Attendance:  Margret Appel, Joseph Bernt, Mehmet Celenk, Kenneth Hicks, Michael Maume, Averell Overby, Scott Sparks, Edward Yost, Leona Cibrowski, Glenn Doston, Jessica Haigney, Tom Daniels for Raymie McKerrow, Josep Rota, Julia Zimmerman,

Staff:  Gary Schumacher, Katherine Tadlock, Jennifer Francone

Excused:  Peter Harrington, Rajindar Koshal, Jenny Lau, Edwin Rowland, Arvind Singhal, Bobbi Conliffe, Roger Radcliff, Maureen Weissenrieder,

Absent:  Bhavin Mehta, Daniel Innis, James Bush, Michael Meyer, Vivek Shinde Patil

Guests:  Marvin Fletcher, Bruce Carlson, Duncan Brown

Convened:  2:15 P.M.

Chair’s Report:  Hicks moved to pass the May minutes.  Rota seconded the motion.  The May minutes were passed.

Appel noted that it was Hicks, Koshal, Bernt, and Sparks final terms this year.  She thanked the council and committee for all their work this past year.

Appel would like to combine the Graduate Student Affairs Committee and the Fellowship Board.  Sparks seconded the motion.  It was passed to combine the two committees.

Associate Provost for Graduate Studies’ Report:  The Board of Regents is putting together a committee to consider issues related to distance education at both the graduate and undergraduate level.  The committee is to consider such issues as to the conditions under which subsidy will be granted and whether there will be support for course and program development.

The budget picture is still somewhat unstable but generally does not look good.  There is a good likelihood that units will be asked to return some funds and the situation could get worse if income estimates do not hold or if the supreme court should not accept the legislative solution for the K-12 problem.

The winners of the outstanding graduate faculty member and outstanding masters and doctoral students will be made at a reception after Graduate Council.

Committees:

            Curriculum Committee:  The committee moved to pass a Masters of Art in Special Education to be offered at the Southern campus.  This program has been offered before.  The staffing will be based from the Athens campus.  The faculty will go to the Southern campus.  The program will start Fall 2001.  The program was passed.

The committee reviewed a program development plan for a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT).  This would be a new program.  It is primarily moving the masters program into a doctoral program.  The committee moved to pass the program development plan.  It was passed.

The committee moved to pass the academic assessment of the self-study report for Telecommunications.  Brown asked for some clarification on what would be addressed on the three year review.  The committee had concerns regarding point four of the self-study report.  Brown stated that the school has recruited two new faculty since the review was done.  The school also has a proposal in for the new faculty initiative.  The school is looking for faculty in the area of multi-media.  The committee also had concerns over the scattered courses offered at the graduate level.  It was recommended that the report be amended so that the review would also cover course offerings.  It was felt that all five points should be reviewed in three years.  The committee felt that the courses were disjointed and there was no thread connecting them.  It was suggested that this may be common in similar programs offered at other universities.  Brown stated that there is more information in the full report regarding the curriculum.  He noted that the first reviewer was from a very different type of program than what Ohio University’s Telecommunications program is.  Brown feels that the faculty needs encouragement to publish.  The school is thinking of adjusting faculty workloads to accommodate and encourage publishing.  Most faculty move to tenure through creative writing.  Bernt felt that if point 4 was fixed it would fix point 2.  The focus of the program’s curricular offerings needs to be studied and a plan articulated.  Mehmet moved to make a note on points 2 and 4 to be reviewed in three years.  Overby seconded the motion.  Amendment was passed.  Brown feels that too much focus could be detrimental to the program.  It was suggested that it does not need to be more focused, however, a goal should be better articulated.  The self study was passed as amended.

The committee moved to pass the academic assessment of the self-study report for Social Sciences.  Bernt asked why this program would not be looked at again in three years due to the concerns expressed by the committee.  The committee felt that the program satisfies its goals.  The committee stated that the paperwork was lacking, however, they spoke with faculty members and students to get the additional information that they needed.  It was noted that the College of Arts and Sciences grade point average requirement for graduate study is a 3.0, but that the program admits students at a 2.75 or higher.  The reason is that the type of students the program is designed for are teachers to give them additional skills.  Most students earned over 3.0 gpa while in the program, while few fell between a 2.75 and 3.0.  This is a sixteen to seventeen year old program with a theoretical core and no faculty.  Students take courses through other departments.  Economics does not wish to participate, nor do students wish to take economics courses.  There are eleven courses and eleven faculty.  Rarely does a student take more than one course from a faculty member.  The self study was passed.

The committee moved to pass the academic assessment of the self study report for Psychology.  Carlson questioned the rating of “Acceptable” since all comments were very complimentary.  All the graduate categories exceed expectation.  Haigney moved it be changed to “Outstanding”.  Cibrowski seconded.  It was passed that the rating be changed.  It was asked as to why diversity is mentioned.  Carlson commented that while the department is very similar to the university it is not consistent with the field, especially with respect to the proportion of women.  A few reasons for this is that at the faculty level it is difficult for spouses to get work in Athens and at the graduate student level, minority student get better assistance at other institutions.  The self study was passed with the rating change.

The committee moved to pass the academic assessment of the self study report for Political Science.  Maume feels that the assessment is accurate.  The self study was passed.

It was noted that History will go before Graduate Council next fall.

Review Procedures – The idea is that all of the natural sciences will be reviewed in the same year.  There is some discussion on how Education will be reviewed and it may change before next year.  The time frame for reviewing will be similar next year as it was this year.  There seems to be a rush because the Trustees meet in June.  The Trustees will have an August meeting upcoming.  The committee felt that if would help if chairs and deans address each point raised in their responses.  Since there was little benchmark information presented by the departments, the committee had to rely heavily on the reviewer’s opinion.  The committee felt that a clear format or a template for the reports would be helpful since there was no consistency between reports.  Since the deans pick the reviewers, the reports seemed geared towards positive responses.  A concern is how do departments implement goals and fix concerns.

            Admission Requirements Committee:  The committee moved that Geralyn Collins and Lawrence Davis be approved for study.  It was noted that Collins’ responsibilities are mostly clerical.  The motion was passed.

Adjourned:  3:33 P.M.