Attendance: Catherine Axinn, Dominic Barbato, Patricia Beamish, Josephine Bloomfield, Duncan Brown, Angie Bukley, Lee Cibrowski, Donna Conaty, Dawn Deeter, Judith Edinger, Hans Kruse, Christine Mattley, Michael Mumper, Chester Pach, Animesh Rathore, Susan Sarnoff, Nihar Shah, Katherine Tadlock, Maureen Weissenrieder, Yinjiao Xu, and Julia Zimmerman.
Excused: Carolyn Cardenas, David Drabold, Tim Heckman, Aimee Howley, David Juedes, David Mould, Josep Rota, and Robert Staron.
Guests: Scott Jarvis, Ming Li, Gary Neiman.
Convened: The meeting was convened at 2:05 pm.
1. Approval of Minutes of the March meeting
The minutes from the March meeting were approved.
2. Chair’s Report (Duncan Brown)
A. Email delivery: Duncan apologized to members for the problems with email delivery. He said that he will follow up with the Information Technology professionals to solve the problem.
B. Provost’s visit: Duncan informed Graduate Council that due to standing meetings that the Provost it seems that she will not be able to attend any of the meetings for this academic year. Chester said that Graduate Council could send her a proposal about the housing recommendations.
3. Remarks by Michael Mumper
4. Remarks by Katie Tadlock
5. Recruitment and Admission Requirements Committee (Yingjiao Xu)
Conflict of Interest: Yingjiao informed Graduate Council that Liming Shi’s case is similar to some of the others. Chester asked if it was possible for Liming Shi to not take any classes with Dr. Bayless. Katie said that Dan Gulino (who completed the Conflict of Interest form for Liming Shi) informed her that Liming Shi can meet all the program requirements without having to take any courses from Dr. Bayless. Angie clarified that even though David Bayless has dual appointment in Chemical and Mechanical Engineering, he does not teach any Chemical Engineering courses. Graduate Council voted in favor of accepting the committee’s recommendation in approving Liming Shi’s conflict of interest case.
6. Information Item
Request for change in cut-off score for IELTS (from 7.0 to 6.5)
Scott said that based on the information received about the IELTS requirements by other schools and the format of the test our requirement of 7.0 seems high. Maureen asked about the percentage of students taking this test versus the TOEFL. Scott said that this test is more readily available in some Asian countries and is less expensive than the TOEFL. Scott said that 600 on the TOEFL corresponds to 7.0 on the IELTS. Duncan asked if this information was available to all the Graduate Chairs. Katie said that the IELTS website has a conversion table. Duncan suggested that the Curriculum Committee, Katie and Scott work together to draft some language to bring to a future Graduate Council meeting. Michael added that as we become more familiar with the test and see performance data, we can make better judgments. Catherine suggested that it might be better to change our requirements when we have this data available. Scott responded that it is hard to collect data since our requirement is so high, so only the successful candidates make it here. Also, there is a lot of inconsistency in department requirements as well. Donna said that the recommendations can be treated as suggestions and the departments can make their own decisions.
It was proposed that due to the inconsistencies in the minimum score requirement across campus units and difficulties faced in recruitment these proposed standards be used until further review.
7. Recruitment and Admission Requirements Committee
Interpretation of the Conditional Admit status:
Katie said that in the recent past she has had some conversations with students and faculty about the conditional admit status. She referred to her email to Duncan that explains the issue and is a part of today’s packet. Hans said that their program is front loaded and sometimes students do not perform well in the beginning. Also, he said that at this point in time he has two students both of whom have a GPA of 2.95. But, only one of them was a conditional admit. He added that according to this policy, he could dismiss the one who was a conditional admit and not the other one. Pat asked about the duration a student could have a conditional admit status. Katie said that it is supposed to be 15 hours of graded graduate credits. She added that the traditional interpretation has been that this is a probationary status and is an opportunity for someone who may succeed now based on their ability even if their previous record does not indicate that.
Lee said that the written policy for probation is clarified at the College level. Josie said that the Dean’s office at the College of Arts and Sciences sends lists of students who are below 3.0 to the departments. Michael said that with the new budget model we need to balance integrity and revenue issues. He clarified that since students who receive a conditional admit cannot be funded, so they are fee paying students and as long as they stay on the conditional admit status, they keep paying fees. Hans said that the policy needs to be clarified, because it cannot be interpreted differently by departments or Colleges. He added that it needs to state very clearly what the conditions are and the consequences of the conditions not being met. At this point in time, it is not stated clearly and a student could challenge us on it. Duncan said that revised language about the policy can be brought to a future Graduate Council meeting for discussion and a decision.
8. Curriculum Committee (Chris Mattley)
Seven Year Review of the School of Information and Telecommunication Systems: Chris said that this was a very strong review and it was very well organized and put together. Graduate Council voted in favor of accepting the committee’s recommendation to accept the seven year review without any changes.
9. Information Item
Request to change the location of the MSA program from Beijing Sports University to Sun Yat-Sen University:
Dean Neiman informed members of Graduate Council that based on market considerations and pricing issues the relationship with Beijing Sports University had to be terminated. They are now partnering with Sun Yat-sen University he added. Sun Yat-sen University is a prestigious university and ranked tenth in China. This new development takes OU out of the market for offering degrees before the 2008 Olympics. But, having the program with Sun Yat-sen is still beneficial because China needs trained sports executives for the 2010 Asian games and 2011 University games. Another advantage in partnering with Sun Yat-sen University is that 80% of the tuition costs for the attendees will be reimbursed by the provincial government. Dean Neiman said that Beijing Sports University is still interested in professional development courses. Ming Li added that the delegation from Sun Yat-sen will be visiting Athens in May.
The proposal requests to waive the English proficiency requirement for the first two cohorts. There will be two cohorts of 40 students each. Only one of the instructors (Ming Li) is bilingual, the other five OU faculty members are English speaking only. Duncan noted that some of the discussion last year (when the first proposal was approved) focused on the use of interpreters and their help in completing assignments. Ming Li said that the current proposal is the same as last year’s; the only difference is in the location. Maureen said that the transcript should note the fact that some of the instruction took place in the Chinese language. Duncan asked about the request to waive the language requirement for the second cohort. Dean Neiman said that the professionals and administrators are not motivated to learn the language for fear of not making appropriate progress. He said that in the next few years, by the time the first two cohorts graduate there will be a new group of young professionals who are more motivated to learn the language and thus we will be able to enforce the language requirement. Donna asked if the College hoped that this would be an on-going relationship. Dean Neiman responded saying that there are more opportunities with Sun Yat-sen than there were with Beijing Sports University, so they are hopeful of a fruitful partnership. Maureen asked about the reason for discontinuing the partnership with Beijing Sports University. Dean Neiman said that Beijing Sports University priced themselves out of the market. He added that Australia is cornering the market and this is a pilot project for OU. He said that the College is mindful of not compromising the existing academic standards at OU.
Graduate Council voted in favor of accepting the proposal with the following changes:
The transcript ‘will’ not ‘may’ indicate that the program was not conducted in English.
The second cohort will be admitted no later than March 2009.
10. Curriculum Committee (Chris Mattley)
Request to re-start a program in Apparel, Textiles, and Merchandising:
Chris asked about the reason for re-starting the program. Lee said there is a growing national demand and by starting this program now, we can ensure that we have a niche in the market. This program will feed the doctoral program; hence it is of strategic importance as well. She added that presently they have trained faculty as well, so it is a good time to start the program. Josie said that it seems rather strange that the program was closed due to high enrollment. Lee said that enrollment increased very quickly and they did not have enough qualified faculty to teach the classes. So, they had to close the program to accommodate the growing number of the undergraduate students. Now, they have trained faculty and will be able to offer better mentoring opportunities to the Masters students.
Graduate Council voted in favor of the accepting the proposal to start the Masters program in Apparel, Textiles and Merchandising.
11. Information Item
Duncan said that he was disheartened to hear that Jim Hintz was leaving OU. He brought everyone’s attention to the article in the Athens News from last week.
Judith talked about the website that OU-COM uses to list houses and apartments available for rent for medical students. She said that the software used is simple but it is a labor intensive program, since all submissions need to be reviewed frequently. Judith said that the landlords do not necessarily post the fact that the property has already been rented and is not available any more at this point in time. She said that information about a property stays on their website for 90 days, unless the landlords want it there longer. Duncan said that he liked the website and the simplicity of use. Judith said that once a year they place an advertisement in the Athens Messenger for landlords who are looking for medical students as renters. Michael said that it seems that Graduate Council would suggest the office of Graduate Studies develop a website similar to the OU-COM website. He added that the new website could be linked from the Graduate Studies home page and also from departmental pages. Michael also noted that the web address can be included in the correspondence that we undertake with admitted students. Judith said that several landlords who are members of the Athens Property Owners Association have their own websites and OU-COM lists those websites on theirs as well. She said that the staff from OU-COM will be happy to talk to the people who will work on this project.
12. New Business
Duncan said that like everyone else, he was amazed at the small amount of money that was earmarked for transportation services at Ohio University. He said that he would like to recommend to the Planning and Strategies Committee to put together some recommendations to send to the Provost. Pat asked if OU did not have an office of off-campus housing. Duncan said that till three years ago, we did not and then it was established, and this year it was renamed the office for off-campus housing and community service.
Katie informed members that the Child Care Task Force that met recently was looking into options for flexible care for infants, care for sick children, and care for school aged children when schools are closed. She said that there are child care providers in the county who have openings, but those are not convenient locations for people who live in the city.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 pm. The next meeting is on May 11th, 2007 in the Governance Room in Walter Hall from 2 to 4 pm.
