---
# System prepended metadata

title: Graduate College Oversight Committee
tags: [' UCalgary']

---

# GCOC April 23

Head of the College: James Wasmuth (former, currently on RSL), Clifton (interim)
Associate Dean Transdisciplinary Scholarship: Dave Anderson

## Transdisciplinarity

- goal is for each (transdisciplinary) scholar at GC to have a community member as a member of the advisory panel.
- one challenge is to make sure that we approach partners synergystically.  we shoukd not have multiple university members approaching the same community members without coordination.
- risk: students may not cohort if they are in boundary-crossing programs (and arent in the college)
- comparitor colleges are Massey College, Green's College and this would further differentiate.  Currently at least 70% of college do not do transdisciplinary research.
- current scholar group: the old title was "cienist" (sic.) college, a leadership college.  this name was not adapted because UofA opened a leadership college that year.  it may be possible to pursue a middle ground: not all scholars in the grad college would need to be engaged in transdisciplinary research, all scholars will be engaged in research.
- current scholars are accepted based on a rubric, currently 90% of applicants are accepted.  Develops leadership and community engagement skills - college offers a broader experience than the confines of a narrow phd program.  Enhances connections.  Balanced admissions designed to protect against elitism.
- Currently, 70 students in the college.  Expect less than 10 in the transdisciplinary programs.


## Governance

### External Advisory Committee
- has never been struck

### Org chart
- executive committee of the college
- should the Head of the Graduate College and AD Transdisciplinary be merged?
- should there be an associate head transdisciplinarity to run the transdisciplinary programs?  

### Internal Operations
- by mandate, this is structured by the scholars with advice from faculty but no "interference" or formal oversight
- currently, the committees aren't functioning
- in the past, there was a 2-year review process that was mandated (i.e. make a governance structure, review every 2 years to see if its working)

## Events
- attendance varies
- in the past it was attached to college membership
- AGM is well attended, many college events are small by design (e.g. cookie baking)
- public events on topical issues (e.g. future of sport during time of winsport debate)
- TedX series
- currently in state of flux (post pandemic)

## Community Engagement
- there is a community member who is a senior scholar

## Space
- talk to Bruce

## Reflections and recommendations

Overall, I am very happy to learn about the Graduate College.  I agree with Zack that as an outsider, the structure is confusing.  The College does not seem to have a single clear purpose which drives its membership.  Discussions about whether or not to incorporate the transdisciplinary programs were somewhat confusing - it was hard to understand why there would be resistance to this idea.  Updon further discussion/reflection following the meeting, here is what I suggest.

- In my opininion, the purpose of the College should be on research leadership (as in, "The Research Leadership College").  This contains both missions we discussed:
    - The existing community engagement mission could be slightly reframed as a mission that ensures that future research leaders are equipped with the community engagement needed to ensure future research directions are purpose-built.  (Indeed could this be a required project for college participants?)
    - Transdisciplinarity can be incorporated as emergent research discipines, which naturally fits into research leadership.
- Students (current and future) will need to see concretely how the change will impact them.  For instance:
    - How will the admission process change?
    - Where will the staff (i.e. GPD) for transdisciplinary program sit, and how will this interact with college space and/or activities?  
    - Are there any ways in which non-trandisciplinary students would derive concrete benefit from being in a college which houses transdisciplinary studies - e.g. could there be some sort of training by the transdisciplinary program faculty/staff which would benefit the college population as a whole?  This would strengthen the proposal.
- Community involvement is really essential for evolution for the college.  I would put two community members on the oversite committee now, but only require them to attend two meetings per year (an "AGM" and a mid-term).  I think having a separate Advisory committee which reports to an AD is not a good idea...

A less substantial reflection is that I had a bit of trouble getting up to speed on the GCOC business in real time.  It would have been helpful to have a meeting packet in advance (e.g. which contained the proposed org chart).  A concrete motion early in the conversation would have helped to focus the discussion for me (even if it never came to a vote - the purpose is just to make it easier for newcomers like me to understand what is going on).