Graduate Council Minutes

January 21, 2016

MEMBERS PRESENT

Voting: Professors J.R. Chimka, T.P. Cronan, N.D. Dennis, K.S. Grover, J.B. Kerr, K. Korth, K.L. Needy, J.T. Scott, D. Shirey, F. Spiegel, R. Warren; Ms. M. Mbianda Kemayou; Mr. T. Talafuse

Non-Voting: Professors J. Ganson, P.R. Koski, M.T. Miller, Y. Murphy-Erby; Dr. S. Adams

MEMBERS ABSENT

Voting: Professor V. Anand, V.H. Hunt

Non-Voting: Professors A. O’Leary-Kelly, L.J. Robertson

SECRETARY: Ms. T. M. Fisher

GUESTS Professors R. Hamm, M. Hevel, S. Kucharczyk, G. Parnell

The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m. by Chair Patricia Koski

  1. Professor Koski introduced Professor J.B. Kerr, who will be replacing Professor P.K. Dowe while she is on OCDA this semester.
  2. Minutes for the December 17th, 2015, Graduate Council meeting stand approved, as no changes were suggested. (Graduate Council Minutes).
  3. Dean Needy told the Council about remarks made by the Provost at the December Faculty Senate meeting: a) he would like to move nine-month doctoral GA positions to 12-month positions where possible; b) he would like to provide funds for departments/programs to make two offers for each GA position under certain conditions; c) he wants to make a financial commitment to new interdisciplinary programs when possible; and d) he would like to provide funds for students who go off of an assistantship in their final semester of work for the doctoral degree. Dean Needy also told the Council that the Graduate School will be more selective in offering graduate student travel grants this fiscal year – and is likely to stop awarding grants to master’s students – as funds are running out.
    Professor J. Ganson reminded the Council that there is a graduate reading room available for graduate students in the Library and also new collaborative rooms for students and faculty to meet. She also told the Council that theses and dissertations are in the process of being made available through ScholarWorks@UARK, our institutional repository.
  4. Professor Koski reported that the Academic Appeals Committee heard three cases in their monthly meeting the day before. There were no other committee reports.
  5. There was no old business.
  6. New Business
    1. Professor S. Kucharczyk presented a proposal to modify the Autism Spectrum Disorder graduate certificate (AUTSGC) by removing CDIS 5143 as a required course and adding SPED 5143.
    2. Professor M. Hevel proposed to make editorial changes to the catalog and to modify the Ed.D. degree in Higher Education (HIEDED) by: 1) modifying application requirements; 2) deleting HIED 6023 and HIED 6533 from list of core courses; 3) moving HIED 5043 from core courses to electives; 4) adding HIED 6643, 6653, 6683 to list of core courses; 5) adding three credit hours of additional advanced research methods options; 6) changing the list of elective and skills-based course options and changing the number required.
    3. Professor M. Hevel proposed to modify the M.Ed. degree in Higher Education (HIEDME) by 1) modifying application requirements; 2) adding two new higher education elective courses to the list of electives; and 3) adding HIED 5903 Research in Higher Education and Student Affairs as an additional research methods option.
    4. Professor D. Shirey proposed to modify the Master of Science in Nursing degree, Nurse Educator Concentration (NURSMS-NUED), by changing course requirements as shown in Attachment A.
    5. Professors R. Hamm and G. Parnell presented a proposal to create a graduate certificate in Project Management (OMPMGC).
      Following discussion all program proposals were approved unanimously and will go next to the Faculty Senate. These program changes may be viewed at https://nextcatalog.uark.edu/programadmin/). Program proposals are also listed in Attachment A.
  7. The Council discussed the following proposals and asked for clarifications, which will be forthcoming. The Council members were asked to collect feedback from their constituencies for discussion again at our February meeting:
    Currently, there are many active graduate students who are not enrolled and therefore are not reflected in the 11th day enrollment census reports. We have enrollment requirements only for students who are post-candidacy doctoral students, international students, and students who are on assistantships. We don’t want to have a more extensive continuous enrollment policy because of the cost to the student. It is likely that we would lose many more students with such a policy. However, particularly for the humanities, our graduate enrollment is under-reported.
    To solve this problem, we propose that students who are not enrolled in classes and who wish to remain active in UAConnect be required to enroll in a place-holder class with all but $50 of the tuition waived (per semester). This would allow students to retain access to library holdings, their e-mail addresses and other University benefits and they would not have to reapply to the Graduate School and pay an application fee if they wish to resume enrollment. We would discontinue our practice of creating affiliate students. Students who fail to enroll each semester would be assessed a penalty upon readmission.
  8. The course change reports listed in Attachment B were approved unanimously.
  9. The graduate faculty recommendations contained in Attachment C were approved unanimously.

There being no other business, the Council adjourned at 2:39 p.m. The Council will meet next on Thursday, February 25th, 2016, in Upchurch Conference Room of Bell Engineering.

Submitted by: Patricia R. Koski, Chair

Approved by: Kim Needy, Dean