We’re Idaho bound for WAGS 2010 Conference

This year marks the 52nd Annual Conference of the Western Association of Graduate Schools. The theme of this year’s meeting is Challenges and Choices in Graduate Education. The University of Idaho will play host to representatives from the member institutions, including the University of North Dakota. A small contingent from The Graduate School along with some other UND representatives will attend and participate in sessions including Organization of Online Education,  Higher Education Consortia and more.

Graduate School Dean, Joseph Benoit will preside over the session for  Organization of Online Education. He will be joined by Linda Lacey, Dean of New Mexico State University’s Graduate School, Victoria Beard, UND Associate Provost and Thomasine Heitkamp, Chair of the Department of Social Work. Our Social Work department has long had a very successful, quality-focused, Master’s of Social Work distance program. That, together with the recent spike in our online programming here at at other institutions, will no doubt be of interest to many at the conference.

Our recruitment specialist, Evan Nelson,  will present at the session “Delivering Graduate Programs in Rural Areas: Innovations, Challenges and Solutions”. His presentation will look at recruiting rural students with a mix of traditional and Web 2.0 Methods. This is a topic that Evan is very familiar with as he travels to fairs and school throughout the country talking face to face with students as well as guiding them  through our online inquiry and application process also.

We are all excited about the opportunities of networking with our peers and colleagues from other graduate schools in the western states, gaining new ideas and applying them to our everyday operations.