GRADUATE COUNCIL MINUTES

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