Attendance: Dominic Barbato, Lee Cibrowski, John Day, Howard Dewald, JoAnn Dugan, Judith Edinger, Aimee Howley, Hans Kruse, Jody Lamb, Christine Mattley, Brian McCarthy, David Mould, Chester Pach, Mike Prudich, Animesh Rathore, Josep Rota, William Shambora, Katherine Tadlock, Wanda Weinberg, Peter Wickman, and Yinjiao Xu.
Excused: Catherine Axinn, Joseph Bernt, Andrew Escobedo, Tim Heckman, David Juedes, and Robert Staron.
Convened: The meeting convened at 2:10 pm.
1. Welcome message
Hans welcomed all members to the first meeting of Graduate Council for the 2007-2008 academic year. He informed members that he will be chairing the meeting since David Juedes is at a conference.
2. Approval of Minutes of the June meeting
The minutes from the June meeting were approved.
3. Chair’s Report (Hans Kruse for David Juedes)
A. Graduate College: By the end of this academic year, there will be a Graduate College and the Dean of the Graduate College will also be the Vice President of Research and Creativity. Sergio Ulloa, who chairs the Task force on the establishment of the Graduate College, will provide regular updates to Graduate Council.
B. Task force on the Centers of Excellence: David is one of the three members of the executive council that manages the task force. The executive committee has met once.
C. Program Reviews: There are four program reviews that are ready to be looked at by Graduate Council. They will be available on the Graduate Studies website. Chester asked about the expedited process that was followed last year. Hans responded saying that the expedited process is only at the Graduate Council level and does not apply to the rest of the bodies that need to approve the reviews. The graduate portion of the review is first looked at by Graduate Council, and then it is sent to UCC. Hans added that it might be a good idea to look for common themes in all reviews, like we did last year.
4. Remarks by Katie Tadlock
A. New Graduate Student Orientation: Katie informed members that the new graduate student orientation seems to have been successful. She said that some departments had made it mandatory to attend the orientation. Katie added that the on-site responses were positive and that they are in the process of assessing the program to keep it relevant and have it be even more successful next year.
B. Multicultural Visitation: Katie informed members that Eddith Dashiell is now at the Scripps College of Communication. She added that the position of the Assistant to the Provost for Minority Graduate Affairs is not being filled immediately, pending the hiring of the new Vice Provost for Diversity, Access, and Equity and the reorganization of the office. Based on Eddith’s report, the large visitation did not yield much for the cost incurred, so she recommended small visitations at the department level. The Colleges have some funds to bring in students who they are interested in. Howard said that Arts and Sciences is having a competition to split the $2500 that the College has received for this. Katie recommended that if departments feel that they have a qualified candidate, then they can check with the Provost for additional funding.
C. GERB: Three proposals have come back from being externally reviewed and there will be presentations by the proposal authors shortly.
D. Five year academic plan: Open forums are being conducted for the Five year academic plans and Katie encouraged members to attend those.
E. Assistant Director, Graduate Admissions, Operations, and Orientation: Katie informed members that Pong Thongratana has been hired for the above mentioned position. He will be responsible for working with CollegeNet to update the online application and other projects to further streamline the admissions process.
F. Graduate Catalog: Katie reminded members that since the Communications and Marketing office is not going to print the catalog anymore, the graduate catalog is going to be available online by the end of this quarter.
Chester asked if it was only a rumor or if there was some credence to the idea of all the institutions in Ohio adopting a semester system. He said that he had heard that since the Chancellor had put forward the idea of the University system of Ohio, the first step towards that would be standardizing the calendar. Katie said that she had also heard about it, but is not aware of any official communication about it.
David Mould asked about communicating the information about the Thesis and Dissertations processes that were approved at the June meeting of Graduate Council. Chester said that the department of History has incorporated that information in their graduate student handbook, they talked about it at orientation, and have been reminding students about it. Hans noted that students tend to rely on other students who have gone through the process before for such information, so it becomes all the more imperative to disseminate this information in an effective manner and multiple times. Katie said that she maintains the graduate student list serv and will include this information. She also recommended that Dominic could spread the word around to all the Senators, who in turn could take the message to their Colleges and departments. David Mould said that he was happy with the way the process to centralize the Thesis and Dissertation and standardize the front of the document took place; he added that it was a very inclusive process.
5. Old Business
A. UMI Filing Fee: This was discussed in the June meeting. The library will not pay that any more. Graduate Studies will pay it for all students for the academic year 2007-2008. But, beyond that, there is no plan of action at this point in time.
B. Minimum hours required at the time of defense: This was also briefly discussed last year. Master’s students are required to register for one credit hour in the quarter they are defending their thesis. Doctoral students are required to register for two credit hours in the quarter they are defending their dissertation. However, the College can waive one of the two quarters off, hence requiring only one quarter of registration. The policy would also need to address the situation when a student misses the filing deadline and has to reapply for graduation. The $5 reapplication fee cannot be waived.
C. Transfer of Credit for less frequently taught languages: This item was a part of the packet for the May meeting. No decision was made last year.
D. Conditional admit status: This was also discussed at the meeting in May. Katie said that the policy needs to address both kinds of conditional admits---the academic conditional and the language conditional. The language conditional refers to students being admitted without documentation of English language proficiency. These students enroll in English classes and at the end of the time period specified by their sponsors are supposed to have achieved English language proficiency to begin their academic programs. This however, has not been the case for many students.
E. Posttbaccalaureate status: Katie informed members that the postbaccalaureate status is akin to a non-degree status and thus the students do not have a home department and it is hard to track them. The committee can look at the issue to identify a better way of finding a home for them.
6. New Business:
A. Catalog language for 51 graduate mass hours for Master’s students: Katie informed members that if a student comes to us with a Master’s degree already conferred, we add 51 graduate mass hours to his/her account. There is nothing in the graduate catalog that states this policy. She recommended drafting some language to include it in the new catalog.
B. Accreditation issue for existing programs now offered internationally: Katie informed members that any time a new delivery system is used for an existing program, our accreditation body needs to be informed about it. At this point in time, the North Central Association needs to be notified about the M.Ed. program being offered in Ghana and the M.S.A. being offered in China. She added that Marty Tuck is looking into that.
C. Standing Committees: Hans brought everyone’s attention to the self-nomination form in the packet. He requested members to complete the form.
The meeting adjourned at 3:25 pm.
The next meeting is on November 9th, 2007, in the Governance Room in Walter Hall.
