University of Maryland’s associate provost and graduate school dean Stephen Roth outlined his priorities — which include improving diversity and retaining underrepresented graduate students — as he enters his second year as dean.
In an interview with The Diamondback, Roth said he strives to improve retention and graduation rates for underrepresented populations, increase graduate student diversity and improve students’ satisfaction with their programs and careers.
“I see these as priorities that will arguably remain unchanged over the time of my tenure,” Roth, the former principal associate dean of this university’s public health school, said. “They all sort of feed into each other.”
After a June 2023 Supreme Court decision prohibited colleges and universities from considering a student’s race in their admissions processes, Roth and his team created a new admissions review process.
The process, now in its second year, includes a revamped student application and new training for admissions officers, which teaches them to better recognize a student’s life experiences and “perform a holistic review”, Roth said.
Roth has also worked with the Graduate Student Government’s diversity, equity and inclusion committee to update the graduate school’s websites to use more inclusive language, such as using gender-neutral pronouns when referring to students, according to epidemiology and biostatistics doctoral student and GSG representative Nora Jameson.
The graduate school has also worked with this university’s career center to collect data on student and early alumni satisfaction, Roth said.
[UMD GSG sees more than 47% decrease in representatives since COVID-19 pandemic]
Rose Ying, an organizer with the Graduate Labor Union — a campus organization that advocates for collective bargaining rights for graduate workers — said she has talked to Roth about her concerns with his opposition to collective bargaining.
Roth’s stance against collective bargaining rights for graduate workers has led to “ongoing tension” with many graduate students at this university, said Keegan Clements-Housser, GSG’s operations director.
Collective bargaining would have “an overall negative effect” on students’ education, Roth said.
“We feel strongly that graduate assistants are students first and should not be treated as employees,” Roth told The Diamondback. “The relationship of graduate assistants to faculty will change if they are suddenly viewed as an employee class.”
Jan-Michael Archer, a graduate assistant for the facilities department in the behavioral and social sciences college, said the “students first” concept erases and dismisses people in his position. The work Archer does on campus is unrelated to his degree, he added.
A majority of graduate workers in the Graduate Labor Union signed union authorization cards supporting collective bargaining rights, according to Ying, a neuroscience and cognitive science doctoral student.
According to Archer, a global, environmental and occupational health doctoral student and Graduate Labor Union member, graduate school deans at this university have testified to the Maryland General Assembly every year against legislation that would secure collective bargaining rights for graduate assistants.
Clements-Housser, a journalism studies doctoral candidate, said the GSG has historically supported collective bargaining rights and classifying graduate workers as employees.
This dissent with Roth has been “a point of contention,” Clements-Housser said.
Roth said he continues to support graduate workers by working with the graduate school to increase graduate assistants’ stipends and change policies such as the parental accommodation policy, which was adjusted last semester to extend graduate students’ parental leave by two weeks.
This year’s GSG executive board has focused on eliminating the international student fee, which charges $125 a semester to each international student, The Diamondback previously reported.
[UMD GSG members plan to focus on food insecurity, student fees]
Roth said he supports the international student fee as many university resources rely on the funds it generates. But the graduate school should be more transparent about why the fee exists and where its funds are allocated, he added.
This university has also broken ground on a new university-owned graduate housing development at the site of the former Old Leonardtown community, Roth said, which will effectively double the amount of university housing available to graduate students. The project will be considered below market rate and primarily benefit international graduate students, Roth said.
Despite the likelihood that GSG will once again vote to support collective bargaining rights, Clements-Housser said, Roth has a productive relationship with GSG.
“He has been quite helpful in getting us connected to the right people and helping us overcome administrative hurdles,” Clements-Housser said.
Jameson, a Graduate Labor Union member, said Roth “excels at helping students one-on-one and being an advocate for them in whatever department they’re coming from.”
Moving forward, Roth said he wants to better understand what is working for graduate students and what needs improvement.
“I took this job because I know there are places that we need to improve and we can do a better job for graduate students,” Roth said. “Until we can work directly with students on what those challenges are, we’re going to struggle to make headway.”
