GRADUATE COUNCIL MINUTES

Friday, March 2, 2007-10:00 a.m.

325 Graff Main Hall

Members Present:    Peggy Denton, Tim Donahue, Kasi Periyasamy, S.N. Rajagopal, William Schwan, Steve Simpson, Teri Staloch

Members Excused:  Vijendra Agarwal, Lauren Cikara, Gary Gilmore, Yang Il Park, David Reineke

Members Absent:     Jonathan Majak

Consultants Present:  Lise Graham, Diane Schumacher, Rob Tyser, Janis Von Ruden

Consultants Excused:  Chris Bakkum

Others Present:        Amelia Dittman

1.  The meeting was called to order at 10:06 am. by Bill Schwan

2.  Announcements

• The Graduate Faculty Membership Subcommittee for Spring 2007 will be:
  • CLS: Jonathan Majak and S.N. Rajagopal
  • SAH: Bill Schwan and Teri Staloch
• The Thesis Award Subcommittee will be Tom Kuffel (representing the Foundation), David Reineke, Vijendra Agarwal, and 2 additional faculty members to be recruited.

3.  A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes for the February 16, 2007 meeting.   (7 yes, 0 no, 0 abstention)

Motion carried.

4.  Student Issues draft report for the Faculty Senate

• Kasi Periyasamy presented the draft report to the Council.  He highlighted specific issues related to international students and financial support. 
• Tim Donahue, another member of the Student Issues Subcommittee, informed the Council that a survey of graduate students will be conducted to find out if there are additional issues that need to be addressed and to start to look for solutions.
• No changes were suggested for the document.
• Vijendra Agarwal is scheduled to present the student issues and recruitment reports to the Faculty Senate on March 29^th.

5.  Dual degree program changes

• Diane Schumacher presented proposed changes to dual degree programs.
• Slash courses would be eliminated over the next 3-4 years and those courses would just be numbered as graduate level work
• The changes would relieve workload burdens at several levels (classroom, program, college offices, and registrar’s office).  The transcript would be changed to be a true reflection of a student’s work.
• There is a potential problem with the calculation of undergraduate GPA for the Bachelor’s degree commencement/graduation honors and with CAPS. 
• The change would affect the following dual degree programs: BIO/PTS, PHY/PTS and PSY/O-T.  This is similar to a change that was already put through with the 5 year BS/MSE program.  Any new dual degree programs would be designed to fit this model.
• The change will begin Summer 2007 for new students, with current students grandfathered into the current program system.
• S.N. Rajagopal made a motion to approve the changes as requested.  It was seconded by Tim Donahue.  (7 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions)

Motion carried.

6.      Repeating a course policy

·         Proposed policy:  “a graduate student can repeat a course only once in which a grade of C or lower was earned.   The new grade will replace the original grade.  Only one attempt will be counted toward meeting degree requirements.”

·         Suggestion from the Registrar’s Office:  allow students to repeat courses in which they receive a D or an F, since they receive no credit for the course, and average both grades into GPA. 

·         The sense of the Council is that any change should reflect a comprehensive policy, incorporating both repeating a grade and academic dismissals.

·         An email will be sent to all the Graduate Program Directors to solicit their feedback regarding making a change to these policies.

·         The Graduate Council Advisory Committee will meet later this month with a representative from the registrar’s office, review the Graduate Program Directors’ feedback, and make a policy recommendation to be presented at a future Graduate Council meeting.

Meeting adjourned:  11:07 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Chandra Hawkins

C:        Graduate Council Members

            Department Chairs

            Graduate Program Directors

            Faculty Senate

            Graduate Council File