The dean of Mississippi State University's Graduate School is the new president of a regional organization representing about 200 colleges and universities.
During 1997-98, Richard D. Koshel will lead the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools, which serves master's- and doctoral-degree programs from Maryland to Texas.
"One of my goals is to develop a concept report about the 'virtual university' that a number of western governors have proposed," he said. Among issues to be examined in the report will be the availability of library resources, impact on faculty and students and methods for defining courses, he added.
Koshel said many other challenges face graduate education today. Major ones include the decline in research dollars, demands from industry for different kinds of learning experiences and the impact of distance learning technology.
All of these will be addressed at the conference's annual meeting next year in Ft. Worth, Texas. Koshel expressed hope that a working committee on distance learning will help speed the transfer of information from schools now using electronic teaching technologies to those that have little experience with them.
A physics professor, Koshel has led Mississippi State's graduate program since 1988. He also serves as the co-director of the university's Center for Educational and Training Technology.
He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Illinois and a doctorate from the University of Kansas.
