April Minutes

April 20, 2017

Member's Present

Voting: Professors J.R. Chimka, T.P. Cronan, N.D. Dennis, P.K. Dowe J. Gigantino, V.H. Hunt, R. Kali, K. Korth, J.W. Murry, K.L. Needy, J.C. Rupe, R. Warren; Mr. M. Christie

Non-Voting: Professors A.E. Ellstrand, M.R. Evans, P.R. Koski, L.L. Lennertz J. Penner-Williams

Members Absent

Voting: Second representative from the College of Education and Health Professions; Second student representative

Non-Voting: Dr. S. Adams

Secretary: Ms. T. M. Fisher

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

  1. Professor Koski adjusted the agenda by adding a new item 6 – rules pertaining to graduate certificates. Professor P. Cronan also asked that a new agenda item 7 be added to talk about the Council of Graduate Schools April 15th resolution.
  2. Minutes for the March 16th, 2017, Graduate Council meeting stand approved, as no changes were suggested. (Graduate Council Minutes).
  3. Professor Koski congratulated Professor J. Gigantino on the Daniel E. Ferritor Award for Departmental Excellence in Teaching given to the Department of History.
  4. Professor Koski told the Council that the Academic Appeals Committee met the day before and decided three cases.
  5. Professor Koski asked the Council for feedback on whether it would be a problem to leave doctoral dissertation titles out of the commencement program. There was considerable discussion about this. Members were asked to obtain input on this issue from their constituents.
  6. Dean Needy updated the Council on a grant proposal being prepared by GSIE with several institutional partners to investigate the career paths of Ph.D. students in the Humanities and in STEM fields (including social sciences).
  7. There was no old business.
  8. New Business: Professor S. Dittmore presented a proposal to modify the curriculum in the M.Ed. degree in Recreation and Sport Management (RESMME) and to also change the preferred GPA for admission from 3.00 to 3.20 on the last 60 hours of the undergraduate degree. Following discussion, the proposal was approved unanimously and will go next to the Faculty Senate.
    The proposed changes may be viewed in Attachment A or Program and Unit Changes on the Registrar's site.
  9. Professor Koski asked the Council for clarification on a recent rule change. The change previously approved by the Graduate Council eliminated the requirement for enrollment in the summer for post-candidacy doctoral students, beginning with the 2017-18 Graduate Catalog. Professor Koski asked if this would be in effect beginning in a particular semester or with a particular cohort of students. The Council ruled that the new policy will begin with students graduating in Summer 2018 – that is, students graduating before Summer 2018 will need to be continuously enrolled, including summers, following the candidacy exam. Students graduating Summer 2018 and after will only need to be enrolled in the summer if that is the semester of their graduation.
  10. Professor Koski asked the Council to check with their constituencies about eliminating the phrase marked in yellow on Attachment B.
  11. Professor Cronan asked for a clarification of the Council of Graduate Schools April 15th resolution. This is a resolution signed by the major graduate schools in the U.S., including the U of A, which stipulates that we will not require students to make a decision about a graduate assistantship offer before April 15th. Professor Koski reminded everyone that if we know about a violation of this resolution – either by our faculty or faculty at other universities – this should be reported to Dean Needy.
  12. The course change report from the University Course and Programs Committee was unanimously approved (Attachment C), with a modification to ISYS 5103 to indicate that it will be offered both on-line and in a blended format.
  13. The graduate faculty recommendations contained in Attachment D were unanimously approved.
  14. There was a question about a potential change to the course/program approval process to create separate paths for undergraduate and graduate courses/programs. This is still under discussion. Professor Dennis mentioned that there is also some violation of current rules for membership on the University Course and Programs Committee so this will also be a topic of discussion.

There being no other business, the Council adjourned at 2:51 p.m. The Council will meet next on Thursday, May 18th, 2017, at 2:00 p.m., in the Upchurch Conference Room of Bell Engineering.