Graduate Council Meeting

Friday, October 19, 2007

3:00 P.M.

Special Collections Room, Main Library

(Southwest corner of University Blvd. and Cherry)

MINUTES

Members Present: Dianne Horgan, Andrew Comrie, Nathan Cherrington, Lane Kenworthy, Timothy Secomb, Dave Chisholm, Robin Harris for Zhao Chen, W. Jake Jacobs, Richard Hallick, Luann Gerken, Stephanie Fryberg, Anne Murdaugh, Gail Varin, Marv Waterstone, Kathie Insel, Norma Gonzalez, Steven Dvorak

 

Members Excused: Maria Teresa Velez, Barbara Cone-Wesson, Donald Slack, Tsianina Lomawaima

 

Invited Guest: Cal Payne, Representative from Undergraduate Council

 

I. Call to Order. The meeting was called to order by Dean Andrew Comrie, a sign-in sheet was passed, and new Graduate Council members were introduced.

 

II. Minutes of August 2007. At Member Murdaugh's request, a sentence in the GPSC section of the minutes of August 2007 was changed from "Other items in the forefront of graduate students' concerns were dependent care, the non-existence of a prescription plan, and the lack of a childcare plan" to read, "Other items in the forefront of graduate students' concerns were dependent care, the limitations of the prescription plan, and the lack of a childcare plan." With this change, the minutes were approved as read.

 

III. Dean's Report. Dean Comrie gave an update on the analysis of the decline in graduate enrollment this year from last year. He also announced the hiring of Tom Rhodes by the Graduate College. Mr. Rhodes comes to us from Institutional Research and worked extensively on the NRC survey project. He will be helping us with data collection and analyses.

 

IV. GPSC Report. Member Murdaugh reported on the Tuition Survey that was sent out by GPSC. Graduate students ranked tuition remission, need-based financial aid, merit-based financial aid, increased GA salaries, and healthcare benefits as their top priorities. Regarding the Student Activity Fee Survey that was sent out, increases in travel grants was among the top priorities.

 

V. New Business

A. Policies and Guidelines for Individual Studies Courses. After discussion and a call for the vote, Graduate Council members voted 17-0 in favor of the proposed changes to the Policies and Guidelines for Individual Studies Courses.

 

B. Clarification of the Co-Convened Course Policy. The Undergraduate Council is considering the number of credits a student can earn when taking two courses that are co-convened. The policy would be that if a student enrolls for both of the co- or jointly-convened courses, the student would not earn full credit for both courses because the content was primarily identical and the contact hours do not meet ABOR minimums per unit. Because legitimate exceptions to this policy could occur, the Graduate Council unanimously passed the motion that the policy should contain an opportunity for exceptions, to be approved by the Dean of the Graduate College, and to receive a periodic report in order to monitor the exceptions.

 

C. A review of old Faculty Senate minutes brought to light a policy that states that courses that do not directly apply to a degree program should not be offered for University credit. After discussion of the issue, the Graduate Council decided it would make the recommendtion that if the Undergraduate Council or ICPC was to propose a policy to prohit courses that don't apply to a degree from receiving credit, that the Graduate College not be included. This passed the Graduate Council unanimously.

 

D. The "Report of Incomplete Grade" form was discussed and affirmed its support of the Incomplete Policy as written in the University Graduate Catalog.

 

E. A handout on the qualifications to teach graduate courses was given to the Council members for discussion.

 

F. Completion data for UA NRC PhD programs was discussed. The Associate Deans of the Graduate College will visit with departments with low completion rates in their Ph.D. programs to discuss the reasons this is the case and to determine what can be done to increase their number of Ph.D. graduates.

 

VI. Announcements
The next meeting of the Graduate Council will be November 30, 2007 in the Special Collections Room in the Main Library from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

 

VII. Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda Nultemeier

Program Coordinator, Sr.

Graduate Council Secretary