BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY
MINUTES OF THE December 10, 2007 MEETING OF THE GRADUATE COUNCIL
PLACE: Couper Administration Building, Room 148
PRESIDING: Nancy E. Stamp, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School
MEMBERS: David Campbell, Michael Conlon, James Constable, James Fang,
Monazir Khan, Maneesha Lal, Sarah Lam, Edward Li, Tom McDonough,
Weiyi Meng, Ajay Mishra, Susan Pollock, Maria-Teresa Romero, Karen Salvage, Daryl Santos, Pamela Stewart Fahs, Marilyn Tallerico, Diane Wiener,
Thomas Wilson, Nan Zhou
EX OFFICIO
MEMBERS: Susan Currie, Dara Silberstein, Gerald Sonnenfeld, Lindsay Tremain
EXCUSED: Stephen Gilje, Olga Shvetsova, Steve Tammariello
ABSENT: Amit Garg, Ed Kokkelenberg,
GUESTS: Venkat Ananthanarayanan, Assistant Dean, The Graduate School
I. CALL TO ORDER:
Vice Provost and Dean Nancy Stamp called the meeting to order at 3:02 pm.
II. MINUTES:
The minutes of the November 12, 2007 were approved as written.
III. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Academic Standards Committee
This committee has not met.
Advisory Committee for Scholarship and Research
This committee has not met.
Budget Advisory Committee
The committee met to review applications and select recipients of the Graduate School-- Binghamton Foundation Travel Grant Award. There were a total of 51 total applicants and
15 were selected to receive the award.
Clark Fellowship Advisory Committee
The committee has not met.
Curriculum Committee
1. Proposal for Graduate Certificate in Watershed Studies and Management
Approved (18 yes, 1 abstention)
2. SOC 625: Comparative Hegemonies
Approved (17 yes, 2 abstentions)
Grievance Committee
This committee has not met.
Strategic Planning Committee
The committee has not met.
IV. NEW BUSINESS:
Venkat Ananthanarayanan, Assistant Dean of Information Systems for the Graduate School, presented a Powerpoint presentation giving an overview of the Banner project. This system will replace the BUSI system. Graduate and undergraduate admissions transitioned to Banner in November 2007 for fall 2008 admissions. Venkat explained the impact on students and faculty/staff. Training workshops will be scheduled for faculty and staff.
Dean Stamp distributed the document, Proposal to Increase Dissertation and Thesis Fees, and gave some background information on BU’s tuition and fees. The Graduate School is proposing a new fee structure for: dissertation fee, $100; research thesis fee, $85; non-thesis fee, $20. The current rates are: dissertation fee, $85; research thesis fee, $70; non-thesis fee, $15. The fees cover processing costs. The University submits the dissertations and theses to UMI/ProQuest and ProQuest is raising its fees by $10. Most other public universities in the northeast USA charge more in tuition and fees than BU does. The cost to our Graduate School for processing degrees has increased and so has the workload. The implementation of Banner has increased the workload for graduate admissions so funds to hire temporary help will have to be used entirely for admissions. In order to hire temporary help for degree conferral, the funds will have to come from dissertation and thesis fees. There were discussion and questions. A straw vote was taken on supporting the proposal for increasing the dissertation and thesis fees to the proposed levels. 18-yes; 1-opposed; 1 abstention
Copies of the Graduate Alumni Survey were distributed for review. Sean McKitrick, Assistant Provost for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, sent this survey to graduate alumni. The questions came from a survey developed by the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students. About 1300 emails were sent to BU graduate alumni, and BU received about a 24% response rate. The patterns were discussed.
V. ADJOURNMENT:
The meeting was adjourned at 4:25 p.m. on a motion by Professor Lal and seconded by Professor Salvage.
______
Minutes recorded by Alta Hooker,
Secretary to the Vice Provost and Dean
of the Graduate School
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