April 12, 2006

The April meeting of the Graduate Council was called to order by Dr. David Wittrock, at 8:35am, April 12, 2006, in the Plains Room of Memorial Union.

In attendance: Ross Collins, Amanda Dillard, Jacob Glower, Harlene Hatterman-Valenti, Ayanava Majumdar, JoAnn Miller, Stephen O'Rourke, Judy Pearson, Donna Terbizan, Rodney Traub, Charlene Wolf-Hall.

The minutes for the March 8, 2006 meeting were considered. Judy Pearson made a motion to approve the minutes. Harlene provided the second. Motion carried.

Associate Graduate Faculty Request:

 The Council considered the request from the Agribusiness and Applied Economics Department to grant associate graduate faculty status to Jose R. Andino, Jungho Baek, Kranti Mulik, Paul Rienstra-Munnicah and Renan Zhuang. Dr. Andino and Dr. Baek currently have adjunct status and the other three are in the process of receiving adjunct status. Judy Pearson made a motion to grant associate graduate faculty status to Dr. Jose R. Andino and Dr. Jungho Baek. Rodney Traub provided the second. Motion carried. Judy Pearson made a motion to grant associate graduate faculty status to Dr. Kranti Mulik, Dr. Paul Rienstra-Munnicah and Dr. Renan Zhuang pending adjunct faculty status approval.

Course proposals:

Charlene Wolf-Hall made a motion to approve the course proposals. Jacob Glower provided the second. Motion carried.

Courses approved:

•  CE 458/658 Bituminous Materials & Mix
•  ENGL 482/682 Renaissance Literature
•  HNES 442/642 Community Nutrition
•  HNES 442/642L Community Nutrition Lab
•  ECON 410/610 Econometrics
•  ECON 710 Advanced Econometrics

Dean Witrrock approved ECE 796 Ad Hoc Networking. He also commented the course proposal review process will be evaluated in the fall to see if it is effect and efficient.

Business

Approval of Interdisciplinary Programs and Courses

This topic was discussed at the February meeting, but no formal approval was request. It has also been reviewed with the Deans and Provost Schnell. It is now ready for approval. With this process, the Graduate Council acts as both the college and Graduate Council approval. Judy Pearson made a motion to approve the procedure for approving new Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs. Harlene Hatterman-Valenti provided the second. Motion carried.

Distance Education Graduate Program Approval

Dr. Wittrock presented a question from the Software Engineering program. This program was originally approved by the Graduate Council, but the program would like to offer this certificate program via distance education. Does it need to be approved again by the Graduate Council? At the Dean's meeting, the consensus was the approval was an approval of content and not a matter of delivery. Dr. Wittrock said under the new configuration of Distance Education, those programs are subject to evaluation, just as face to face programs. No vote was taken, but the consensus was that additional approval was not necessary.

Disquisition/IRB/IACUC/IBC Form

Dr. Wittrock told the Council that the Sponsored Programs form for IRB/IACUC/IBC approval is no longer required by the department and Graduate School . The reasoning is there was no logical time to complete and submit the form. In the fall, the Graduate Council discussed disquisition proposal meetings, but the item was dropped. After discussion regarding the usefulness of this form for departments, it was decided to keep the form up on the website. In the fall, the Graduate Council will revisit the issue have disquisition proposal meetings and the approval form.

Research Credits/Unsatisfactory Grades

Dr. Wittrock brought forward the question of consequences for earning an unsatisfactory grade for research credits. An unsatisfactory does not impact and students grade point average. There was discussion of departmental policies regarding unsatisfactory grades. Two suggestions were offered: 1. Change the grading to pass/fall 2. Change the definition of Good Academic Standing to address unsatisfactory grades. Dr. Wittrock will check with Dr. Wold-McCormick regarding the impact of pass/fail grades on GPA.

Graduate Assistant Policy:

The Graduate Assistant Policy was brought forward for final discussion and vote. A few suggestions were made regarding international student information. Ross Collins made a motion to approve the Graduate Assistant Policy with the changes made to the draft at this meeting. Donna Terbizan provided the second. Motion carried.

Graduate Student Appeal Process

There has been a change to Policy 326 to include students. This will have a bearing on other policies. There is a need to review the current process of sanctions and appeals. The current appeals process takes a long time. This matter will be dealt with in the fall.

There will be a brief May meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 am.

Respectfully submitted,

Melissa Selders-Ortez