GRADUATE COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting
Dean Judith Walker de Felix
called the meeting to order at
I. Minutes
Dr. David Curry
moved and Dr. Bill Kyle seconded the motion to approve the minutes of the
II. Nomination to the Graduate Faculty
Dr Tara Galovski, Assistant Research Professor in the Center for Trauma Recovery and the Department of Psychology, was approved for Graduate Faculty membership.
III. Committee Assignments
The Dean asked Council to find nominees for the remaining vacancies on the Graduate Council committees.
The Provost is working to streamline the C & I process. The Dean will send Council the URL for the curriculum tutorial on the Academic Affairs web site.
IV. Dean’s Report
The Dean asked Council to talk to faculty and find out their needs. Do we have too many barriers, reviews? Some Council members felt the program review process with outside consultants was both expensive and time-consuming. What value do we receive from them? The Dean noted that program review is necessary for accreditation. NCA wants us to assure our quality; now and for the future. CBHE is under pressure from the legislators to change the 5-year review system.
The Dean updated the group on the proposed quick admit process. Suggestions were to better advertise our deadlines; ensure the marketing campaign does not target graduate students when soliciting last minute admits. Often, graduate applicants are frustrated if they can’t be admitted quickly or the classes are already full. About ½ of the MBA applications are received in Graduate Admissions after the July 1 deadline. The same is true of Education applicants.
If the quick admit process goes into effect we must ensure that applicants are aware of their admission status (i.e. not admitted to take additional courses); ensure the process isn’t harmful to the student and is of value to the student.
The Dean provided an overview of discussion in the Graduate Program Directors group:
*each department would provide a list of courses that any student could take as a quick-admit;
*admission would be for one semester only;
*The GPA standard should be higher than normal admission;
*the application fee would be $15.00 higher than normal admission;
*some Departments may decide to not allow any courses for quick admits.
Some Council members are unsure how their colleagues will feel about this process. The Physics faculty would allow students in their courses whereas Biology and Public Policy faculty would not.
Suggested addition to the proposed process: To ensure prompt service to applicants, ask the Graduate Program Directors to notify Graduate Admissions when they will be available between the July 1 deadline and the start of classes. If they are not available, then an alternate faculty member should be listed.
An alternate model to the quick admits could be the walk-through applicant. It was also suggested that one of the Graduate Admissions advisors help to enter the data from the graduate applications.
The Dean will refine the quick admit process, share it with this group and then test it after the December 1 deadline for the Spring semester. The quick admits will most likely be teachers in the Humanities and Education, those in Business, English and some in the sciences.
Provisional Status
The
Proposal to Chancellor. The Dean will submit a proposal to the Chancellor regarding graduate needs for the action plan. Council suggested the following items to include in the proposal: increase the amount and number of stipends; need for additional faculty; space for students with similar backgrounds. (In departments such as Physics, Biology and Psychology, the students have a gathering place and meet frequently. This type of space needs to be available to all graduate students, even if there is only one space per building.)
When asked if tuition scholarships can be given to those who receive outside fellowships, the Dean responded that she approves these on a case by case basis. Council suggested that if students knew we would pay their tuition when receiving outside funding, it might encourage more students to apply for funding.
The Dean will ask the Rules and Regulations committee to look at our current minimum stipends for GTAs which are $5000 for Master’s students and $7500 for doctoral students. NSF’s current amount is $27,000 for 9 months and $30,000 for 12 months. For the Fall semester, there are approximately 250 GRAs/GTAs. Included in the proposal to the Chancellor should be a request for money to match the lowest stipend in the UM System. This would ensure our stipend levels would be on a par with the other UM campuses.
The Council also suggested that the Dean tie this request to retention, diversity, need. The Dean will ask the Graduate Program Directors to send her data on how many applicants turned down our offers based on low stipends; how many left because of no funding and include this in a profile. Dr. Macan offered to help write it.
Another suggestion for funding was to look for training grants, e.g MOSTEP for Biology master’s students. Biology now pays the same for MA and PhD level stipends. In Psychology, doctoral students are doing the same work but there is a salary difference among the 3 doctoral stipend levels. Dr. Kyle noted there are disparities in stipends, even in the Big Twelve schools. Also, the Grad Deans list serve showed that post docs make less money than graduate students do.
There being no other business, David
Curry moved to end the meeting and Therese Macan seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at
Respectfully submitted,
Therese Macan
Secretary/Vice-Chairperson
TM:meh