The College's Council on Sponsored Activities which handles the College's efforts to obtain research funding and grants has seen a $37-million dollar increase in research funding over the past year, according to findings presented at a meeting of the Steering Committee of the General Faculty on Monday.
The Steering Committee consists of the five Councils of the General Faculty, which work with College President Jim Yong Kim, Provost Barry Scherr and Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt. The Committee meets annually to discuss current projects and review each council's annual report.
The Thayer School of Engineering has seen a 36-percent jump in research grants and project awards, according to a member of the Council on Sponsored Activities.
Steering Committee rules prohibit news organizations from directly quoting statements made by individuals at the meeting.
The Council is also reassessing research conflict of interest policies, and has established guidelines for how to use "unexpended funds," or leftover money from research grants, according to a council member. Depending on how much money remains, the money will be returned either to the investigators, to the relevant academic department or dean, or to the foundation, the council member said.
In its report, the Council on Graduate Studies said that graduate student housing is in vastly short supply. There are only 100 on-campus spaces available for more than 1000 graduate students, one council member said.
The Council on Graduate Studies also announced that it has approved a new joint degree program that will allow students who received a Ph.D at Dartmouth to pursue an accelerated MBA degree at Tuck. Tuck's five-year post-college work experience requirement is waived for these students. This program has been approved by the Academic Planning Committee and the Tuck School of Business faculty, according to the Council's report.
The Council has eliminated the $30,000 stipend limit for graduate students pursuing research, according to a Council member. For example, students are now eligible to apply for some military grants of between $45,000 and $50,000, a Council member said.
The Council on Benefits announced at the meeting that it will work to improve College employee's behavioral health insurance benefits, including benefits for mental health. The College provides insurance through Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's provider network.
College employees are having difficulty finding in-network providers who meet their specific health needs and who do not limit their practice to children, Council members said at the meeting. The Council will undertake a "provider by exception" program that will allow participants to manage their own care and to choose out-of-network providers for behavioral health needs. Anthem will reimburse up to 90 percent of fees for up to 12 sessions with an out-of-network provider, according to the Council's annual report.
The Council on Computing implemented an annual registration requirement this past year for all users seeking to access Dartmouth's private network, according to a Council member. Maintaining a registered network will help minimize the costs of maintaining records for law enforcement purposes, a council member said.
The Council will release more information regarding the BlitzMail update later this week, a Council member said at the meeting. Although the task force investigating a replacement for BlitzMail had originally planned to implement a pilot version of a new e-mail system this Fall term, the group is now in a "holding pattern," awaiting approval from College President Jim Yong Kim, David Gelhar '84, a Dartmouth software engineer and member of the College's Task Force on E-mail and Technology told The Dartmouth in late September.
The task force recommended to the Council on Computing last spring that Google's Gmail replace Blitzmail as the College's e-mail client, rather than Microsoft's Life@edu.
Despite a 10-percent budget loss, the College library will continue to function as a research library in the near future, but cannot currently guarantee it will maintain such operations in the long-term, according to a member of the Council on Libraries. The library is looking into additional storage facilities, including the formation of a collaborative library, formed with other institutions. Students would be able to receive books requested from this library within 24 to 48 hours, a council member said.
The Council on Libraries continues to consider implementing open-access publishing, where faculty publications are made publicly available online, a council member said. Open-access publishing allows faculty to post their work online outside of their publishers' domain, a council member said.
