MINUTES
Graduate School Administrative Board Meeting
Monday, November 12, 2007
Greenville Centre
MEMBERS PRESENT: Alligood, Martha; Bland, Sharon; Eakins, Stan; Eastman, Brenda; Griffin, Linner; Holte, James; Kasperek, George; Knight, Sharon; Kramar, John; Mott, Vivian; Newton, Ron; Pellicane, Patrick; Ries, Heather; Rouse, Art; and Walker, Marianna.
MEMBERS ABSENT: Ericson, Rick; Hough, Monica; Nolan, Todd; Patterson, Belinda; Reis, John; Taggart, Mark, and West, Terry.
Agenda
1) Call meeting to order (Pellicane)
The meeting was called to order by Dean Pellicane at 3:37 pm
2) Approve the minutes of the October 22nd meeting (Newton)
The minutes were approved as written
3) GCC minutes approval (Knight)
The minutes of the last Graduate Curriculum Committee meeting (Oct 17, 2007) were not available. In these minutes is a unit’s “intent to plan” document. A representative from that unit will be asked to be present at the next GSAB meeting. It was concluded that this delay will not be seriously impeding the approval process.
In the GCC Minutes of October 17, 2007, it was discussed that a policy should be established whereby each college or/or school should have representation on the GCC. Right now we do not have this representation. Every major unit should have a voice on the Committee. Furthermore, the experienced faculty member would be most qualified to serve on the GCC. The term duration for service was designated to be 3 years. Also, there would be a graduate student representative. The GCC is not asking for a change in the process, just a change in the member number on the Committee. Currently, there are 7 representatives on the Committee. Nominees from the units not represented have been provided, based on the call from the GCC. From a historical perspective, it is not clear why we have 7. Was this the number of colleges at the time? Recently, we have established two new additional colleges whose representation needs to be accommodated on the Committee. These changes can be addressed via the GSAB, and do not have to go through the Faculty Senate.
It was that these changes can be accomplished with an informal change procedure. It was recommended that we consider the increase in representation; however, this should be discussed in the respective units before the GSAB addresses the change. There is some concern in discerning the difference between colleges and schools. We cannot be too inclusive and/or exclusive. Some schools are larger than others. This should be discussed not only with the departments, but also with colleges and the schools.
4) Information items
a. Request for international alumni contact information (Pellicane)
International Affairs is asking for the names of international ECU alumni. Please forward the names of any individuals with international status to the International Affairs office in care of either Monika Wojciechowski or Elmer Poe.
b. Doctoral candidates provide own hoods for commencement (Pellicane)
The university will no longer be providing doctoral hoods at no cost to the student. Each hood costs $100, and the number of doctoral students is increasing. The purchase will have to be made through the bookstore and will have to be subsidized by the individual program and/or the student.
c. Graduate certificate issues (Pellicane)
1. Notification of registrar
Students currently enrolled in only a certificate program can be identified by the Registrar. However, students who are admitted first into a degree program and choose to pursue a certificate program as well cannot be identified by the Registrar. Therefore, the unit program will have to notify the Registrar of all these degree-seeking individuals who are also seeking certificates. The only alternative to this is for the student to pay an additional fee to enroll in the certificate program in order to be automatically identified by the Registrar. It was concluded that this was not an acceptable alternative. Students who graduate from a degree program and then apply for a certificate program now have to pay an additional application fee. It was stated that we should work to develop a procedure to waive the fee. This will be looked into and discussed at a later date. With this simultaneous enrollment in both a certificate and a degree program, the Registrar will be notified not only that a student is in the certificate program, but also when that student is eligible to graduate.
2. Printing of certificates
The university commencement committee and the Registrar will then work together to provide the names of students completing the certificate programs to the printing entity that prints the certificate. The certificate will then be forwarded to the graduated student.
d. Update on student travel funds
The Vice Chancellor of R&GS will be visiting with the General Administration on this. Currently, the Graduate School is not using operating budget funds to subsidize student travel as has been done in the past. However, student fee funds administered through Student Affairs are still available and are now dispersed through the Graduate Student Council.
5) Request for Graduate Faculty criteria from unit programs (Pellicane)
It is requested that all units send their code documents that define the criteria used to select their faculty for Graduate Faculty status to the Graduate School. The GS does not have these in the archives. It is requested that these be sent to Karen Jarman in the Graduate School.
These criteria have to be quantifiable. The criteria need to be determined by the units. Each one will be different. It must be assumed that each unit has reasonable graduate faculty to provide a credible document. The criteria in the document will be approved eventually by the GSAB. Most units have already submitted these documents to the GSAB and the Graduate School for approval. What is needed is an electronic and/or hard copy of the code document.
6) GSAB Steering Committee activities (Pellicane)
The Steering Committee met and decided that we needed to “take a second look” at the process of change that we started. A request to withdraw the motion to revise the graduate faculty status portion that was being discussed by GSAB was entertained. A motion was made and seconded. In the discussion, it was stated that is was clear to the Steering Committee that the GSAB and the Graduate Assembly still are functional and that these two bodies can specify the way graduate programs can be governed. After discussion, all present were in favor of the motion with the exception of one abstention.
7) Graduate Policy Issues (Pellicane)
A list of graduate policy issues was provided by Dean Pellicane. He requested that GSAB members please add issues to the list if needed. These will be included as we “round- out” the GS portfolio of policies.
8) The meeting was adjourned at 4:40 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Ronald J. Newton
Recorder
