Graduate Council Meeting
February 20, 2009
3:00 P.M.
McClelland Park Building
(corner of 4th Street and Park)

 

MINUTES

Invited Guests: Dan Madden, Associate Professor, Mathematics
John Schmitz, Department Head, Veterinary Science/Microbiology

 

Members Present: Bridget Barker, Andrew Carnie, Andrew Comrie, Zhao Chen, Renae Watchman Dearhouse, Steven Dvorak, Gautam Gowrisankaran, Dianne Horgan, Molly Hunter, Kathie Insel, Suzanne Knosp, K. Tsianina Lomawaima, Betul Ozkan, Andrei Sanov, Timothy Secomb, Donald Slack, Sarah K. Smith, Maria Teresa Velez, Kevin Vinson

Members Excused: Nathan Cherrington, Matthew Cordes, Dennis Doxtater, Stephanie Fryberg, A. Quadir Khan, Lane Kenworthy, Carl Maes, Lisa Ordonez, Gail Varin, Rose Ylimaki

 

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Chair Comrie at 3:07 p.m. and a sign-in sheet passed. New members, Sarah K. Smith, Bridget Barker, Renae Watchman Dearhouse, Gautam Gowrisankaran, and Molly Hunter, were introduced.

The minutes of January 16, 2009 were read and modifications were made. The motion to approve as modified was made by Member Vinson, seconded by Member Gowrisankaran and passed unanimously.

 

Dean’s Report
Chair Comrie reported that application and admissions are up from last year. He also reported that a Graduate Programs Assessment Committee is being put together to review 2-page narratives and spreadsheets from every UA department with a graduate program or programs (of which there are approximately 200). The Committee will also review comments and responses to those reports from the applicable deans. The Committee will meet on March 4 and March 5 to evaluate the data and compile a report due to the Provost by March 6, 2009.

 

GPSC Report
Member Barker reported that the GPSC met with the Dean of Libraries about a “library use” proposal. The GPSC recommended the proposal be rejected based on insufficient information. Two proposals for technical fees also went before the GPSC. They are sending them to the Resources & Policy Appropriations Committee and a vote on the proposals will be taken at that time.

 

Member Barker also reported that GPSC elections are coming up soon. Due to other pressures at this time, the GPSC is having a difficult time recruiting individuals for pending GPSC officer vacancies. Member Barker asked the members of the Council to let the GPSC know if any of the graduate and professional students in their departments are interested in serving as a representative on the Council. Serving as a representative requires about five to ten hours a month.

New Business
Guest Dan Madden, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics, was present at the meeting to provide background and answer questions about their request for implementation authorization for a new graduate program, Master of Arts in Middle School Mathematics Teaching and Leadership. This new Master of Arts degree training is for in-service middle school and junior high mathematics teachers of mathematics for grades 6-9 and its pedagogy. The majority of students would complete the degree by attending night and summer classes and eventually through the alternative of distance learning. The Mathematics Department has received a grant from NSF for this program. Member Ozkan expressed concern that although the term “leadership” is in the title of the program, there appeared to be no coursework in leadership offered in the degree program. Guest Madden agreed that no coursework in leadership was present in the curriculum; however, “leadership” in this case represents “mathematics teaching leadership.” Individuals with this degree will assume a mentoring role because they will become the lead math teachers in their schools. A motion to approve the implementation proposal was made by Member Lomawaima and seconded by Member Vinson. The motion passed with 18 in favor of the motion, one abstention, and 0 opposed.

 

Dr. John Schmitz, Department Head of Veterinary Science/Microbiology was present at the Graduate Council meeting to provide the Council with the background for their proposal to merge the two PhD level programs in Veterinary Science/Microbiology. After discussion, Member Insel made the motion to approve,
seconded by Member Dvorak, and the vote taken. The motion passed unanimously, 19 in favor, 0 abstentions, 0 opposed.

 

The Academic Renewal Policy was brought before the Council by Member Horgan. If a graduate student is considering an application to a different degree program, the student may apply to the Graduate College for Academic Renewal. Academic Renewal allows graduate students not doing well in their major to have grades for a particular period of time excluded from their graduate GPA. The student would be able to drop a previous grade, grades, or the entire GPA in that major. Dropped grades would, however, remain on the transcript as part of the history of the student, but the grade(s) would not be calculated in the GPA. The opportunity to make use of this Policy would have to be initiated by the program and the student would still have to be accepted into the new major.

 

It was suggested that the following wording in the draft be changed from “If the request is approved, the student may have a maximum of four consecutive semesters of course work completed within a 24-month period and with no intervening enrollments at the UA, disregarded in all calculations regarding academic standing, grade-point-average, and eligibility for graduation” to reflect that the student can have up to a maximum of four consecutive semesters……With this revision, the motion to approve the Academic Renewal Policy was made by Member Carnie and seconded by Member Slack. The motion passed unanimously, with 19 in favor of the motion, 0 abstentions, 0 opposed.

 

Discussion was held on a revision to the “Incompletes” policy. The main change is that if the “incomplete” is not made up to change the grade within a year, the incomplete will stay on the transcript. Students will continue to have the option to drop a class up until the last day of that class.

A suggestion was made that some type of training take place to educate faculty and students about Incompletes (I’s) and Withdrawals (W’s). Member Gowrisankaran motioned to approve the changes in the Incomplete Policy. Member Hunter seconded the motion and the vote was taken. The motion passed unanimously with 19 in favor, 0 abstentions, and 0 opposed.

 

Member Horgan distributed a copy of the Resolution regarding Graduate Scholars, Fellows, Trainees, and Assistants, as well as a document containing reminders from Degree Certification about recent Graduate College policy changes. Copies of both of these documents will be sent to the DGS’s.

 

Chair Comrie informed the membership that if they would like information on the Mosaic project, a copy of the Mosaic Newsletter can be found online at www.mosaic.arizona.edu.

 

Announcements. Because the March meeting of the Graduate Council falls during Spring Break, the meeting originally scheduled for March 20 has been moved to March 27 at 3:00 p.m. in the Special Collections Reading Room (just east of the entrance to the Main Library). This change in meeting location applies only to the March 27 meeting.

 

Chair Comrie announced that he will be inviting Mike Proctor, Senior Associate Vice President, Outreach and International Programs, to attend a future Graduate Council meeting to discuss the online education process – what it is, what qualifications must be met in order for a course to be offered online, etc.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Linda Nultemeier
Graduate Council Secretary