MINUTES
Graduate School Administrative Board Meeting
Monday, January 12, 2009
3:30PM
1511 Greenville Centre
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Voting Members: Decker, Jim; Eakins, Stan; Ericson, Rick; Fonooni, Hamid; Frazier, Suan; Gemperline, Paul; Gallagher, Margie; Griffin, Linner; Hough, Monica; Kasperek, George; Pokorny, Marie; West, Terry;.
Ex-officio members: Patterson, Belinda; Wilson, Ken
Guests: Dellana, Scott; Mageean Deirdre; Rhodes, Len; Ries, Heather
MEMBERS ABSENT: Holte, Jim; Mott, Vivian; Rouse, Art
AGENDA
1) Call to order
The meeting was called to order by Dean Gemperline at 3:35 pm.
2) Comments from VC Mageean
a. Announcement of the departure of Dean Pellicane and Associate Dean Newton. Paul Gemperline is now acting Dean of the Graduate Studies; will continue to serve as Associate Vice Chancellor of the Division of Research and Graduate Studies.
b. The Associate Dean position was advertised internally and externally. Dr. Margie Gallagher is chairing the Associate Dean’s search committee. Other members include: David Cistola, Terry West, Len Rhodes and Marianna Walker. Applicants (21) are currently being reviewed.
c. A new position, Director of Graduate Admissions, has been created and was advertised internally and externally. This person will oversee the day to day functions of Graduate Admissions. Len Rhodes is chairing the Director of Graduate Admissions search committee. Other members include: Heather Ries, Belinda Patterson and Anthony Britt.
d. Two new processor positions have been created. Once the processor positions are filled Banner Consultants will revisit with the Graduate School
e. The GSAB will discuss the report from the Council of Graduate Schools at subsequent meetings.
f. Goals of the Graduate School are to enhance the quality of graduate education at ECU, strive for cooperative leadership between the Graduate School and unit programs, and to yield transparent operations.
3) Approval of the November 11, 2008 GSAB minutes
-Amendments to the minutes were as follows: (1) Date on the minutes should be changed to “11/10/08”; (2) Susan Beck Frazier was present.
-College of Technology and Computer Science criteria for election of graduate faculty was approved.
4) Review & Approval of GCC minutes
a. Electronic approval of November 5, 2008 minutes.
b. Approval of November 19, 2008 minutes.
c. Approval of December 3, 2008 minutes
5) Actions voted upon at future GSAB meetings will be implemented immediately rather than waiting for approval of the GSAB minutes unless a voting member requests such a delay. The chair will bring controversial issues to the GSAB for a reading at least one meeting prior to a vote.
6) Review and approval of Political Science graduate faculty election criteria
- The faculty of the department of Political Science has approved this document.
- The department would like to use a point system to as their election criteria.
- The discussion session focused on the point system and the status of new faculty.
- A suggestion was made to reword ‘Item C.’ to read“3 years graduate teaching experience at ECU” but died for lack of a motion. No revisions were suggestion.
- It was concluded that the document meets a threshold standard, and since it has been approved by the Political Science faculty, the GSAB should be encouraged to accept the document as written.
- The election criteria for the Department of Political Science passed with one dissenting vote.
- It was decided that at future meetings, when approving graduate faculty election criteria, a faculty member from the department seeking approval should be present.
7) Allocation of graduate assistantships and tuition remissions for 2009/2010 academic year
a. Budget cut
-The Division of Research and Graduate Studies budget is $15.8 million including a tuition and remission budget of $8.3 million.
-The Division proposed a 5% budget cut with a proposed 1% cut in the graduate assistantship budget.
- Awards presented at Research and Creative Achievement Week and administrative support graduate assistantships will be eliminated.
-There will be no change in the allocation of tuition remissions.
b. Reallocation of administrative GA’s
Graduate assistantships should relate to a student’s field of study; administrative assistantships that are not will be reallocated.
c. Eligibility
Dean Gemperline proposed an eligibility standard for awarding of graduate assistantships. It is as follows:
- New students must have a 3.0 GPA with a GRE score at the 30th percentile or above.
- Returning student must have a 3.0 GPA after 9 attempted credit hours and have completed at least 2/3 of the credit hours attempted.
- A maximum time for support will be set:
- 5 semesters for MS and 9 semesters for PhD.
d. Proposed deadlines for allocation of tuition remissions
- Dean Gemperline suggested that graduate tuition remission offers not committed by April 15th be reviewed for possible reallocation.
- ECU, being a member of the CGS, adheres to the deadline of April 15th for student acceptance of financial support for enrollment of next fall. Students accepting any offer by this date may not resign the appointment and accept another offer without first obtaining a written release from the first university making the offer.
- Discussion focused on difficulty of deciding on graduate tuition remissions by this date when students are unsure of their residency classification.
8) New admissions standards – implementation problems
Dean Gemperline addressed the admissions formula currently being used by the Graduate School. Suggested this policy allows entry of students into Graduate School with extremely low standardized test scores.
9) New retention policy (probation/termination) – implementation problems
Dean Gemperline discussed the need for a new retention policy. With the current policy a student could potentially be 2/3 complete with their masters program before they are put on probation. Indicated this is not fair to the student.
A proposal similar to the criteria for graduate assistantships was suggested (e.g. student must have a 3.0 GPA after attempting 9 credit hours and complete 2/3 of credits attempted).
10) Graduate student contracts – implementation problems
Some contracts are being sent to the Graduate School with no written statement of work or evaluation of student activity. Contracts are also being sent by administrative staff and not from the student’s faculty supervisor. The Graduate School will work with deans, associate deans, chairs and directors to improve compliance and have a memorandum of signature authority on file when authority to sign contracts is delegated to staff. These are potential audit issues.
11) Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 5:20 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Amy E. Tripp
Recorder
