Attendance: Catherine Axinn, Dominic Barbato, Joseph Bernt, Joanne Bray for Judith Edinger, John Day, Howard Dewald, JoAnn Dugan, Andrew Escobedo, Kamile Geist, Jennifer Horner, Aimee Howley, David Juedes, Hans Kruse, Jody Lamb, , Brian McCarthy, Chester Pach, Mike Prudich, Animesh Rathore, Josep Rota, Robert Staron, William Shambora, Katherine Tadlock, Wanda Weinberg, Peter Wickman, and Yinjiao Xu.
Excused: Judith Edinger, Tim Heckman, Christine Mattley, and David Mould.
Guest: Sergio Ulloa
Convened: The meeting convened at 2:05 pm.
1. Approval of Minutes of the November meeting
The minutes from the November 9th, 2007 meeting were approved, with a correction that David Mould attended the meeting. He was wrongly listed as excused.
2. Chair’s Report (David Juedes)
A.
New Members: David welcomed Kamile Geist and Jennifer Horner, the two new members of Graduate Council. David also thanked Maureen Weissenreider and Lee Cibrowski for their many years of service to the Graduate Council.
B. Graduate Student Senate Resolution 0708-04: David informed members that he conveyed Graduate Council’s support about the resolution to the Provost. He believes that it might have paid off, since some money has been proposed for Graduate Studies in the current budget planning process.
C. Task Force on Centers of Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education: David told members that today’s packet includes a summary (by Dean Ben Ogles) of the progress made by the task force so far.
D. Individual Interdisciplinary Program: David informed members that UCC voted to suspend admission to the IIP program as on January 10th 2008. A report is included in the packet.
3. Remarks by Katie Tadlock
A. Enrollment Update: Katie informed members that application numbers are up by 322 from this time last year. At this point in time, applications from China are up by 87, from India by 59 and from Indonesia by 6. She added that undergraduate applications and final admits are also up over Janauray 11th, 2007.
B. Search for Vice President for Research & Creative Activity/Dean of Graduate College: Katie informed members that airport interviews have been completed and four candidates are being invited to campus in late January and early February.
C. Five Year Academic Plan: Katie informed members that she does not have specifics about the proposed investment amounts. She added that per her last conversation with the Provost, she is not identifying specific student areas of support. The Provost would like to leave that for the new Dean and the advisory bodies (Graduate Council and Graduate Student Senate) to decide that. Katie said that the Planning and Strategies committee and the Graduate Student Affairs and Fellowships committee might be able to discuss some options.
D. Mini GERB: The Provost is hoping to fund a mini-GERB this year.
E. NRC Survey of Doctoral Programs: Katie informed members that the survey has encountered difficulties in data analysis. She added that a third of the recent CGS meeting was devoted to discussion about it. Katie said that an additional round of data checking will happen by early spring and the final results will not be available until summer.
F. Assessment of the ProQuest/UMI dissertation filing fee: Katie said that due to a budget cut last year, Alden Library could not pay the $55 filing fee per dissertation. Michael had said that Graduate Studies would pay the fee this year. But, there is no plan for the future years. This fall the fee is going to increase to $65. There has been a significant growth in dissertation filings over the last few years. In 2000-01, 106 dissertations were filed ($5830); by 2006-07, 162 were filed ($8910).
Katie said that in May 2007, Angie McCutcheon (from TAD Services) and Lee Cibrowski conducted a campus-wide survey of graduate advisors regarding who should pay the fee. More than 70% of the faculty surveyed supported charging this fee to the student. In some colleges, over 90% of the faculty supported charging this fee to the students. Katie informed members that statewide, eight out of eleven doctoral institutions charge the fee to the student. Wright State University and Kent State are the other two schools that do not charge the student. Kent State is having similar discussions as well, she added.
Katie said that retaining this item in the Graduate Studies budget has ramifications for providing support in other areas, like recruitment, orientation, launching a Preparing Future Faculty program, or named fellowship enhancement. She recommended that the Policies and Procedures committee review this issue and make a recommendation about who will pay the fee beginning Fall 2008.
4. New Business
A. Progress Report on the Task Force on the Creation of a Graduate College (Sergio Ulloa): Sergio informed members that the Task Force views the Graduate College as being an advocate of graduate education on campus. They also see the Graduate College as the body that will house the policy and criteria for each school and department about their Graduate Faculty status. He also mentioned that the Graduate College will be represented on university committees like the UCC, UCI, and GERB. Sergio noted that he also sees the Graduate College taking over some of the responsibilities that lie with the Graduate Council, e.g., the Review of Conflict of Interest cases.
Joe Bernt asked about the structure of the Graduate College. Sergio said that for the most part, they see it as the current office of Graduate Studies with increased responsibilities and authority. The Graduate College will not have any faculty of its own; in essence it will be similar to University College. A big advantage there is that the College is led by a Dean, and that Dean by virtue of that position, will have a seat in all the Deans groups on campus. This will facilitate him/her to be an advocate for graduate education. He added that the Graduate Council has been an advisory body to the Provost through the Associate Provost of Graduate Studies. The Graduate College will also be able to participate in the Graduate Program Reviews.
Chester asked about the role of Graduate Council in the new set up. He said that it sounds like a more enhanced role is envisioned for the Graduate Council. He asked if any specific responsibilities had been identified. Sergio said that the specifics had not been worked out as yet. He suggested that Graduate Council can work on devising a list of day to day activities that the Council is involved in and identify some policies that it could/would be able to work on if members had the time to do so.
Catherine asked if the search committee had been able to convey the progress made by the Task Force to the interviewees about the structure of the Graduate College. Joe said that the merger of Graduate Studies with the Research Unit is a good idea, but who would drive the agenda of that larger unit. He said that he would like to see Graduate Studies driving the agenda. But, he had heard that most of the candidates’ primary interest and experiences lie in the field of research and not necessarily graduate education. Dominic added that once the search for the combined position was announced, they added another student member to the search committee.
David asked about any potential cost savings in having a graduate college. He added that at the institution where he got his doctoral degree, many administrative responsibilities were handled by the graduate college like the approval of thesis and so on. Katie said that she does not think there will be any cost savings immediately, but it would improve efficiency by centralizing some processes. Chester asked if any start-up costs had been identified. Katie responded that some funding for hiring staff for specific jobs had been identified in the five year plan. She said that position of the Assistant Director of Thesis and Dissertation is an example of that. Hans said that the Planning and Strategy Committee will meet the Task Force early next month. He said that the committee can draft a list of specific questions to ask the Task Force. That might enable adding some more details in that document.
Animesh asked about having a centralized source of funding opportunities available on campus. Katie responded that there is a link from the Graduate Studies website that the departments can post their available graduate appointments. But it has not been used much by the departments. Sergio added that the Task Force is concerned about increasing support for graduate students.
B. Policies and Regulations. Brian McCarthy presented three proposed changes to the Graduate Catalog from the Policies and Regulations committee. The three proposed changes dealt with (i) conditional admission status, (ii) registration, and (iii) grad mass hours. The approved changes are attached to these minutes.
a. Conditional Admit Status: Katie informed members that Graduate Council had prescribed policy for English language proficiency. She added that recently Saudi Arabia instituted a scholarship program through which students attend an institution for one year for English study and then pursue a graduate program after that. Katie said that the experience at OU and other schools has been that these students have had trouble achieving English proficiency in one year. By adopting the proposed change in policy, we will be able to create a category of admission for such students.
Katie informed members that since everyone’s goal is to see the student be successful, OPIE, the department, and Graduate Studies sometimes have to work on a case by case basis to identify the specific needs of a student. Katie said that the impetus for this policy comes from the fact that the applicants from all the new scholarship programs that we have seen recently do not present a TOEFL score at the time of application.
The proposed changes to Graduate Catalog regarding the conditional admit status was approved subject to minor changes.
b. Minimum number of hours required for registration: Katie informed members that this policy is applied differently across colleges. Per policy, masters students are required to register for one credit hour and doctoral students are required to register for two credit hours at the time of graduation. However, one of the two hours can be waived for the doctoral students, if permitted by their college. The proposal to standardize the requirement to only one hour was approved, with the inclusion of Chester’s suggestion to keep the style consistent. Members decided to use ‘you’ instead of ‘student’. David asked about the placement of this policy in the catalog. On Catherine’s suggestion, it was decided to place it in the transfer of credit section in the list of policies.
The proposed changes to the graduate catalog were approved subject to the aforementioned minor changes.
c. Grad Mass Hours Transfer: Currently, when a student enters a PhD program, 51 “grad mass hours” are billed against that student who has previously attained a Masters degree elsewhere (regardless of the number of credits obtained there). This has been a long standing practice and conforms to the state of Ohio subsidy requirements; it is not mentioned in the graduate catalog.
Graduate Council approved the addition of the text to the graduate catalog as proposed by the committee to have 51 grad mass hours be reflected on the DARS for students who have obtained a masters degree elsewhere and 120 grad mass hours for students who have obtained a PhD elsewhere.
The meeting adjourned at 3:40 pm.
The next meeting is on February 8th, 2008 in room 135 in Walter Hall.
Revised Language in the Graduate Catalog, as approved by the Graduate Council, January 11th, 2008.
- Rewording of the Conditional Admission Policy:
Conditional Admission
Students who have some deficiency in the entrance requirements may be recommended by the department for conditional admission. Conditionally admitted students must meet the stipulations set forth at the time of admission to achieve unconditional admission status. Failure to meet terms of admission will result in dismissal from the degree program. Students are eligible for University-Funded assistantships, fellowships, and scholarships only after they have received unconditional admission. The two specific policies below are not mutually exclusive.
Conditional admission due to academic deficiency
Students who have some academic deficiency in the entrance requirements, such as a low grade-point average or missing prerequisite coursework, may be recommended by the department for conditional admission. Students admitted conditionally based on an academic deficiency must achieve unconditional admission status by satisfactorily completing a prescribed program to remove any academic deficiencies and attaining a 3.000 or better grade-point average in the first 15 hours of graded graduate course credit. Unofficial withdrawals (FN/FS) are factored into this calculation. The department graduate committee will specify whether undergraduate courses required as further preparation for admission will be taken for audit or credit. Grades earned in such courses may be used by the graduate committee in evaluating a student’s capability for graduate work. Undergraduate or audited courses will not satisfy requirements for any graduate degree.
Conditional admission due to deficiency in English language proficiency
Non-Native speakers of English who have a deficiency in English language competency (below university and department entrance requirements) may be recommended by the department for conditional admission with concurrent admission to the Ohio Program of Intensive English (OPIE). Students admitted in this category must achieve unconditional admission by satisfactorily completing a prescribed program to attain the required level of language proficiency. A student who fails to achieve unconditional admission within four quarters of the original admission will be dismissed from the academic program. Readmission to the academic program requires a new application. Students who will be visa holders and are admitted conditionally with concurrent admission to OPIE must demonstrate they have sufficient funds for the first year of study before a Form I-20 or DS-2019 Certificate of Eligibility can be issued.
- Registration
You must be registered for a minimum of one graduate credit in any quarter in which you receive any service from the University or use its facilities, and the quarter in which you will graduate.
If you have completed all degree requirements prior to the start of the first day of classes in the term you will officially graduate you do not have to register for that term if you meet the following conditions: (1) you have enrolled in all required coursework, (2) you have completed all final projects and deposited the final copy of the thesis or dissertation, and (3) you have removed all incompletes.
- Grad Mass Hours
Students who enter Ohio University with post-baccalaureate degrees granted by another accredited university will receive graduate credit hours per State of Ohio subsidy requirements. This is reflected on the Degree Audit Report (DARS) as Grad Mass hours. Master’s equivalent degrees are credited as 51 Grad Mass hours. Doctoral equivalent degrees are credited as 120 Grad Mass hours.
