8 November 2000

Minutes of the Meeting
 

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

I. Minutes

The minutes of the 11 April 2000 meeting were approved.
 

II. Candidates for Degrees

The candidates for Fall 2000 were approved pending completion of all degree requirements.

Dr. Ronen asked if a student on the graduation list who had academic misconduct charges pending would be allowed to graduate. The Dean stated that academic misconduct charges delay the posting of a final grade for the class in question until the situation is resolved. Thus graduation would be delayed at least until the final grade for the class in question is posted. Dr. Ronen also asked why a student's name would appear semester after semester on the proposed graduation list. The Dean stated that these lists are submitted to the Graduate School by the academic units. Apparently the unit consistently expects that a given student will graduate in that semester.

The list of candidates was approved.
 
 

III. Election of a Nominating Committee

The following faculty were nominated to serve on the Graduate Faculty Nominating Committee.
Patricia Somers, Education
David Rose, Humanities
Donald Kummer, Business
Joseph Carroll, Humanities
Kyungho Oh, Mathematics/Computer Science
Sally Hardin, Nursing
Ralph Garzia, Optometry

The committee will convene to identify nominees to serve on next year's Graduate Council, Doctoral Faculty Selection Committee, and act as Graduate Faculty Secretary. A slate of nominees for these positions will be presented at the Spring Graduate Faculty meeting.
 

IV. Report from the Graduate Council - Matthew Keefer

Council has met three times this semester. Seventeen faculty were appointed to the Graduate Faculty.

The Admissions and Scholarship committee has received 6 applications for dissertation fellowships The start date for the recipients will be between January and March 2001. The committee will make its recommendation for award of the fellowships at the November 17 Graduate Council meeting.

The Curriculum and Instruction committee has recommended approval of 28 new, revised and deleted course proposals.

The Program Development committee recommended approval of changes in the following programs:

M.S. in Gerontology
Graduate Certificate in Gerontology
MPPA degree requirements
M.Ed: Secondary Education with an emphasis in Adult Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Mathematics
Master of Science in Computer Science
Graduate Studies - Math and Computer Science
Master of Arts in History

The Rules and Regulations committee is currently reviewing recommendations from the College of Education and hopes to bring a report to Graduate Council in December.

V. Report from the Dean

Enrollment: The Fall 2000 enrollment is 2332 compared with a Fall 1999 enrollment of 2281 for an increase of 2%. Arts and Sciences increased by 13%; Business had a decrease of 4%; Education decreased by 1%; Nursing was basically constant; and Physiological Optics increased by 3 students. Overall graduate enrollment has risen for the first time in the past four years. Our past decline in graduate enrollment has tracked the national trend. Our increase is anticipating the national trend. Nationally, the increase is projected to begin next year. The student credit hours for master's students rose by 6.4% and for doctoral students by 12.7%.

Commencement: We anticipate that 196 master=s degree students and 22 doctoral students will graduate this January compared to 176 master=s degree students and 18 doctoral students last January.

Graduate Student Insurance: Graduate Student Health Insurance is subsidized with Mission Enhancement money at a rate of 25% of the premiums. Of the GTAs/GRAs/Graduate Fellows eligible for the subsidy, 23 U.S. citizens and 78 international students enrolled. The insurance program for the international students is mandatory. Fourteen percent of our eligible domestic students enrolled in the program. On the Columbia campus, it is projected that 35% of eligible graduate students will enroll in the program. The St. Louis campus= graduate student body is more likely employed full-time and already enrolled in an insurance program.

ApplyYourself: The ApplyYourself on-line application is now linked to the Graduate School home page. There are about 300 universities which are part of this program and prospective students can either access it through our home page or directly through ApplyYourself. The program allows students to pay their application fee on line with a credit card. ApplyYourself data can be downloaded directly into PeopleSoft. Currently, UMC is using the ApplyYourself package but doesn=t plan to use it when PeopleSoft comes on line. The University of Wisconsin-Madison successfully uses it with PeopleSoft. Our campus will decide, based on this year's experience, if we want to continue using ApplyYourself once PeopleSoft comes on line.

Graduate School Forms: All Graduate School forms are now on the web in PDF fillable format.

Graduate Student Travel Support: The Dean distributed a copy of the Graduate School form for student travel support. This is being funded by Mission Enhancement money as recommended by the Graduate Program Directors. The Graduate School support is awarded based on support from the major professor, department, and college. The Graduate School support is up to $300 for students presenting papers (oral or poster) at professional meetings.

Form D-5: Based on requests from the Graduate Program Directors, a line has been added to Form D-5, Doctoral Dissertation Approval, for the sign off by the Graduate Program Director.

Survey of Earned Doctorates: The Survey of Earned Doctorates is jointly sponsored by NSF, NIH, and other federal agencies. It is distributed to all graduating doctoral students nationwide. In the past the response rate has been fairly low since it is not a requirement to graduate. Other universities have made the survey a requirement for graduation. The survey will be given to students when they turn in their preliminary copy of the dissertation and they will be instructed to return the survey when they file the D-10, Final Approval of Doctoral Dissertation.
 

IV. Other Business

Dr. Spaner asked about the NIH course on human subject research. The Dean responded that the UM-St. Louis Institutional Review Board requires certification of completion of an approved training course before an individual can submit a protocol. Right now UM-St. Louis is using the approved NIH web based training course. This course meets the legal requirement, but it is more medically oriented and doesn't actually provide that much instruction on the types of human subject research that our faculty and students conduct. If we have available staff time, we will develop a training program more appropriate for our faculty and students. Another compliance training issue is the proposed training related to the Responsible Conduct of Research. The Federal Register announcement of the proposed training would require a full day of training for all involved in research - from secretaries to off-campus consultants. The research university community has filed comments suggesting more specific training for more targeted audiences. The revised requirements are expected to be published in the next few months.

There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 3:28 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Jennifer Reynolds-Moehrle
Graduate Faculty Secretary

JRM:meh