New initiative boosts support for graduate education

The new Office of Graduate Student Success at the Rackham Graduate School will combine existing campus resources to support graduate students with the latest research, best practices information and data about conditions that promote student academic and professional success.

Pat McCune, the office's first director, says one of the first priorities of her office is to provide services to faculty and staff to aid them in recruiting the finest students from around the country to U-M graduate programs.

"The office will create a highly professional staff group dedicated to providing graduate programs in departments, schools and colleges with the information and support they need to focus on the quality of graduate education," says Janet Weiss, dean of the Rackham Graduate School and vice provost for Academic Affairs. The office is in the west wing of the first floor of the Rackham building.

"The office pulls together in one place resources that have been scattered among a number of staff," Weiss says. "It will make it easier for us to provide more systematic support to faculty around the University on topics related to students' academic success."

"The office also will pursue Rackham's commitment to diversity, by helping to identify ways in which we can ensure that a diverse group of students is recruited to come to graduate school at the University, and to ensure that students of color, women and international students have the experiences that they need to succeed while they are in graduate school."

The new office will work with faculty and staff in more than 120 masters and doctoral programs across the University. The Office of Graduate Student Affairs, formerly Academic Programs and Student Life, works directly with students with questions or concerns.

Among the responsibilities of the Office of Graduate Student Success will be resources to develop faculty mentoring skills, which can contribute to an improved campus climate for all graduate students, including women and minorities.

"We'll have workshops for faculty to help them hone their mentorship skills," says McCune, adding that she also is working on a clearinghouse of good ideas about recruitment and retention efforts to share across programs.

The new office also has the responsibility for the Graduate School's successful summer programs, the Summer Institute and the Summer Research Opportunity Program.

"One of my top priorities as dean of the Rackham Graduate School is providing high-quality services to faculty and graduate students through strong partnerships with graduate programs and departments in the schools and colleges," Weiss says. "I believe the Office of Graduate Student Success will facilitate this mission.

"It focuses on students' academic success and the ways in which the Graduate School can help to ensure that Michigan students receive outstanding graduate education and go on to rewarding careers. It also assumes that faculty around the University are deeply committed to outstanding education for their students, and that Rackham's role is to help support the faculty to make that happen."

Says McCune: "Through prior assignments at Rackham I'm aware of the wealth of resources available, both here at the University and at peer institutions, to facilitate student success. I'm excited by the opportunity to develop these in collaboration with faculty and staff and provide a spectrum of coordinated resources to graduate programs that will improve their students' graduate experience."

McCune earned a doctoral degree in history from U-M in 1989 and taught graduate and undergraduate students as a lecturer in history at Eastern Michigan University. In 1994 she returned to U-M to work in program development at the International Institute. She has worked at Rackham since 1998 on diversity-related issues, most recently as program manager for Diversity Affairs.

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