GRADUATE COUNCIL MEETING
Friday, February 03, 2006-10:00 a.m.
325 Graff Main Hall
Members Present: VJ Agarwal, George Arimond, Tracie Blumentritt, Rob Dixon, Thomas Krueger, Tom Kuffel, Yang II
Park, Kasi Periyasamy, Steve Simpson
Members Excused: Dan Sutherland, Michelle Thorman
Members Absent: Tiffany Rousch (Student Rep.) and Andrea Von Dollen (Student Rep.)
Consultants Present: Bruce May, Charles Martin-Stanley, Diane Schumacher
Consultants Excused: Karen Mc Lean, Teri Staloch
Others Present: Anna Block (Grad Student)
1. The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. by Rob Dixon.
2. A motion was made, seconded and passed to approve the minutes for January 6, 2006. (8 yes, 0 no)
3. VJ gave an update on Academic Initiative funds and Applicant Search Tool. VJ informed the council he would be
scheduling another training session for Applicant Search Tool. Anyone who was unable to attend the session in January
is encouraged to attend.
4. VJ also gave an update on the apportionment fee and indicated that he has requested $8K instead of the $2.5K we
usually get. With the increase, he is hoping to fund a grad student to help with communication with the entire
graduate student body.
5. Diane Schumacher asked who non-degree students report to for directions, support, etc. No one really seemed to know
the answer and Diane will do research on this and bring her findings to the council for discussion.
6. Thesis Guidelines Comparison Document: Anna Block (Graduate Assistant) created the document from program
thesis guidebooks, some programs were not represented because the manual information was not forwarded. Anna gave
an overview of the document; hand-outs were distributed to council members. VJ asked the council members to
review the document; any suggestion/concerns will be discussed at a future meeting.
7. Celebration of Research will be March 31, 2006. A sub-committee will plan and organize the graduate portion of
research day. The sub-committee will include Tom Krueger, Yang II Park, Kasi Periyasamy and Anna Block (Graduate
Assistant).
8. Thesis Awards: There will be up to 2 thesis awards and would be at the university level (not college level) and will be
determined by a sub group of the grad council and the graduate faculty at large. VJ is going to work with the
foundation to seek a donor. For the current year, the mechanics will be discussed at a future meeting and the awarding
of the award will be at commencement. Motion was made, seconded and passed to elevate the selection of thesis
awards from the college level to university level. (8 yes, 0 no)
In addition, there will be up to 5 graduate student awards to be determined at the college level.
9. GRC 799 /policy and travel grants will be on a future agenda for discussion.
Meeting adjourned: 11:00 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Fran Temp
c: Graduate Council Members
Department Chairs
Graduate Program Directors
Faculty Senate
Graduate Council File