May 10, 2006

The May meeting of the Graduate Council was called to order by Dr. David Wittrock, at 8:30am, May 10, 2006, in the Plains Room of Memorial Union.

In attendance: Mark Aune, Jacob Glower, Gary Goreham, Stephen O'Rourke, Judy Pearson, Donna Terbizan, Rodney Traub, Charlene Wolf-Hall.

The minutes for the April 12, 2006 meeting were considered. Judy Pearson made a motion to approve the minutes. Charlene Wolf Hall provided the second. Motion carried.

Course proposals:

Dr. Wittrock was approached by the chair of the Senate Academic Affairs Committee to quickly approve the course proposals for this meeting. The Graduate Council Academic Affairs Committee reviewed the documents and Dr. Wittrock signed prior to Graduate Council approval.

Donna Terbizan made a motion to approve the course proposals. Rodney Traub provided the second. Motion carried.

Courses approved:

•  ECE 748 Information Theory

•  ECE 770 Error Correcting Codes

•  NRM 702 Natural Resources Management Planning

•  HNES 727 Physical Activity in Wellness

•  HNES 726 Nutrition in Wellness

•  ME 731 Mechanical Behavior of Materials

•  ENGR/IME 770/700 Quantitative Modeling

•  ENGR/IME 771/701 Probablistic Methods

•  ECE 499/696 Intro to IC Fab

Business

Requests for Associate Faculty Status/Teaching Waiver

The Council considered a request from Animal and Ranges Sciences to grant Associate Graduate Faculty Status to Dr. Edward (Shawn) DeKeyser. Gary Goreham made a motion to grant Associate Graduate Faculty Status to Dr. DeKeyser. Donna Terbizan provided the second. Motion carried.

The Council considered a request from Veterinary and Microbiological Sciences to grant a Teaching Waiver to Jesse Ebert for Microbiology 452/652 and Scientific Writing should it be offered. Judy Pearson made a motion to grant a Teaching Waiver to Jesse Ebert. Gary Goreham provided the second. Motion carried.

Research Credits/Unsatisfactory Grades

Dr. Wittrock presented information regarding Pass/Fail grades. Pass does not figure into a students grade point average, however, Fail does. The possibility of changing the grading of research credits to Pass/Fail. The topic was tabled until fall.

Transfer Credits

Dr. Wittrock presented the Graduate Bulletin section regarding transfer credits for PhD students. The way it currently reads, students may transfer up to 12 credits, but it does not reduce the total number of credits to be taken at NDSU. The only advantage is that a required course could be transferred in to allow for an additional elective. After some discussion, the topic was tabled until fall.

2006-2007 Agenda Items

The following topics were brought forth for the 2006-2007 Graduate Council:

• Course proposal procedure-What is the Graduate Council's role?
• Disquisition Process-Assess how this change in policy works, quality of disquisitions, bottleneck at the end of term
• Sanctions & Appeals
• Tracking PhD students-In the program and appointments afterward

The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 am.

Respectfully submitted,

Melissa Selders-Ortez