Minutes – Graduate Council Meeting – January 23,2015
2:00 p.m. – Gillham Park Room
Members Present: Jane Peterson, Rita Barger, John Kevern, Stephen Pruitt, Michael Pritchett, James Murowchick, Karen Williams Mary Wlker, Jainping Wang, Ed Gogol, Louis Imperiale, Jeff Thomas, Carolyn Barber. Also present, Denis Medeiros, Jennifer Friend, Nancy Hoover.
Excused: Roger Pick, Lee Rathbone-McCuan, Baek-Young Choi
Guests: Dr. John Herron (History), Dr. Chris Cantwell (History), Dr. Joan McDowd (Psychology)
1. Approval of Meeting Minutes for November 21, 2014. It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes of November 21, 2014. Motion passed.
2. Announcements
· Dean Medeiros announced that 54 research grant proposals have been received in the School of Graduate Studies
· Dean Medeiros announced that Staples has donated the gift awards for the Superior GTA students this spring and also that Otis Worldwide has donated the award money for the Outstanding Dissertation Award. There’s also a proposal out for a donation for the Distinguished Master’sThesis Award
· Dr. Jennifer Friend talked about the Graduate Writing Initiative. A Blackboard site has been created for graduate students and space has been dedicated for graduate student writing. A crowd funding initiative has also begun to purchase computers for graduate student use. A video created for the crowdfunding site was shown to the Council.
· The SGS Annual Awards Celebration will be held on April 23 this year.
· On April 25 there will be writing sessions held for students. Ideas on how to include post-doctoral students for research grants was mentioned.
3. Proposal for Public History option in the Master of History degree.
Drs. John Herron and Chris Cantwell presented the proposal and answered questions from Council members. It was explained how this degree differed from an archival degree. Dean Medeiros suggested that the proposal include some more information about how the program looks before the option addition and after. It was moved by Gogol, seconded by Kevern to approve the proposal. Motion passed.
4. MFA in Creative Writing and Media Arts – option proposals
Michael Pritchett presented the proposals and answered questions from the Council members. The five option areas are Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Playwriting, Poetry, and Screenwriting. It was moved by Lindsey Williams, seconded by Walker to approve the proposal. Motion passed.
5. Ph.D. in Psychology – option proposals
Dr. Joan McDowd presented the proposal and answered questions from Council members. She explained that there would be two option areas: Clinical Psychology and Experimental Health Psychology. Four clinical and two experimental students are accepted each year. It was moved by Barber, seconded by Peterson to approve the proposal. Motion passed.
6. Plans of Study
Dean Medeiros stated that the Registrar’s office is having difficulty with Master’s plans of study being submitted in a timely manner. He also said he’s seen issues in the IPHD program where plans of study show up after comprehensive exams have been completed. He asked the Council members to briefly talk about what the requirements were in the academic units.
Various methods were reported—often showing that the plan of study isn’t completed until the very end of the student’s program.
Dean Medeiros stated that the catalog does not address this issue, but maybe some guidelines should be drafted.
It was discussed how the plan of study should be the student’s contract with the university—not an afterthought.
7. Full-time, Half-time Form
Dr. Jennifer Friend displayed and explained the form that allowed graduate students to be declared full-time or half-time when taking fewer hours than required. She explained that the form is evolving as issues arise.
Dr. Medeiros also mentioned that GTAs with 6 hours are to be considered full-time and that he is working with the Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships and the Registrar’s Office to address policy concerns.
8. 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 (Mary Walker, Chair)
The following applications were approved:
Saul Honigberg (Biological Sciences) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Greg King (Engineering) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Jimmy Adegoke (Geosciences) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
James Murowchick (Geosciences) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Social and Behavior Sciences Subcommittee (Roger Pick, Chair)
The following applications were approved.
Nancy Day (Bloch) - Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Shad Dowlatshahi (Bloch) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Jeff Hornsby (Bloch) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Julia Atiles (Curric. & Inst) – New Appointment to Doctoral Faculty
Humanities and Arts Subcommittee (Lindsey Williams, Chair)
Keith Benjamin (Conservatory) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
Larson Powell (Humanities) – Reappointment to Doctoral Faculty
9. Other Business
Dr. Rita Barger had questions about defense attendance by committee members—what about emergencies the day of defense? Dr. Medeiros said that he would check to see what other universities do and report back to the Council.
Dean Medeiros presented an issue of minimum dissertation hours in the Ph.D. programs. A request was made recently to waive a good portion of a student’s required dissertation hours for financial reasons. The request was taken to the IPHD executive committee who turned it down. The Council proceeded with a general discussion of dissertation hours and the consensus seemed to be that many programs required far more than UMKC.
Meeting adjourned at 3:30 pm.