Graduate Council Meeting
Minutes
October 13, 2006

3.         Remarks by Michael Mumper

A.     Enrollment: Michael informed Graduate Council that graduate student enrollment up from last year. There are about 75 more students enrolled this fall than a year ago.

B.     Graduate Application: Application for Fall Quarter 2007 is up and available in online, paper, and downloadable format. The Office of Graduate Studies has already received 175 applications for Fall Quarter 2007.

C.     Graduate Student Senate Grant Program: Graduate Student Senate travel and original work grant program operated with $24,000 last year. The Provost has agreed to a one-time only increase to $50,000 in anticipation of allocation of money through Vision Ohio. Nihar Shah remarked that this is an opportunity to give graduate students a better opportunity to receive funding. Nihar added that graduate students spend at least $750 per trip and that the additional funds will allow Graduate Student Senate to increase the amount given to students per award and the number of awards.

D.     Recruiting: Recruiting is underway. Usha Matta is in India right now. Vicki Seefeldt West just returned from Southeast Asia. Jerry is going to Southeast Asia. Eddith will speak later about Multicultural Student recruiting.

E.      GERB: Michael indicated that there are two new requests for proposals. The future growth fund is $250,000 in one-time only funds to encourage development of graduate programs that will generate revenue. The graduate enhancement fund is to increase quality of graduate education. Michael also discussed the larger GERB major programs initiative. Sixteen proposals are being worked on around campus. Michael will post proposals to GERB website next week to encourage dialogue. Susan Sarnoff expressed concern over the short time period to submit proposals. Michael said that he will go back to committee with her concern. The due date was obtained by working backwards from the date required to implement the new money for recruitment initiatives. Catherine Axinn remarked that the committee started out with shorter time frame and that their goal was to prevent timelines from conflicting with major program reviews. The proposals were not intended to be complex proposals. Maureen Weissenrieder asked if there will be stipend enhancement & recruiting funds and Michael answered that this process replaces those in a move from stipend enhancement to program enhancement where stipends are a major way to improve programs, but will also allow for other enhancement of programs. Chester Pach asked if it is possible to get partial approval of requests and if asking for more or less money affect chances of getting proposal approved. Catherine Axinn and Michael remarked that they are unsure of how the process will work this year because it is new.

F.      Eddith Dashiell: Eddith began by describing her role in aiding in recruitment of United States citizens that are members of underrepresented populations. She has been traveling to graduate fairs throughout the country. At the fairs, she has students fill out information form. Academic departments receive prospective student information. There has been an annual visitation for past 20 years. This year it will be held November 13. This year is the first time for her to plan it from beginning. There are many changes this year. This year the visitation will not take place on a weekend. It will start on Wednesday and end on Friday to give departments and current graduate students a better opportunity to be involved. It will provide students with an opportunity to visit real classes and get a better of idea of what it is like to be a graduate student at Ohio University. The contact list has been expanded and announcements were sent to all 4-year public and private historically black colleges and universities and other graduate director recommended institutions. This year is the first year for online registration. 107 students have registered so far: 29 from Arts & Sciences, 16 from Business, 26 from Communications, 10 from Education, 5 from Engineering, 8 from Fine Art, 10 from Heath & Human Services, and 3 from International Studies. 35 institutions. Graduate Directors are being notified of students interested in their programs so that they can attend events. Some programs host their prospective students all day Thursday. Deadline for registration is October 20. However, due to limited hotel space, registration may have to close sooner. Tim Heckman asked if students are reimbursed for their expenses. Eddith replied that travel expenses up to $300 are reimbursed. Food and hotel accommodations are provided. Eddith added that Graduate Council members should have received an invitation to opening dinner.

G.     New Degree Offerings:  Two new degrees have been approved by RACGS. Ohio University will have the authority to offer the degrees as soon as Ohio Board of Regents approves the programs.

4.         Remarks by Katie Tadlock

A.     Online Application: The online application has been updated. Applications are now on a yearly update schedule. Online letters of recommendation are available. Katie will send a follow-up email that will include a list of departments that have decided to use online letters of recommendation. If any departments or colleges need training on CollegeNET, please notify Katie. Susan Sarnoff asked how online letters of recommendation are verified. Katie replied that the student has to fill out email address of recommender. Departments should look at email address supplied by student to determine if they are coming from a reputable email address (for example an .edu account). Departments can search for the recommender at the institution and send them email directly if there is a question about the recommendation. Katie explained the online letter of recommendation process. The student provides the recommender email address on the application. CollegeNET sends the recommender an email. Susan Sarnoff remarked that until agencies break up email accounts for individual people, this creates problems for Social work. Katie added that these are the same problems that could be encountered with letterhead. Chester Pach asked how people login to write recommendations. Katie replied that CollegeNET embeds the login in an email. Duncan Brown said that departments print notices on letterhead on bulletin boards and these could be copied. Katie said that Georgia Tech & Virginia Tech have used online letters of recommendation for years and that user conferences indicate that people have been happy with them and report little misuse of online letters of recommendation. Departments that try it will report back in a year about the process. Duncan Brown said that he recommends trying the online recommendations. Chester Pach added that faculty members sometimes fail to send letters and that electronic recommendation may increase response rate. Katie added that the recommendation does allow people to copy and paste recommendations into form. Carolyn Cardenas asked if departments can have unique recommendations. Katie replied no due to the cost of developing the unique recommendation forms. However, CollegeNET does have the ability to attach unique recommendation forms to emails that are sent to students. Katie added that the Admissions Requirements Committee could survey departments to determine if blank slate recommendation is adequate or if more specific information is needed because the evaluation of the letter of recommendation has never been raised.

Duncan asked that Katie wait to talk about speaking about the policy on three year degrees until later.

5.         Graduate Student Housing Issues (Jim Hintz)

Duncan remarked that Jim’s visit was prompted by Graduate Priorities Implementation Committee & Graduate Student Senate’s resolution about creating a website for graduate housing.

A.     Graduate Student Off-Campus Living Issues: Off-Campus living is an office within the Division of Student Affairs. It was created in 2004 to work with off-campus student population. The goals of the office include preparing undergraduate students to transition to off-campus living and deal off-campus issues. However, the office is finding that it works with more than just undergraduate students. Graduate students have come to the office seeking help. The graduate student search process takes place when the majority of quality housing is taken a year in advance. Graduate students don’t make the decision to come to Athens until spring. A report found that 80% of Athens housing is rental. This is not true in most communities. Occupancy rates are also higher than normal. The high demand for housing affects price and quality. Students are able to look outside Athens for better quality and lower prices. However, this creates transportation issues. Additionally, international students are trying to find housing from outside United States. There are over 800 landlords in Athens. The search process is hard even for undergraduate students. There is no centralized way of searching for housing. At one time, the office contracted with a third party vendor to provide software to create a searchable database at no cost to the institution. The cost was passed on to landlords. However, it was a struggle to get buy-in from landlords because they didn’t need to advertise outside of newspaper to get renters. Housing registry canceled the contract The Athens News made a proposal to provide a searchable database. However, the deal was not approved. Some academic departments have created their own websites. Maureen Weissenrieder asked when the report was done because some complexes opened. Jim answered last winter. He added that the market is loosening up. However, larger incoming classes could decrease it. Dominic Barbato asked if President McDavis has followed up on his priority to improve housing. Jim answered that he has not had any conversations with President McDavis or his office. Carolyn Cardenas asked what a reasonable price of an efficiency is and if the price has gone up. Jim answered that generally, the price has leveled off. On average, rent is $1500 a quarter per person and that efficiencies a little bit more than that. He added that landlords are trying to rent by bedroom and this creates problems for families that can’t afford to pay that much per bedroom. Duncan added that international students are confused by renting per person and that Mill Street Apartments had a large group of international students from his program living there. Duncan asked Jim if he was involved in discussions to remodel the complex. Jim replied that his office was created about the time that decision was being made and that he was not involved in conversations. He added that if his office were in existence at the time, he would not have necessarily been at the level to be involved with the conversations. Duncan asked if Graduate Council could be involved in future discussions about ensuring that communities such as these were preserved. Jim said that there isn’t a specific place where conversations have happened in the university. The private sector is looking to make money and conversations happen based on that. No one group at the university is in charge. Duncan asked if the campus master plan has off-campus graduate student housing. Dominic remarked that the master planning meetings have been cancelled until January and that Ohio University is already a year behind on the master plan. Dominic asked if it would be more effective to work with private developers or own the buildings. Jim answered that it depends on funding, but he is not involved in that discussion. There are some debt capacity issues within the institution. Private partnerships are probably the best option. The undergraduate student market is driving the market. Dominic remarked that on a generous stipend, he can’t afford to live at the Mill Street Apartments. Timothy Heckman asked if dorms are available to graduate students. Jim said that it is limited, but yes. However, many grad students aren’t looking for that option. Animesh Rathore said that the major problem is that dorm is at least $550 per month. The stipend is not enough to cover the expenses. Apartment complexes create transportation issues. Jim said that graduate students have said that stipends aren’t enough. Housing market spending dollars are high. The problem can be solved by working on the housing market or increasing stipends. Duncan said that he would like to add housing to graduate affairs committee and that Graduate Council should take their own experiences living in graduate student housing into consideration.  Susan Sarnoff asked about information resources for families for a prospective student. Duncan said that he would get the student in touch with a current student with a similar background. Catherine Axinn added that the visitor’s bureau and chamber of commerce have information. Animesh Rathore said that the graduate student handbook has some information and it is available online. Jim said that the City of Athens website also has information. Duncan asked members of Graduate Council to find other institutional policies that may work as a model for Ohio University.

6.         Policies and Regulations Committee    (Lee Cibrowski)

A.     Cross Listed Courses: Lee spoke with the registrar. The new software can determine if courses are double listed. The Registrar is looking in SIS to get a list of double listed courses. One possibility is that courses are cross listed between departments or there are multiple lectures in same room. Patricia Beamish added that courses also can be listed at masters and doctoral leave

      7.         Curriculum Committee (John Day)

A.     Seven Year Review Process: John Day motioned to accept expedited review process with only the changes from the last meeting. The motion was accepted.  The changes will take effect immediately with the next reviews received by Graduate Council.

8.         Remarks by Katie Tadlock (Continued)

A.     Bologna Accord: Duncan said that the European Union is trying to harmonize degrees across Europe. The system is based on a three year degree. He will send articles from The Chronicle of Higher Education that will explain more about what is happening. Katie said that most admissions favor 16 years from elementary to bachelor’s degree.  This can be 13 years + 3 years or 12 years + 4 years. Many Europeans argue that the United States’ first year of college is equivalent to the European last year of high school. In Germany, 4^th year of college study is 1^st year of graduate study. The level of specialization in countries varies. The European system does not rely as much on a liberal arts education as much as the US system does. The European system is more focused on research. At this time, there is no consensus on how schools are going to accept the Bologna accords. There is an invited discussion being held in Washington, DC. At the conclusion, there will be a workshop to discuss the issue. Katie is going to that workshop. There has been no consensus from the CGS discussion. Because graduates are starting to come to us, we have to decide how to evaluate these degrees. Katie suggested that this is another issue for the Admissions Requirements committee to look at. Duncan asked Katie to report on the workshop at the November Graduate Council. Michael Mumper added that some departments want to admit students with 3 year degrees to get an edge on competition for students. Graduate Studies would like guidance from Graduate Council. Katie added that the issues with the European system are different than the issues with the Indian system. Michael added that there are also issues with institutions in the former Soviet Union. It is an 11 years + 4 years system. We need to be consistent.  Carolyn Cardenas asked who will be attending the invited discussion. Katie said that it is being held by AACRAO – the professional association for admissions personnel and registrars. They have experience with assessing credentials.  Carolyn Cardenas asked what OU’s peer institutions are doing. Katie said nothing yet, but they may be represented at the workshop.

9.         Recruitment and Admissions Requirements Committee (Yinjiao Xu)

A.     Conflict of Interest Case: One case – Gary Ginther. The committee has two concerns: faculty members may receive different treatment and students may receive different treatment in hiring process or while working. However, graduate students are not usually hired as workers. The committee is mostly concerned about purchasing responsibilities. The committee recommends a committee be set up to make purchasing decisions. This could possibly be incorporated into an already existing committee. Julia Zimmerman said that Betsy usually makes the hiring decisions, but she can be the sole person in the future. Julia also said that Jan Maxwell is willing to oversee Gary’s responsibilities and that it is not unusual for librarians to seek advanced degrees in their areas. Julia said that it is not seen as a conflict and that she feels that this can go forward. Duncan said that the committee can amend the draft with changes and recommend that this go forward with the changes. Julia Zimmerman added that Gary doesn’t have discretion to allocate money between departments. There is a set amount of money for each department. Duncan asked the committee to redraft and include revisions. With revisions, Duncan asked Graduate Council if they could accept the recommendation of committee. Catherine Axinn added that it should be worded that the conflict can be managed in order to minimize pressure on Gary. Hans Kruse agreed that this wording should be used. Julia added that Gary says that faculty are in control of what is purchased. Patricia Beamish asked that the draft have clear directions for dealing with purchasing. Duncan summarized that the committee proposes that Gary can register and specific provisions will be made to deal with potential conflicts. All voted in favor.

Adjourned: The meeting was adjourned at 4:14PM.

The next meeting is on November 17, 2006, from 2-4 PM in the Governance Room in Walter Hall.