow.
Continuation of discussion of graduate education in the strategic plan.
Focus: Increasing RIT’s Graduate Enrollment by 30%
A graph of the number of students in each Master’s level program was presented.
The top three enrollment programs were polled before the meeting on what factors prevent them from
increasing the size of their program? The top answers included resources, student placement services, and
marketing.
Discussion followed.
The world is continually and rapidly changing in ways that affect graduate enrollment. RIT needs to be
continually adapting to these changes to maintain graduate enrollment. For example, when the Rupee/USD
exchange rate decreases, the number of applicants from India decreases. When laws are passed which make it
more difficult for foreign students to obtain US jobs, enrollment in graduate programs by foreign students
decreases. RIT needs to be continually adapting to account for changes. An acceptable adaptation is not to
lower standards to increase enrollment. RIT has traditionally offered niche Master’s programs. It takes too
long to start one of these programs and it is too difficult to discontinue one once its time has passed.
Advertising and Marketing - We should more aggressively market all our programs outside of the NE. Many
programs have exhausted the local pool of students.
Comprehensive Exam Option - It will be difficult to grow thesis and project option programs without a
significant investment in additional faculty and resources. We should consider comprehensive exam options to
increase enrollments. This will lessen the experiential learning aspect of some Master’s degrees. Adding a
comprehensive exam option does not require NYSED approval. NYSED requires that there be a
comprehensive synthesizing requirement for graduate programs. If a program wants to trade one type for
another or give students two different choices (i.e. a project or a thesis; or a project or an exam), that is
allowable.
Finances - More scholarships will increase enrollment, but not necessarily improve the bottom line. Why not
just reduce graduate tuition? Does providing more internal scholarship decrease the perceived value of a
program? Not all programs generate positive revenue for the institute.
Value - We should strive to increase the value of our programs. Increasing marketing, advertising, visibility,
placement services, etc. will increase the perceived value of our programs. This will increase the demand for
the programs, and perhaps increase a student’s willingness to pay more of the tuition.
Silos - RIT is trying to break down silos between academic units, but there is still siloing between Academic
Affairs, Enrollment Management and Career Services, and Finance and Administration that may be impeding
efficient operation. To what extent is this unique to RIT?
Career Placement for Graduates - Increasing the coop and career placement opportunities for our students will
increase the value of our graduate degrees. The reason why Golisano has the most popular graduate program is
because its students have many employment opportunities.