Dear Graduate Community,

Greetings from Hanover!

I am writing to update you on the many exciting happenings in the graduate community. Dartmouth’s campus is in the midst of a strategic planning process and Graduate Studies is playing an active role in shaping future. We are leading a Graduate Education Working Group to help chart the path for the future of our programs. Graduate faculty, the Graduate Studies Office, and representatives from the Graduate Student Council have met bi-monthly to debate and pose ideas regarding directions for further growth and strengthening of our academic enterprise. The group has received input from faculty across academic disciplines and graduate students, as well as external evaluations by peer schools. We will be concluding our group efforts at the end of the term and submitting our report to Dartmouth Leadership soon after.

One of the results already arising from this group meeting is the initiative to reach out to PhD graduate alumni and find out more about their academic experiences. Recently, we have begun to survey our current graduate students and graduating students. Overall, they have reported high satisfaction with their graduate experience, and now we really need to get feedback from you, our graduate alumni. We have sent out the survey to PhD graduate alumni for whom we have current email addresses. As we move forward, we would like to stay more in touch with our graduate alumni, so please take a minute to update your records.

Hopefully, we are reaching many of you already! The Graduate Studies Office has taken to social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, and The Graduate Forum. Each of these sites is a way for you to keep current on news and developments in the Dartmouth graduate community. We welcome stories on graduate alumni in the news and pictures for our Flickr page. Many graduate alumni and graduate students have joined our LinkedIn group. Access to all of these Graduate Studies media sites has been made easier with our new iPhone and Android phone app, which you can download for free on iTunes—just search for ‘Dartmouth Graduate Studies’.

Social media is just one way graduate alumni can stay connected with the graduate community; we are also piloting a new Graduate Externship Program, where graduate students can spend the day with graduate alumni at their place of work. Graduate alumni responded enthusiastically, and over 80 alums signed up to become hosts. Graduate students eagerly signed up and are planning on learning about their career options through our graduate alumni. We are so appreciative of this support!

Graduate alumni continue to support graduate students and their research by donating to the Graduate Alumni Research Award. This year, eleven graduate students received the award and we will be featuring them here on The Graduate Forum. We ask that you consider contributing to graduate student research efforts by going to our website and making a donation.  Remember how important a small amount of funding would have been to you as a graduate student?

Have a wonderful Holiday Season!

Sincerely,

Brian W. Pogue

Dean of Graduate Studies at Dartmouth