Attendance: Catherine Axinn, Dominic Barbato, Josephine Bloomfield, Duncan Brown, Angie Bukley, Lee Cibrowski, Donna Conaty, John Day, Glenn Doston, Tim Heckman, David Juedes, Hans Kruse, Christine Mattley, Michael Mumper, Animesh Rathore, Josep Rota, Robert Staron, Katherine Tadlock, Maureen Weissenrieder, Yingjiao Xu, and Bill Rhinehart for Julia Zimmerman.
Excused: Pat Beamish, Carolyn Cardenas, David Drabold, Judith Edinger, David Mould, Chester Pach.
Convened: The meeting was convened at 2:05 pm.
1. Approval of May Minutes:
Minutes of the June 2nd, 2006 meeting were approved.
2. Chair’s Report (Duncan Brown):
A. Welcoming new members: Duncan welcomed new members, Tim Heckman, Robert Staron, and Dominic Barbato. He also thanked Catherine Axinn and David Juedes for extending their membership for another term.
B. Committee List: Duncan thanked Chairs of all five committees for their work in the last academic year.
C. Agenda via Outlook: Duncan said that starting next month he would distribute the agenda for the meeting via Outlook, the Wednesday before the meeting. This will help the university learn about our work and initiatives.
D. Listserv: In the next few months, Duncan said that he would like to use our existing listserv to share articles in a quick and easy manner.
E. Letter to University Curriculum Council: Duncan said that he will be sending a revision to the letter sent to UCC about the Hearing, Speech and Language Sciences program review.
F. M.A. in Art Education: Duncan said that over the summer we voted electronically about the phase out of the above mentioned program. He said that we can avoid this from happening again by working more closely with David Thomas, chair of UCC. Duncan said that he would like to retain this option in a matter of emergency, though.
G. Council of Graduate Schools: Given, that the deadline to submit a dissertation for the distinguished dissertation award (through CGS) is in the summer and most faculty are unavailable during that time, Duncan proposed that we identify a group at the June meeting to be involved in this process. In the past, the members of the Graduate Affairs and Fellowships committee have performed this role. This year, it was not an issue because there was only one dissertation that was submitted and it was a very strong one, so it was a fairly easy decision.
H. Long-term goal for Graduate Council: Duncan said that the overall goal is to move towards Graduate Council spending more time on strategic issues rather than getting bogged down in things like conflict of interest cases for faculty and staff or the seven-year reviews. He added that we have already successfully begun the two track system for dealing with conflict of interest cases and it seems to be working well. And, later today we will consider implementing a similar system for seven-year reviews.
I. Redefining the roles of some of the committees: Duncan said that he would like to continue the process of redefining the role and scope of our existing five committees. He said that we could consider renaming the Admission requirements committee, the Recruitment and Admission requirements. He informed members that Eddith Dashiell, Assistant Provost for Multicultural Graduate Affairs will attend the October meeting. She will provide an update about the change in the visitation that is held annually to facilitate minority recruitment.
Another change in a committee role that Duncan suggested was for the Graduate Affairs and Fellowships committee. He noted that while we retain the name we can change the focus a little. He said that instead of spending more time on fellowships, we could spend more time on a discussion about graduate affairs. He said that some decisions made in previous years had a negative impact on the international graduate student community particularly those with children, but there was no discussion about it in any forum or group. Duncan said that having the President of Graduate Student Senate on that committee will be very helpful.
Duncan said that he is hopeful that with most of the work for Vision Ohio being completed, central administration will not leave the standing committees out of the loop by operating through the multiple ad hoc committees that were created. He hopes to see a revival of the existing standing committees.
J. Roles of the five committees of Graduate Council: In response to questions from new members, Duncan briefly described the roles of all the five committees. The Admission Requirements committee used to have to spend most of their time evaluating conflict of interest cases. But, with Faculty Senate’s clarification of the policy regarding faculty seeking an advanced degree from the college they are employed in and the expedited process of evaluating cases, this committee will have more time to attend to other issues. The Curriculum committee looks at issues about graduate curricula; this includes the seven-year reviews. The committee goes over the seven-year reviews and presents its recommendation to UCC. Graduate Affairs and Fellowships committee evaluates the applications for the nominated fellows. Last year, they sent a recommendation to the Provost to increase the number of named fellows and also the amount of scholarship offered. He added that we have not heard back from the Provost about it. The Planning and Strategy committee is fairly new; it came into existence two years ago. The idea was that since the other committees deal with day to day issues, this one could look at the big picture and the broader view regarding graduate education. Duncan added that he is hopeful that we will be able to assert our role this year in matters of strategic importance for graduate education. The Policies and Regulations committee works on either updating old policies or creating new ones. Last year, the two big accomplishments were the revision of the 260 hour policy and the initiation of a new one about granting posthumous degrees.
K. Graduate courses offered as cross listed courses: Duncan said that he hoped that the Planning and Strategy committee could get involved in looking into the survey conducted by GSS about the number of cross-listed courses offered. He said it will be a helpful if we can flag all of the yoked courses.
L. Graduate Priorities and Implementation Team: Duncan asked Josie to present an update about the work done by the team.
Josie said that the heads of the teams met all summer long and have submitted their report to the Provost. Dru Evarts, who works in the Provost’s office, created a spreadsheet with names of all recommendations, the cost and so on. There were 180 recommendations, and creation of the Graduate College was an important one, but somehow got missed from being listed on this spreadsheet. Josie added that members were unhappy when they found out that they had voted based on an incomplete list. She said that there are three major categories under which recommendations have been made, faculty resources, undergraduate education, and graduate education. She added that based on the information in today’s Outlook, nine of these 180 recommendations will be implemented this fall.
3. Remarks by Michael Mumper:
A. The new class: Michael informed Graduate Council that the number of graduate students is up from last year for the incoming class of graduate students. The number of international graduate students has also increased from last year. This year there are 228 new international students, compared to the 151 last year. 186 out of 228 are graduate students. Michael said that is possibly the result of a combination of two factors, the relaxing of the rules of the U.S. visa policy and our recruitment travels.
Michael also informed Graduate Council that the call numbers for graduate classes at the regional campuses now have Athens call numbers. This is a change from the previous years. The responsibility has shifted from the Regional Campuses to Graduate Studies (Annette Love is the person to contact for this).
B. Graduate student recruitment: Michael said that this is going to be the third year in our efforts to recruit international students. He added that we have $95,000 in one time only funds for this. Efforts are on to make it a part of the base funding through the operating budget at Graduate Studies. The countries that recruiters are focusing on this year are China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Turkey and Kazakhstan.
Michael also informed Graduate Council about the changes in the multicultural recruitment process. Eddith Dashiell will attend the October meeting and will be able to give members more information about it. Michael said that this year there is a substantial change in the way this is being conducted. In the past (for about 20 years) about 100 to 110 candidates would come to campus and out of those 7-8 would enroll in the following fall. But, if we get 50-60 candidates to attend and about 20 to enroll, then it is a more cost effective measure.
C. Tour of the new website: Michael Tedesco, Web Specialist at Graduate Studies showed the new Graduate Studies web site to members. He said that instead of waiting for a new website to be completed and then put into effect, the new one was being built and used parallel to the old one. He added that his efforts have focused on making the site user friendly. He noted that if members want any pages linked from the existing ones, to inform him about that. Michael said that Mark Mecum, the past president of Graduate Student Senate has created this new website and is still working remotely from Columbus to help trouble shoot. Michael added that this is the first update since 1998. In Fall 2004, the online graduate appointment interface was created and last fall we introduced the online application for graduate study at Ohio University. Michael also informed Graduate Council that the Chinese government had prevented access to ohiou.edu site and now that things have been moved to the ohio.edu site, they can access Ohio University information.
D. RACGS update: Michael said that over the summer the Board of Trustees approved the following graduate program proposals, transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy, the Masters in Financial Economics and Masters in Biomedical engineering. These are due for their final presentation at RACGS on September 28th, 2006.
E. GERB update: Michael asked Catherine to present an update about the GERB initiatives. She said that the group worked over summer and was hoping that towards the end of the month, an announcement would be made by the Provost’s office about the grants that would be available for programs. There are two kinds of grants, smaller and large amounts. She said that some grants would be on a recurring time frame, as in every other year. Michael added that he is hopeful that the request for proposals will go out sometime in the end of September, with proposals slated to come in by the end of the quarter. This would enable the disbursement of grant money by sometime in January, at least for the smaller amounts.
F. Remarks by Katie Tadlock:
i. Graduate Student Orientation: Katie informed members that with their packet today they received copies of the brochure and the program from graduate student orientation that was held on August 31, 2006. Katie said that the program was kicked off by the Provost and Michael Mumper and Dean Hogan spoke to students as well that day. Katie and Vicky Hixson did a presentation about policy that pertains to all graduate students. More than 350 students attended that event. There was a full service fair where many offices from campus participated and provided information to students. Breakout sessions were held on topics of relevance for graduate students. Campus tours could not be held because of rain.
Katie noted that this event was driven by the results and responses received from students who participated in a survey sent to incoming graduate students last year. She added that we received a good response from local businesses as well. They donated items for door prizes and gift certificates. Katie said that they have already planned a stakeholders meeting for later this fall and evaluations are being sent to students and participants of the service fair. She said that she hopes that departments will continue to support this initiative by informing their students about it and encouraging them to attend it. Katie said that having students receive all the general information at this venue can be helpful to the departments as well, so that they can focus on the department specific information in their orientation. She said that the weblink with a checklist will be accessible from the Graduate Studies webpage. She said that she would be happy to receive feedback from departments about this event.
ii. Conflict of Interest Cases: Katie indicated to the printout that all members received about the conflict of cases that were processed since February 2006. She said that due to the expedited review in place, 28 cases were processed without them having to be presented at Graduate Council. Duncan added that this policy has been successful and he would therefore like to see a similar one in effect for the seven-year reviews.
iii. 2007-2008 Application for graduate study: Katie informed members that the new web application for Fall 2007 will be available September 20th, 2006 onwards. She added that the new paper application will also be available soon.
iv. Named Fellows: Katie informed members that one of the Named Fellows, Yuping Huang (from Physics) has declined the fellowship because he is leaving the university. Mark Leeman (from Communication Studies) who was the first alternate has accepted the fellowship.
v. Staff Changes: Katie informed members that Tawna Rogers was no longer working at Graduate Studies and Betty Kincade is now the records manager for domestic applications with last names from A-L. Malinda Handy is now working at the Front desk and Anne Walker, who used to be at the Front desk, is now staffing the 593-2800 telephone line and helping Angie McCutcheon with ETD. Lisa Michna has joined the staff as Interim Assistant Director for Graduate Admissions and Orientation.
4. Curriculum Committee:
Chris explained the background behind the new proposal that is on the agenda today about initiating a two step process for the evaluation of seven-year reviews. Members discussed the best method of distribution of reviews to maintain confidentiality until the process was completed. Donna noted that if the reviews are sent as email attachments, they can be forwarded easily. She recommended having a secure log-in site to access it. Maureen suggested perhaps using Blackboard for it. Duncan noted that an email could be sent to all members that the review has been uploaded to the given site. It was recommended to change the ‘could’ to ‘would’ in the proposal in two places in the proposal. Members voted in favor of accepting the proposal.
5. Discussion:
Duncan said that he would like to continue the discussion about the role of all the committees of Graduate Council.
Hans noted that the absence of web mail has had an enormous impact on graduate students. He was hopeful that the issues could be taken care of soon, so that graduate students could access their emails from off campus. Katie said that the Registrar and Bursar’s offices rely on email to distribute grades, bills, class schedules and so on.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:50 pm.
Next meeting is on October 13th, 2006 from 2-4 pm in the Governance Room in Walter Hall. 
