Maureen Grasso has been dean of the Graduate School since 2002. Before that, she served as interim dean and associate dean at the graduate school at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. She holds an appointment as professor of textile sciences in UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Columns: What are the various roles the Graduate School plays?
Grasso: Graduate education is the cornerstone of a world-class university and the hallmark of a Research I institution. The UGA Graduate School fosters excellence by supporting academic programs, faculty and students. For UGA’s 95 doctoral, 144 master’s, 19 specialist in education degrees and 16 certificate programs, we serve the functions of recruitment, admissions, program monitoring, enrolled student services and graduation. We are truly part of graduate students’ lives, from application through commencement.

As dean of the Graduate School, Maureen Grasso’s priorities have been threefold: to increase enrollment, diversity and financial support. (Photo by Nancy Evelyn)

Columns: What do you feel are your biggest accomplishments since coming to UGA?
Grasso: My priority has been to increase the number of graduate students, the diversity of the graduate student body and the financial support for graduate students.

Since fall 2002, enrollment of graduate students has increased 7 percent, from 6,462 to 6,930 in fall 2007. Currently, graduate students represent 25 percent of the total university enrollment.

Enrollment of African-American students has increased 46.9 percent since I’ve been dean. Black students represent 9.9 percent of the graduate student population. We are consistently ranked in the top 20 for conferring doctoral degrees to African-American students by Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Our international graduate student ­population has increased by 4.6 percent, and now those students represent 16.9 percent of the graduate student population. Increasing the diversity of the graduate student body is vital for expanding the university’s research agenda.

We allocate resources for assistantships, scholarships and other awards. In fall 2002, 142 graduate assistantships were funded by the Graduate School. In fall 2007, 195 assistantships were funded by the Graduate School, a 37.3 percent increase. With the financial support of Provost Mace, the funding for these assistantships has grown from $2.23 million in 2002 to $3.26 million in fall 2007, an increase of 46.2 percent. We fund more than 300 students from disciplines across campus.

Columns: As dean, what are your biggest challenges, and how do you find solutions for them?
Grasso: The Graduate School is here to support excellence in graduate education and to assure program quality. Meeting the needs of graduate faculty and nearly 7,000 graduate students with a small staff and finite resources presents quite a challenge. I wish I could say yes to every funding request that comes across my desk, but when I can’t, I try to find creative ways to assist programs and faculty. We’ve moved to a paperless system as much as possible and streamlined many processes, all in an attempt to maximize use of our existing resources.

To help meet financial needs of graduate students, I established the Graduate Education Advancement Board to build a foundation of financial support for graduate education at UGA. The board established a $100,000 fellowship in 2006. Individual members of the board have since established two additional fellowships.

Columns: In 2010, the Graduate School will celebrate 100 years of formalized graduate education at the University of Georgia. What do you predict the next 100 years will bring for graduate education?
Grasso: Graduate education allows society to move forward. In our country, we have a steadily rising education attainment level and an increasing demand for graduate education. We must have a highly trained and knowledgeable workforce to compete in a global economy. Graduate education develops well-informed critical thinkers who can not only access and analyze information but also synthesize seemingly disparate ideas to reach solutions to our ever more complex problems. Such skills can best be developed through interdisciplinary education. The Graduate School strongly supports the growth of such inter-connected scholarship, whether through formal degree programs or interdisciplinary research. As a Research I university, we must be able to adapt to the demands placed before us by our students and our society. UGA is well poised to be a leader in our next 100 years. I think we are already producing the types of scholars that are equal to or better than Ivy League institutions.