April 2009
Graduate Council Meeting
April 17, 2009
3:00 P.M.
McClelland Park Building 402
MINUTES
Invited Guests:
Mike Proctor, Senior Associate Vice President, Outreach and International Affairs
Lisa Graumlich, Director, School of Natural Resources.
Members Present:
Andrew Carnie, Andrew Comrie, Zhao Chen, Nathan Cherrington, Matthew Cordes, Renae Watchman, Dennis Doxtater, Steven Dvorak, Stephanie Fryberg, Dianne Horgan, Kathie Insel, A. Quadir Khan, Lane Kenworthy, K. Tsianina Lomawaima, Lisa Ordonez, Betul Ozkan, Donald Slack, and Sarah Smith
Members Excused:
Bridget Barker, Gautam Gowrisankaran, Molly Hunter, Chuck Hutchinson, Suzanne Knosp, Carl Maes, Andrei Sanov, Gail Varin, Kevin Vinson, and Rose Ylimaki
Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order by Chair Comrie at 3:06 and a sign-in sheet was passed in lieu of roll call. Member Slack motioned to approve the minutes of the March 27, 2009 meeting, the motion was seconded by Member Dvorak, and the minutes were approved.
GPSC Report
Member Khan announced that President Shelton addressed the GPSC on April 8, 2009. Graduate and professional students met with him to ask questions and discuss concerns. These issues included the ongoing budget crisis and the impact on graduate programs and graduate workload.
Graduate and Professional Student Council had a successful election in the last week of March and the new council will take charge April 22, 2009. As a result of the election, David Talenfeld, 2nd year law student is the new GPSC president. Most colleges will have new representatives on the GPSC and there will be new representatives on the Graduate Council this year.
Implementation Proposal for an MS degree in Water Science and Policy. This proposal was given to the Graduate Council at today’s meeting. Lisa Graumlich, Director of the School of Natural Resources was present at the meeting to answer questions about the proposal. The degree would be a professional degree rather than an academic degree and returning students would do a project rather than complete a dissertation. The motion to approve was made by Member Slack and seconded. After discussion the vote was called and the vote was 14 in favor, 0 opposed, and 3 abstentions. The individuals abstaining indicated they had done so because they had not had a chance to read in its entirety. Because this proposal requires a vote of the majority of the entire Graduate Council Membership, an electronic copy of the proposal was sent to the full membership for review. The electronic vote was completed on April 20, and the motion to approve passed with a majority vote of the members of the Graduate Council -- 19 in favor, 0 opposed, and 2 abstentions.
Proposed Changes to the Graduate Council Bylaws. Among the changes are that the chair of the Graduate Council shall be appointed by the Chair of the Faculty, on advice of the Committee on Committees and in consultation with the Dean of the Graduate College; the Dean and Associate Deans of the Graduate College are ex officio members of the Council”; and wording as to the process by which representation on the Graduate Council is allocated to the colleges was added.
Member Slack motioned to approve the proposed changes in the Graduate Council Bylaws. The motion was seconded. An electronic vote was taken as the motion requires a majority vote of the full membership. The motion passed with a vote of 26 in favor, 0 opposed, and 0 abstentions.
Discussion items.
Some universities have implemented the requirement for doctoral students to prepare and file abstracts of their dissertations (understandable by the general public) as part of their dissertation process. The Graduate Council discussed the pros and cons of doing this and no decision was made at this time.
Discussion took place as to whether the Council wanted to change the day and time of future Graduate Council meetings and it was decided to keep to the current schedule of meeting from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the third Friday of each month of the academic year, with the exception of December when no meeting is held.
Invited guest. Michael Proctor, Senior Associate Vice President of Outreach and International Affairs, was present at the meeting and briefed the Council on the distance learning process.
Announcements:
Members scheduled to rotate off of the Graduate Council this year were Lane Kenworthy, A. Quadir Khan, Kevin Vinson, and Gail Varin. Chair Comrie thanked A. Quadir Khan, Kevin Vinson, and Gail Varin for their willingness to serve on the Council for another term. A plaque of appreciation was given to Member Kenworthy for his service to the Council and his interest in graduate education at the University.
Today was the last meeting of the 2008-2009 academic year. Chair Comrie thanked everyone for their participation on the Graduate Council this year and is looking forward to working with them in the fall. The next meeting of the Graduate Council will be in August 2009, with date and location to be determined.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Nultemeier
Graduate Council Secretary
Addendum
On April 28, 2009 a revision to the Grade Replacement Opportunity Policy (GRO Policy) from that approved earlier in the year was sent to the Graduate Council. An electronic vote of membership was taken and the revision was approved with a vote of 28 in favor, 1 opposed, and 0 abstentions.