December Agenda

Thursday, December 18th, 2014

2:00 p.m.

Upchurch Conference Room, Bell Engineering

To assist council members in locating and reviewing Graduate Council agenda items in the CourseLeaf system, please review the instructions for Viewing Course and Program Proposals Pending Graduate Council Approval.

    1. Minutes for the November 20th, 2014, Graduate Council meeting will stand approved if no corrections are received. (Please review the Graduate Council Minutes) before the meeting.
    2. Announcements
    3. Report from the Academic Appeals Committee, the Teaching Effectiveness Advisory Committee, and the Library Committee.
    4. Old Business: None

Note: All program changes and program proposals may be viewed at https://nextcatalog.uark.edu/programadmin/)

  1. New Business, Program Changes, Graduate School and International Education
    1. Program in Microelectronics-Photonics, proposal to modify the M.S. degree (MEPHMS) to change the timing of MEPH 5811/6811/6911.
    2. Program in Public Policy, proposal to modify the Ph.D. degree (PUBPPH) in two ways:
      1. ) Replace PLSC 5163 with PUBP 6013
      2. ) Make it an option for students, under certain conditions, to use Social Work electives taken for the MSW degree to fulfill specialization requirements.
  2. Discussion: ADHE requires a “minimum of 30 semester credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree that includes 50 percent graduate-only semester hours in the field of study.” We require six hours of thesis, which is also currently the maximum number of thesis hours that will count toward the degree. This effectively requires a minimum of 24 graded course hours. However, there is no explicit rule about the minimum number of hours that are required, and theoretically a program could request that all 30 hours of the “semester credit hours” be in thesis credit. Should we create a policy about this?
  3. Course change reports from the University Course and Programs Committee (UCPC)
  4. Graduate faculty recommendations for graduate assistants: A preliminary list is attached (Attachment A). A complete list will be distributed at the meeting.
  5. Graduate faculty recommendations for faculty: A preliminary list is attached (Attachment B). A complete list will be distributed at the meeting.
  6. Other Business