Attendance: Catherine Axinn, Dominic Barbato, Joseph Bernt, John Day, Howard Dewald, JoAnn Dugan, Andrew Escobedo, Jennifer Horner, David Juedes, Hans Kruse, Christine Mattley, Brian McCarthy, Mike Prudich, Josep Rota, William Shambora, Katherine Tadlock, Wanda Weinberg and Peter Wickman.
Excused: Judith Edinger, Kamile Geist, Tim Heckman, Aimee Howley, Jody Lamb, Greg Lusk, David Mould, Chester Pach, Animesh Rathore, Robert Staron and Yinjiao Xu.
Convened: The meeting was convened at 3:10 pm.
1. Approval of Minutes of the April meeting
The minutes from the May 9th, 2008 meeting were approved.
2. Chair’s Report (David Juedes)
David thanked members whose terms are ending this year for their service to Graduate Council. He reviewed the major accomplishments:
A. Conflict of Interest Cases: David noted that Graduate Council has been very efficient in dealing with conflict of interest cases since the inception of the expedited review process. Most of the cases, he added, were handled by Katie, in the Office of Graduate Studies. The Admissions requirements committee and Graduate Council only looked at a few cases this past year.
B. Policy changes: David reminded members that several policy changes were approved by Graduate Council. These include, revision of the conditional admit status, and graduate student registration during the quarter in which the dissertation is being defended, and the dissertation filing fee to be paid by students.
C. Graduate Student Senate: Graduate Council voted to support efforts by Graduate Student Senate to provide additional funding for graduate education and to improve the lives of graduate assistants.
D. Planning and Strategy Committee: David said that this committee was very active in providing significant input on the planning document for the creation of a Graduate College. This committee also was also involved in the discussion regarding the Task Force for Centers of Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education.
E. Program Reviews: Graduate Council only completed four program reviews during this academic year. David clarified that Graduate Council only received four reviews this year. There is a backlog of reviews from previous years that needs to be addressed, he added.
David informed members that all Chairs and Directors of departments and programs should have received an email message (sent on May 28th) with the final copy of the guidelines and evaluation criteria for the self-studies. He said that the self-studies will be entered into a secure web-form that has been developed by Central IT. The form will be available to chairs/director/graduate chairs around mid-summer he said. He also added that it is possible to designate someone else to complete the self studies.
David asked members if they would not mind meeting in Baker instead of Walter Hall. With the general consensus of the Council being affirmative, David said that he would look into finding appropriate space at Baker.
3. Remarks by Katie Tadlock
A. Test of English Proficiency: Katie proposed that the score received by applicants on the Speaking section of the iBT (Internet based TOEFL) be used as an alternative to the SPEAK test to clear International Teaching Assistants for classroom duties. She told members that the handout is a part of the packet today and this can be taken up for discussion in fall 2008. In response to David’s question about other schools using this test, Katie said that this has been a discussion item on the CGS listserv and that if OU decides to accept this score, then this change would go into effect for the next academic year.
B. GERB: Katie informed members that three recommendations have been forwarded to the Provost for review.
C. Graduate Programs: Three new cohorts of existing programs are pending and are hopeful of fall start dates. The programs are: Principalship Master’s plus Licensure at Pickerington and Southern/Chillicothe campus, Instructional Technology Certificate program on the southern campus, and the Special Education Master’s in Lancaster.
D. OGA: Katie informed members that the Online Graduate Appointment system is open for the 2008-09 fiscal year. The new system includes the Graduate Assistant Health Insurance subsidy.
E. Graduate Commencement: Katie reminded members that graduate commencement is on the 13th (next Friday) and that approximately 70 doctoral students are expected to participate in the ceremony.
F. Thanks: Katie thanked all members of Graduate Council for their support this academic year. She said that Dr. Bose will begin his appointment on July 1.
4. New Business
A. Planning and Strategy Committee (Hans Kruse):
i. Resolution concerning task force on the creation of Graduate College: Hans informed members that the resolution will be attached to the report, so that it becomes a part of it. He added that the resolution is a part of the packet today.
Graduate Council voted in favor of accepting the resolution as a part of the
Report for the Graduate College Task Force.
B. Admissions Requirement Committee (Catherine Axinn): Catherine told members that the memo written by Shawn Ostermann (included in the packet today) satisfactorily addresses the concerns that the committee had about one of Ralph Kelsey’s supervisors being his academic advisor as well. David said that per the recommendations of the accrediting body for EECS, an effort is being made to continue the development of Group II faculty.
Graduate Council voted in favor (16-to-1) of the recommendation of the committee to accept the memo and let Ralph Kelsey begin his master’s program.
C. Policy and Regulations Committee (Brian McCarthy): Brian presented Ohio University Policy and Procedure 20.109 (http://www.ohiou.edu/policy/20-109.html) for revision and review. The policy states that “Generally, graduate students employed on Graduate Associate contracts shall not receive remuneration from departments of the University other than the department from which the student holds the contract. The Dean of the College may make exceptions to this policy upon the request of the department or graduate student.” Brian informed members that this particular policy has not been reviewed for almost 20 years. The proposal seeks to regularize the employment of graduate students to a maximum of 20 hours per week. Katie recommended that if a department needed the services for more than 20 hours per week, then they could consider hiring the student on a Group III contract.
Discussion focused on various issues related to the policy. Howard asked that it would be helpful to have begin and end dates of the time period listed as well. This is particularly helpful in the case of students who work in laboratories. In response to Joann’s question about a student working for only 10 hours for a department and wanting to work more, Katie responded that the student would need the approval of the first department to add more hours of work per week. Jennifer said that the student’s do not seem to be aware of this rule as well. Since, the letter noting their assistantship does not mention that they cannot exceed 20 hours a week, they do not always read all the information on the guidelines which are electronic. Katie said that they can probably add an affirmative check off at the portal before the student accepts or declines the appointment.
Peter said that since the start and end dates of work are not clear, some students face pressure from their departments regarding that. He asked if the awards could be disbursed over a period of 12 months versus nine months. Brian said that TAs also have the same issue about start and end dates. He asked if the first day of classes is considered as the first day of work and the last day of examinations as the last day of work. He added that this should be clarified.
Joe Bernt asked about Research Assistants working over the summer and during the winter break. Brian said that there is no cap on what an RA can be paid. The limit for the Ph.D. students is $16,000 a year but if someone is being funded through a grant, it can be even $20,000. Joe added that this policy has a lot of variation across departments and the enforcement and interpretation ends up being at the discretion of the department. He also said that we should look at labor laws of the state. Joe asked about employment outside the university as well. Jennifer said that they can advise against it, but it probably cannot be monitored. Also, it was noted that the process to get approvals from departments if a student wishes to work more than what his parent department has offered can be rather cumbersome. It was also reiterated that the appointment should note dates versus quarters to ensure clarity of expectations. It was also noted that it would indeed be helpful to have a policy that is consistent across Colleges.
D. Curriculum Committee (Chris Mattley): Chris informed members that there were no new program reviews that came to the committee this month. Joe Rota brought to everyone’s attention that UIC had approved the Sports Administration program with the University of Hong Kong. He said that is the same program that was earlier approved in collaboration with Sun Yat-Sen University. Sun Yat-Sen did not receive the Ministry of Higher Education approval in China, so a new partner was sought. Jennifer said that she has not seen the program proposal as well. Joe Bernt asked about this mode of receiving programs at the last minute for approval. This does not give members of Graduate Council to examine the proposal. John Day attributed to the fact that there is no flow chart to note the process of approvals that a new program needs to receive, or, if a current program is going to be offered in a new location, etc. He said that it will be immensely helpful to have this process outlined. The proposal was tabled for the next meeting.
Catherine Axinn thanked Dominic for his work as the GSS president.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 pm. The next meeting is on September 12th, 2008 from 2 to 4 pm.
