The meeting was called to order by Dean Douglas Wartzok at 3:00 p.m.

Minutes
The minutes of the 1 December 1998 meeting were approved.

Candidates for Degrees
Candidates for the Winter 1999 and Summer 1999 commencements were approved pending successful completion of all degree requirements.

Report from the Nominating Committee - Bob Nauss
The committee recommends the following faculty to serve on the Graduate School committees for 1999-01:

Doctoral Faculty Selection Committee
Scot Danforth, Education
Ronald Dotzel, Math/Physical Sciences
Ricardo Flores, Math/Physical Sciences
Marius Janson, Business
Andrew Glassberg, Social Sciences
Miles Patterson, Social Sciences

Secretary to the Graduate Faculty
Steve Spaner

Graduate Council
Joachim Stoeckler, Math/Physical Sciences
Ta-Pei Cheng, Math/Physical Sciences
Fran Hoffmann, Social Sciences
Anne Winkler, Social Sciences
Margaret Sherraden, Social Sciences
Donald Kummer, Business
Matthew Keefer, Education
Paul Roth, Humanities

There being no other nominations from the floor, the slate of nominees was approved.

Report from the Graduate Council - Doug Wartzok for Piers Rawling
Council has meet four times since the Fall Graduate Faculty Meeting.

The Admissions and Scholarship committee submitted new guidelines for the Mission Enhancement Graduate School Fellowships. Two deadlines were chosen - February 28 and March 31. The first round produced 5 recipients. The committee also selected 5 recipients for the Dissertation Fellowships and are in the process of selecting recipients for the Summer Research Fellowships and the second round of Graduate School Fellowships.

The Curriculum Committee recommended approval for 185 course proposals.

The Program Development Committee reviewed and Council approved the following:
Change in degree requirements for the:
•Master of Education in Educational Administration
•Master of Social Work
•Graduate Studies in Mathematics

New degree program:
•Master of Science in Computer Science

The Graduate Council proposed two changes to the rules and regulations which were submitted with the agenda. Before these were discussed, Dr. Wartzok read an e-mail Dr. Spaner had sent which suggested a change to the revision proposed by the Graduate Council. Dr. Wartzok asked if any member of the Graduate Faculty in attendance wanted to make a motion regarding Dr. Spaner's proposed changes. Dr. Fazzaro moved, on behalf of Dr. Spaner, the following change to the Graduate Faculty Rules and Regulations (the sentences in italics are those different from the Graduate Council proposal).

Proposed wording to section 2.1, paragraph 3:

"All members of the Graduate Faculty can serve as members of comprehensive exam committees, exit project committees, and master's thesis committees. In general, only those members of the Graduate Faculty with a tenured or tenure-track position may chair master's thesis committees and serve on doctoral dissertation committees. Upon the recommendation of the thesis or dissertation committee chair and the approval of the home department chair or corresponding academic unit head, non-regular Graduate Faculty who bring a pertinent and relevant expertise to a committee may also serve in these capacities.

This motion failed for lack of a second. Dr. Fazzaro moved, on behalf of Dr. Spaner, the following change to the Graduate Faculty Rules and Regulations (the sentences in italics are those different from the Graduate Council proposal).

Proposed wording to section 2.3, paragraph 1:

"All members of the Doctoral Faculty may serve on doctoral dissertation committees. In general, only those members of the Doctoral Faculty with a tenured or tenure-track position may chair dissertation committees. Upon the recommendation of the dissertation committee chair and the approval of the home department chair or corresponding academic unit head, non-regular Graduate Faculty who bring a pertinent and relevant expertise to a committee may co-chair doctoral dissertation committees.

This motion failed for lack of a second.

The Graduate Faculty voted on the wording as presented by the Graduate Council:

Proposed wording for Section 2.1, paragraph 3:

"All members of the Graduate Faculty can serve as members of comprehensive exam committees, exit project committees, and master's thesis committees. In general, only those members of the Graduate Faculty with a tenured or tenure-track position may chair master's thesis committees and serve on doctoral dissertation committees. With the approval of the Graduate Dean, non-regular Graduate Faculty who bring a particular expertise to a committee may also serve in these capacities."

Proposed wording for Section 2.3, paragraph 1:

"All members of the Doctoral Faculty may serve on doctoral dissertation committees. In general, only those members of the Doctoral Faculty with a tenured or tenure-track position may chair doctoral dissertation committees. With the approval of the Graduate Dean, non-regular Doctoral Faculty who bring a particular expertise to a committee may co-chair doctoral dissertation committees."

With one dissenting vote each, the proposed changes to sections 2.1 and 2.3 were approved.

Dean's Report
The Winter 1999 enrollment is 2217 compared to a Winter 1998 enrollment of 2365, a decrease of 6%. Arts and Sciences had a headcount increase of 5, Business decreased by 3, Education decreased by 96, Nursing decreased by 26 and Optometry increased by 3.

The number of students enrolled at the master's level decreased by 8% and the enrollments at the doctoral level increased by 4%.

We anticipate that 275 master's students and 7 doctoral students will graduate this May compared to 231 master's students and 10 doctoral students last May.

The University has subscribed to Apply Yourself, a web-based application package. A person can apply for hundreds of programs throughout the country. If a fee is required from a university, Apply Yourself will collect it and forward it to the university's account.

Some of the graduate program directors noted a drop in the number and quality of applications and wonder if it is attributable to the newly installed application fee. Although the top applicants are as good as previous years, those below the top applicants aren't as good as in previous years. This could cause a problem if some of the top candidates don't accept an offer of admission. Applications are down 30% this year for Summer and Fall.

This year's Mission Enhancement money has increased the number of awards for dissertation fellowships and summer research fellowships. We will award 5 dissertation fellowships and 10 summer research fellowships. Last year we were only able to award 2 dissertation fellowships and 5 summer research fellowships. We have also increased tuition remission from 50% to 75% beginning in Fall 1999. If Mission Enhancement funding continues as anticipated, we will be able to move the dissertation fellowships to a full year of coverage. Currently, dissertation fellowships are awarded over a five month period, from April to August. The Graduate Program Directors and Graduate Chairs suggested that as an interim measure, two competitions be held for the Dissertation Fellowships, with each award covering 7 months, or one academic semester plus the summer. This would allow a greater number of eligible students to participate in the competition.

University officials recently met with representatives from Sylvan Learning Center. They have exclusive contracts with ETS for the GRE, TOEFL, and GMAT computer-based examinations, and with most of the other organizations offering computer-based tests. They propose to open a center on campus. It would not be named a Sylvan Testing Center, but rather an Institutional Testing Center. It would be a 10-seat facility for taking computerized tests offered by Sylvan. The plan is for it to be at least revenue neutral for the campus, if the campus decides to go forward. Advice on whether to proceed was solicited.

Other business
Dr. Tierney asked what would happen if the Graduate Faculty did not approve the list of candidates for degrees. He said a case like this arose in the College of Arts and Sciences and the student graduated even though there was some faculty objection (concerning allegations of multiple instances of plagiarism by the student). Dr. Wartzok said that if a majority of the Graduate Faculty voted against awarding the degree to a given student, the awarding of the degree would be postponed until the issue was resolved.

There being no other business the meeting adjourned at 3:37 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Ronald Dotzel
Graduate Faculty Secretary