The meeting was called to order by Dean Douglas Wartzok at 3:30 p.m.
 

I. Minutes
The minutes of the 17 November 1999 meeting were approved.

II. Candidates for Degrees
Candidates for the May and August 2000 commencements were approved pending successful completion of all degree requirements.

III Report of the Graduate Faculty Nominating Committee - Nasser Arshadi
The Graduate Faculty Nominating Committee recommends the following slate of nominees to fill vacant positions on the Graduate Council, Doctoral Faculty Selection Committee, and Secretary to the Graduate Faculty. All nominees have been contacted and are willing to serve if elected.

Doctoral Faculty Selection Committee - two year term to expire in May 2002
Sally Hardin, Nursing
Haiyan Cai, Math/Physical Sciences
Janet Lauritsen, Social Siences
Michael Elliott, Business
Vengu Lakshminarayanan, Optometry
Jeanne Morgan Zarucchi, Humanities
Carole Murphy, Education

Graduate Council - two year term to expire in May 2002
Allison Hoewisch, Education
David Rose, Social Sciences
Larry Davis, Optometry
Peggy Ellis, Nursing
Thaddeus Metz, Humanities
Kyungho Oh, Math/Physical Sciences
Shirley Bissen, Math/Physical Sciences

Graduate Faculty Secretary - one year term to expire in May 2001
Jennifer Reynolds-Moehrle, Business

There being no additional nominations from the floor, the slate of candidates was closed. The Faculty accepted the committee's report.

IV. Report of the Graduate Council - Piers Rawling
Council approved seven new faculty for membership in the Graduate Faculty.

The following new degree proposals were approved:
Ph.D. Urban and Metropolitan Studies
M.H.S. Managerial Decision-Making and Health Informatics
Ph.D. Business Administration with MIS concentration
and changes in the existing programs in the
M.A. English
Graduate Certificate in Tropical Biology
M.A. in Sociology
M.Ed. Secondary Education w/ emphasis in Adult Education
M.Ed. Emphasis in Elementary Counseling
M.Ed. Emphasis in Secondary Counseling

One hundred and fifty seven courses additions, deletions, and changes were reviewed and approved.

The following fellowships were awarded: four 5-month dissertation fellowships; six 12-month dissertation fellowships; thirteen doctoral and master's summer research fellowships; and fifteen Graduate School Fellowships.

V. Dean's Report
The System changed the title of the original M.H.S. degree. It is now called the M.H.S. in Managerial Decision-Making and Health Informatics. The original title had been M.H.S. in Health Informatics and Managerial Decision-Making. UMC has a master's degree in Health Informatics and thought that our degree would be too similar to their degree. The CBHE documents for the two degrees indicate that they adopt very different approaches, but to move the degree proposal forward, we agreed to the change in degree title.

It is anticipated that the Ph.D. in Business Administration with an MIS concentration will reach the Senate this month for their review.

The Ph.D. in Urban and Metropolitan Studies was not approved by the Senate. The title was more of a problem than the content of the proposal. The Dean will revisit the issue with President Pacheco. The title Urban and Metropolitan Studies is a well established title and in the proposal was used as more of a generic degree to allow for the development of degrees in various emphasis areas with History being the first emphasis area. There was wide support for the History degree, but not under the title of an interdisciplinary Urban and Metropolitan Studies degree. All other universities offering Urban and Metropolitan Studies degrees do so through an established College of Urban Studies.

Graduate student credit hours for Winter 2000 were 9716 at the Master's level compared to 10,096 in Winter 1999, indicating a 3.7% drop. SCH's at the doctoral level for Winter 2000 were 1681 compared to 1493 in Winter 1999, a 12% increase. FTE at the Master's level decreased by 42 (3.7%) over the previous year, but increased by 21 (12.7%) at the doctoral level. Based on estimated figures of graduated students for Winter 2000, there will be 215 Master's degrees awarded this semester, a decrease of about 14% from Winter 1999; the number of doctoral degrees is expected to rise to 9 from 7 awarded the previous year.

CBHE approved 4 emphasis areas for the Ph.D in Education. They are Counseling, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Educational Psychology, and Teaching-Learning Processes. This was a corrective action since the original three emphasis areas submitted with the proposal were removed by System when they forwarded the combined Ph.D. in Education package to CBHE as a cooperative program with Columbia and Kansas City.

The Graduate School and Office of Research Administration had its five-year review. The internal review team consisted of Gordon Anderson, Jim Shymansky and Richard Wright. The outside reviewer was Dr. Linda Brinkley, Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Dean at the University of Memphis. Both reviews indicated that the staffing levels for the office were low. The animal welfare unit's negative cash flow was a concern. It was suggested that internal grant money be used for more strategic investments for external funding. The graduate school application fee should be returned to the Graduate School to be used for recruiting. Overall, the reviewers felt the office was doing a good job.

The Dean met with a representative from the UM System today to discuss insurance for graduate students. The information will be distributed to the graduate program directors. There are 3 different proposals available. Some Mission Enhancement money support could be used to subsidize the graduate student health insurance program. The costs range from $52 per month to $100 per month for the student only. The program would require a "hard waiver" for GTA/GRA/Graduate Fellows; i.e., students in these categories would have to enroll in the program or show equivalent health insurance.

VI. Other business
Dr. Spaner mentioned the Summer Bulletin's four sessions and the TRAIN (telephone registration) system are not consistent. Students have not been able to register through the TRAIN system because it is still programmed for Intersession and Summer Session rather than Sessions I, II, III, and IV. The Dean will try to have the problem corrected as soon as possible.

Dr. Rawling asked if students would not be allowed to register if they owed money to the University. The Dean said that policy has been revised and the amount of money owed to the University that would result in blocking of registration is now greater than a thousand dollars.

There being no other business the meeting adjourned at 4:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Steven D. Spaner
Graduate Faculty Secretary

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