Attendance:  Margret Appel, Mehmet Celenk, Rajindar Koshal, Bhavin Mehta, Averell Overby, Edwin Rowland, Arvind Singhal, Scott Sparks, Leona Cibrowski, Glenn Doston, Jessica Haigney, Raymie McKerrow, Roger Radcliff, Josep Rota, Maureen Weissenrieder

Staff:  Gary Schumacher, Katherine Tadlock, Jennifer Francone

Excused:  Joseph Bernt, Peter Harrington, Jenny Lau, Edward Yost, Bobbi Conliffe, Daniel Innis

Absent:  Kenneth Hicks, Michael Maume, Julia Zimmerman, Vivek Shinde Patil, James Bush, Michael Meyer

Convened:  2:17 P.M.

Chair’s Report:  Chair Appel stated that she will record council meetings from now on to be able to better reflect discussions in the minutes.  Maureen Weissenrieder moved to pass the March minutes.  Edward Rowland seconded the motion.  March minutes were passed.

Associate Provost for Graduate Studies’ Report:  The ETD steering committee met since the last Graduate Council meeting.  The committee suggested only minor modifications in the ETD guidelines document.  Following the completion of the suggested changes, the document will be ready for production.  The guidelines will be available at the Graduate Studies office.  Plans for ETD training workshops for 2001-2002 are underway.  The workshops will begin fall quarter.  Currently one electronic dissertation has been approved and work is underway with four other students.  Several meetings with Ph.D. departments are planned for spring quarter to inform faculty about the possibility of electronic theses and dissertations.

Unfortunately none of the three eminent scholar proposals from Ohio University made it to the final round of review.  Written feedback will be received soon in order to assist departments that wish to reapply.

The preliminary budget plan for 2001-2002 calls for $200,000 worth of new stipends to be awarded competitively to departments.  The Office of Graduate Studies will do a call for proposals from all graduate departments.  Departments could ask for an increase in current stipend amounts or an increase in the number of stipends available.  A committee will determine who receives new stipend funds.  Final authorization of the university’s budget plan will not occur until the June Board of Trustees meeting.  The status of the state budget could modify the preliminary budget plan.

The final data analyses on the tuition scholarship reports sent to the Board of Regents in January have not yet been completed.  These analyses are expected to be completed soon.

The University is exploring an alternative means for fulfilling the North Central accreditation process.  That alternative process would call for more targeted assessments on specific university goals rather than a traditional accreditation visit once every ten years.

Committees:

            Curriculum Committee:  The committee brought forth two proposals for new graduate programs.  The first was a Master of Science in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems to be offered jointly at the Southern and Chillicothe campuses.  Even though there were some concerns about staffing, the committee recommended the program.  Although the program is primarily distance based, students will still have some direct contact with faculty.  There will be on-site advising and some parts of the courses will be offered on-site.  Generally, the faculty members would go to the campus twice a quarter for each course.  The committee moved to approve the program and it was passed.

The second proposal was for a Master of Arts in Political Science with a concentration in Public Policy and Administration to be offered at Lancaster-Pickerington Center.  The committee moved to approved the program and it was passed.

Dr. Sparks gave Graduate Council an update on the program review process.  He has given the curriculum committee templates for reviewing the documents.  So far they have received four documents from the review committees.  There will be a rating sheet handed out to the committee members along with the documents.  The Office of Graduate Studies will be sending out the summary documents to the committee members.  If anyone wants to read the full document, please contact Dr. Sparks.  Dr. Sparks will develop a report and recommendation based on the committee’s comments.  He will try to get reports sent to Graduate Council members before the May meeting.  Dr. Sparks will give the committee recommendations related to each department at the May meeting.  After Graduate Council approves the recommendation, they will need to go before the University Curriculum Council (UCC).  The UCC are holding its May meeting before Graduate Council’s.  It is hoped that many of the final reports can go before the Trustees at the June meeting. 

            Policies and Regulations Committee:  The committee brought forth for first reading a policy on deposit fees.  This document was before Graduate Council at the March meeting as a discussion.  The committee determined that not many international students apply to the type of departments or schools that would request a deposit fee.  It was suggested that the committee looks into how the policy is affected by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) policy.  The document also does not address when the fee would be due and if the fee can be refunded.  There was also concern that the amount of the fee is not enough to dissuade students from still withdrawing.  The issue is that a student will accept any offer if there is not a deposit fee.  The College of Business already has a similar policy and says that any fee amount tends to have an impact.  The College of Business stated that they would be willing to adjust their fee under the policy.  The fee that is assessed by the Medical School would not be affected by this policy because its medical program is not under graduate education.

            Admissions Requirement Committee:  Valerie Betts-Morrison, Leesa Brown, and Steven Swart were reviewed for potential conflict of interest.  It was noted that Ms. Brown is the Assistant Vice President for Communications and Marketing but the position is not in the College of Communication.  The committee moved that all the individuals be approved for graduate study and the motion was passed.

New Business:  The nominees for named fellows will be handled at the May meeting.

Adjourned:  2:58 P.M.