The Director and the Executive Committee primarily direct the IGERT program with input from participating faculty and the External Evaluator. The Executive Committee is composed of the Director, the Co-PIs, and other faculty selected based on their leadership roles with IGERT student cohorts. Specific members of the Executive Committee participate in subcommittees. These subcommittees are charged with addressing specific program needs such as recruitment and admissions, mentoring and retention, and curriculum coordination. Faculty Mentors teach courses, serve as chairs and members of student thesis committees, advise on cohort projects, and participate in IGERT activities.

Director

The Director is responsible for general oversight, planning, and budget. He meets with Executive Committee and maintains communication with NCSU administrators. He works closely with the Program Coordinator to make sure all activities are appropriately organized and carried out efficiently. He also oversees communication with the External Evaluator.

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee works to make sure that all activities of the program meet the goals of the IGERT program in a fair and consistent manner that encourages excellence, interdisciplinary interaction, and creative approaches to meeting challenges.

The Executive Committee also serves as an arbitration board if problems arise that cannot be resolved at a lower level. The frequency of colloquium meetings and other IGERT activities insure that the Executive Committee has consensus input from the entire program. The subcommittees also make presentations at Executive Committee meetings when needed, with the Executive Committee making recommendations regarding any issues that the subcommittees have not been able to resolve.

We have set out a very ambitious agenda for our students and recognize that we must maintain appropriate flexibility to make changes to the program that enhance student success and morale. A critical function of the Executive Committee is to take in input from all possible sources and then make adjustments to the program that are most responsible and useful.

External Evaluator

The External Evaluator works closely with the Director, Executive Committee, Program Coordinator, and Student Cohorts to provide professional evaluation of the entire GES program. The evaluation strategy is based on the assumption that evaluation must go beyond accountability issues in order to aid project management, and improve project performance. The assessment process consists programatic and course-based student surveys, individualized student plans of work, a coordinated programatic logic model, and implementation of bi-yearly focus groups.

Faculty Mentors

Students are encouraged to choose an advisor early in their first spring semester and to create an advisory committee by the end of their first year if that is feasible in their specific academic PhD program. In cases where formation of an advisory committee is traditionally done later in the graduate program, the student will be assigned a temporary advisor until a committee is formed.

Each student’s advisory committee will have at least two members from the IGERT program, with at least one of these being from a college outside the student’s major. This outside member will help assure that the student acquires sufficient cross-disciplinary training, and that the rest of the student’s committee, those not in the IGERT, understand the utility of this broad training. (The requirement for one committee member outside of the student’s college can be waived if one committee member within the college is from a discipline distinct enough to offer the appropriate balance between the natural sciences and humanities and social sciences.)

Students will present a written plan of work of their progress to their advisory committee (or temporary advisor) each year. All advisors will sign off on the progress reports. The Director will read and approve all progress outlines and will discuss any problems with the student’s committee and with the Executive Committee if needed. It will be critical for the Executive Committee to be responsive to input from faculty and students so that we develop and maintain a program with demanding, but healthy workloads.

The summer course at the beginning of the students’ programs helps integrate each student into our IGERT and allows the faculty to develop a personal mentoring relationship with each student. This course entails considerable interaction of students and faculty and is an opportunity to build and maintain group identity with a goal of presenting the experience at a GES Colloquium.

Students will present a written plan of work of their progress to their advisory committee each year. All advisors will sign off on the progress reports. The Director will read and approve all progress outlines and will discuss any problems with the student’s committee and with the Executive Committee if needed. It will be critical for the Executive Committee to be responsive to input from faculty and students so that we develop and maintain a program with demanding but healthy workloads.

The international course at the beginning of the students’ programs helps integrate each student into our IGERT and allow the faculty to develop a personal mentoring relationship with each student. This course entails considerable interaction of students and faculty and is an opportunity to maintain and build group identity with a goal of presenting the experience at the GES Colloquium.

Course Leaders

IGERT students must take four courses:

At this time, each of these courses in team-taught with one or two faculty member serving as the course leader(s). The course leaders are responsible for developing and coordinating the course syllabus and monitoring the quality/quantity of material given to the students. The course leaders report back to the Executive Committee on any problems with the courses themselves or with student performance in the courses.

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