Attendance: Josephine Bloomfield, Duncan Brown, Carolyn Cardenas, Scott Carson, Lee Cibrowski, Jesse Davis, David Drabold, Jason Hartz, David Juedes, Dina Lopez, Christine Mattley, Michael Mumper, Tootie Overby, Josep Rota, Susan Sarnoff, Katherine Tadlock, Ginger Weade, Maureen Weissenrieder, and William Rhinehart for Julia Zimmerman.

Excused: Catherine Axinn, Pat Beamish, Brooke Dagnan, John Day , Judith Edinger, Peter Johnson, Chuck McWeeny, Jerrel Mitchell, David Mould, and Robert Roe.

Convened: The meeting was convened at 2:05 pm . Packets with agenda were distributed and the sign-in sheet was passed around.

•  Approval of Minutes :

The minutes for the March 11 th 2005 , meeting were approved.

•  Chair's Report (Dr. Duncan Brown) :

•  Conflict of Interest Resolution : Duncan informed Graduate Council that Faculty Senate voted on the Conflict of Interest Resolution and that it was approved unanimously. For it to become University policy the Provost will now have to sign it.

•  Special Meeting of Graduate Council : Duncan apologized for not engaging in a wide consultation regarding setting a date for the meeting. Given, the Provost's schedule, there were only two choices of dates. Duncan said he picked the one when most members of Graduate Council could attend. He added that discussion with Tootie's committee will prepare Graduate Council for the meeting with the Provost.

•  Associate Provost for Graduate Studies (Dr. Michael Mumper) :

•  Graduate Applications : Michael said that the number of graduate applications look almost exactly like they looked at this time last year. Like last year, there was an increase in the number of domestic applications received. The number of applications received for engineering programs, and applications from India and China were down. Michael asked members of Graduate Council to comment on the status of applications and admission decisions in their departments. He indicated that people should not worry about the ‘scary statistic' mentioned on the institutional research website which indicates that the number of admits for this year is way less than what it was for last year. Michael added that since, at the undergraduate level, the number of housing contracts signed, are an indicator of number of incoming freshmen, they know that the number is significantly (almost 600) less than what it was last year.

•  Fee Increase : There has been only a 3% increase in graduate tuition for next year, compared to 6% increase for undergraduate tuition. Michael mentioned that since there has been no increase in the non-resident surcharge at the graduate level, it might attract more fee paying students (from outside of Ohio ). He also informed Graduate Council that the Provost's Office has made a commitment regarding reducing the general fees. It was decreased this year and will hopefully go down again next year.

•  Graduate Contracts : Michael told Graduate Council that there would be no cuts in the number of fee waivers or assistantships, so departments should make offers to prospective students the way they have been doing in the past.

•  Academic Priorities : Michael informed Graduate Council about the new committee which he is chairing. The committee has to identify three to five programs by April 21 st 2005 to be considered as academic priorities. Tootie added that these will be interdisciplinary themes and will thus span over multiple units.

•  Director of Graduate Student Services (Dr. Katie Tadlock) :

•  Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools : Katie informed Graduate Council that even though the Ohio University entry did not win the distinguished master's thesis award, Alane Smith's (from Communication Studies) thesis was ranked very high among the entries received.

•  Revision of Application : Katie is revising the graduate application. She informed the Council that once the application is revised, there will be only one application---it will be the same for domestic and international students. The new application will be online and in print by the end of summer (after being approved by the departments of Legal Affairs and Institutional Equity). Katie requested feedback from departments regarding their program codes. Michael added that no paper applications will then be sent from the Office of Graduate Studies to the departments. Departments will download their own applications. This year almost 50% applications were received through the online system.

•  Admit/Deny Letters : Katie said that all admit and denied letters are now automated and are being done by Computer Services Center . The automation has reduced the turnaround time significantly.

•  Graduate Affairs and Fellowships Committee (Jesse Davis for Peter Johnson) :

Jesse Davis informed Graduate Council that the Fellowships Committee met on April 1, 2005 to review the nominations received for Named Graduate Fellows. There were 13 applications from five colleges and the Center for International Studies. Jesse gave a brief description of the dissertation topics of each of the five students selected. Graduate Council approved the decision made by the committee. Katie Tadlock said that official letters to all the recipients will be sent the following week.

•  Curriculum Committee (Scott Carson) :

•  MBA at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology School of Management, China : Scott Carson presented the report of his committee about delivering an existing MBA program at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology School of Management (HUST) in China . John Day explained that this is a two-year dual degree program, with an overlap of six courses. Faculty from the Athens campus will travel to China to teach these courses. He explained that is more of a shifting of resources than creating new responsibilities for faculty. The program in Brazil has slowed down, which will enable faculty to divert their attention to this new program. This alleviated concerns expressed by members about the overload on faculty. Responding to Maureen's question about language requirements, entrance and graduating qualifications, John noted that each potential student will be required to: go through a personal interview, have a 250 on the TOEFL, and maintain a 3.0 in the course work they do prior to starting the OU component of the degree. A total of 13 courses will be taught, 60% will be taught by OU faculty and the rest by the HUST faculty.

Joe Rota mentioned that the fee structure must be examined closely to make sure that we are in compliance with the Board of Regents policy, that states that students outside of Ohio do not pay (for the said degree) less than what it would cost Ohio residents. William Rhinehart asked if the students will be a part of the SIS database and if they will have access to library services. He mentioned that they can facilitate remote access of some library resources. John said that since there is significant blockage of many foreign websites in China , remote access of library facilities to those students will not be possible.

Graduate Council voted in favor of recommending approving the proposal contingent upon the condition that the final version will match the transfer of credit and other policies mentioned in the Graduate Catalog for 2005-2007. Michael Mumper clarified that international programs do not need RACGS approval because they do not have any impact on the subsidy received by a university. The proposal has to be approved by the International Council though.

•  Master's degree in Education at the Lancaster Campus : Duncan requested Ginger Weade to clarify issues and answer questions that members of Graduate Council posed regarding the above mentioned program. In response to a question from David Drabold about the tuition costs, Ginger clarified that since the courses are registered using the same call numbers as are used on the Athens campus, the tuition charged is also the same amount (as charged on the Athens campus). Maureen asked if these students will be eligible for scholarships. Ginger said that so far that has not been discussed, though most of these students will probably receive some help from their school districts. Since, these students are full time employees (elsewhere) hence they are not offered graduate assistantships. Classes are held from 5 to 10 pm two nights a week. Most faculty will teach the courses as an overload. Josie was concerned about how the overload would affect the faculty duties on the Athens campus. Ginger also mentioned that the department of Special Education has more faculty than some other departments, so it is possible for them to offer these cohorts. Also, she clarified that the university places limits on overload and usually only one class per quarter is taught as an overload. Duncan brought to everyone's attention that this program is already working well at the Zanesville and Chillicothe campus and the College of Education is only seeking approval to offer (the same program) at one more campus.

Graduate Council voted in favor of approving the proposal to offer the Masters in Education (Special Education) at the Lancaster campus. Duncan noted that in future we must invite a representative of the program that is under review. He also listed the items that Graduate Council has to focus on in the next two meetings: catalog revision, other program reviews, and the leave of absence policy.

•  Admissions Requirements Committee (Josie Bloomfied) :

•  No-Conflict of interest : Graduate Council voted in favor of the recommendation made by the committee regarding no conflict of interest for Lisa Flowers-Clements.

•  Conflict of Interest : The committee recommended tabling this issue in the interest of observing the spirit of the new Faculty Senate Resolution (which still needs the Provost's approval) which states that graduate coursework within a professor's department falls under the conflict of interest policy. However, Maureen Weissenrieder mentioned that, in the specific case of Dr. Burstein it clearly seems to be a financial issue. Dr. Burstein is requesting graduate course credit so that the employee benefit will off-set the cost of the trip. She had earlier been advised by Katie Tadlock to take the course for undergraduate credit. Graduate Council voted in favor of finding that there is a conflict of interest if Helaine Burstein registers for a graduate course in the department in which she teaches.

•  Policies and Regulations Committee (Dave Drabold) :

There was a brief discussion about the continued efforts on the part of Michael Mumper, Katie Tadlock, and Alan Boyd regarding continuous registration for graduate students. Michael noted that his conversation with Mike Williford revealed that there are multiple definitions of a ‘full-time' student. ‘Full-time' refers to different credit hours for different offices on campus, be it payroll, financial aid, registration, or for reporting subsidy and so on. Michael said that it would be a good idea for the curriculum committee to create something, like a template (according to Maureen) which would kick in automatically for all Masters and Ph.D. students if they registered for say, zero hours. Duncan asked Dave Drabold to send to all members, issues that have come up so far and that it would be the first item on the agenda for the May meeting.

•  Planning and Strategy Committee (Tootie Overby) :

•  Presidential Task Force : Tootie informed Graduate Council that she was their representative on the Strategic Planning Task Force initiated by the President. In the following weeks, the task force will determine undergraduate and graduate academic priorities. She added that several focus areas will emerge as a result of the deliberations of the task force. Some of these areas will maintain current funding, whereas, others might receive enhancement funding. Three to five academic research priorities will also be identified as a result of the discussions that take place among the members of the task force. These areas will be determined based on our current strengths.

Tootie explained that so far no decisions have been made and thus input is being sought from everyone. The themes that are being identified are going to be over-arching themes. Most of the Deans, she noted agreed that these themes are responsive to the needs of our region and state. Michael added that members of the task force were asked to generate a couple of different kinds of lists. One of the lists identified our nationally prominent areas, and another one identified where we have the most probability of receiving external funding. He explained this as a simple idea of branding; we have to showcase what we do well by capturing our strengths and getting more and more units together in this endeavor. Maureen mentioned that the Associate Deans can play a major role in this by seeking from their departments input on specific challenges to their programs, influences on their programs, and future of the department. She also added that the survey conducted and analyzed by Michael can be further analyzed at the department level to help identify crucial issues.

•  International student population : Duncan mentioned that many of our academic programs would not survive without the international student population in those areas. Joe Rota added that Graduate Council should mention to the Provost the significance of having international students on campus. Duncan further added that he has been viewing the front pages of many of our academic peer institutions and that most of them have the word, ‘research' on them. He commented that if it does not scare them, why should it scare us?

•  Mission and Vision statements : Tootie requested members of Graduate Council to seek input from faculty from their departments regarding the mission and vision statements of Ohio University . She said that would help her provide input to the task force. It was also recommended by David Drabold that if those members who cannot attend the special meeting with the Provost can send substitutes. Tootie proposed the idea of having a listserv for Graduate Council to facilitate expression and exchange of ideas.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 pm .

Next meeting, May 13 th 2005, 2 - 4 pm in Walter Hall.

Special meeting with the Provost, April 22 nd 2005, 3-4 pm in Walter Hall.