Minutes – Graduate Council Meeting – January 22, 2016
2:00 p.m. – Gillham Park Room
Members Present: Michael Pritchett, Rita Barger (for Carolyn Barber), Diane Petrella, Nathan Oyler, Lee Rathbone-McCuan, Jeff Price, Stephen Pruitt, Jeff Thomas, Mary Walker. Alsopresent, Nancy Hoover, Jennifer Friend & Denis Medeiros.
Excused: Jim Murowchick, Carolyn Barber, Carol Schmer, Louis Imperiale, John Kevern, Roger Pick, Kun Cheng, Baek-Young Choi, Mary Gerkovich, Jacob Marszalek
Guests: Scott Young, Financial Aid, and Kim McNeley, University College
1. Approval of Meeting Minutes for December 4, 2015. It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes of December 4, 2015. Motion passed.
2. Announcements
a) A graduate student advisory committee is being developed. There’s also a move being made to form a system-wide graduate student advisory group.
b) Three-Minute Thesis Competition will take place from 1:00-5:00 on February 9 in rooms 401A and 401D of the Student Union.
c) Information on Graduate Writing Initiative Workshops was distributed.
3. Starfish Connect
Scott Young was present to remind the Council why this requirement of proving academic activity/course attendance is necessary. A self-audit of UMKC grants and loans was conducted for liability and it was determined we had $2Million in liability per year for loans and $6-7Million in liability per year for grants. We are at a preventative stage right now.
Kim McNeley demonstrated the use of UMKC Connect and answered questions from Council members about various student scenarios. Dr. McNeley explained how warning emails would be automatically sent to students who are at risk for being administratively dropped from any classes for which they have been reported as “Not Attending” by the instructor.”
4. Three-Minute Thesis
Dean Medeiros showed an example of a 3-minute thesis talk.
5. Provost visit in March – issues for discussion
Dean Medeiros began with a desire for acknowledgement of graduate education on the UMKC campus. When asked what he wanted to see operationally, what evidence, he responded:
A. More serious conversations about compensation for GTAs, how we compare to peers. Why are we at the bottom of the barrel?
B. Health insurance for graduate students. He cited how UMSL assists their students with the premiums.
Dean Medeiros went onto discuss how the School of Graduate Studies was created around the administration of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program. That model is still used, but the unit is now expected to support all parts of graduate education.
Dr. Oyler spoke about an inherent conflict of interest when the School of Graduate Studies is responsible for distributing on money for graduate teaching assistants. Stating that is money for “instruction” not for graduate education. He feels these are separate issues and they work against each other.
What is it we want the Provost to actually DO?
· Start a task force to study the issue?
· Determine the merits of centralization vs. decentralization?
· Do “what” to support the future mission? We need to come up with a model of what we should become.
· How do we need to change?
Professor Pritchett asked how the School of Graduate Studies budget is used. Dean Medeiros explained that it was originally mostly for fellowships, but with the lower budget amount, this has transitioned to the research grant program for students. It also has had an increased demand on its resources for services to support all graduate students. For example, a survey of faculty and students showed a need for writing support and this is what started the current graduate writing initiative.
Dean Medeiros mentioned that the Provost supports a redirection of resources toward professional master’s degrees. Applied Statistics for example.
Dr. Oyler brought up the idea that maybe we need to do some market research in the local area. What’s under-served? Who is hiring?
It seems agreed that major issues are labor fairness and stipends, including health insurance and tuition waivers.
Dean Medeiros recounted a recent conversation with some graduate students who were concerned that Master’s and Ph.D. GTAs get the same stipend and that GTAs with several years of experience were paid no more than brand new GTAs.
Prof. Pritchett also mentioned his service on a task force that studied GTA stipends a few years ago headed by Dr. Diane Filion. The results were presented to the Provost . . .
More centralized support for marketing and recruiting. A suggestion was made to market graduate education to college seniors in the area.
Another suggestion was made to reduce numbers in “over-populated” graduate disciplines and spend more on quality.
6. Report of Subcommittees on actions taken on pending applications for appointment or reappointment to the Doctoral Faculty, and reports on pending discipline-specific criteria. The following actions were reported:
Natural and Physical Sciences Subcommittee (Jim Murowchick, Chair)
Jeffrey Price (MBB) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Thomas Johnston (Pharm. Sci) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Bonnie Branson (Dentistry) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Jeff Gorski (Oral & Craniofacial Sci.) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Social and Behavior Sciences Subcommittee (Jacob Marszalek, Chair)
Rita Cain Reid (Accountancy) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Humanities and Arts Subcommittee (Michael Pritchett, Chair)
No applications.
Meeting adjourned at 3:20 pm.