Minutes of the EEE Graduate Committee – Special Meeting – 04/06/07

Present: Oldenburg, Heedley, Kumar, Miro Markovic, Matthews, Pang, Ng

  1. Information Items…
  1. Oldenburg announced that a campus Summit on Graduate Education is being schedule for the final week of the spring semester. The purpose of the summit meeting will be for the Graduate Working Group, led by the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, to present the major graduate program issues to both the administration of Academic Affairs and the Faculty Senate. These issues will include Future Vision, Governance, Policy, Student Support, and Resource Needs. Oldenburg remains “cautiously optimistic” that the climate is right for some major improvements in campus support for graduate programs.
  1. The committee continued its review of the fourth draft of possible Plan C culminating experience modifications, and the first draft of guidelines for the comprehensive examination that would be administered under the modified plan. There was consensus that the current draft Plan C (listed under materials for the 3/16/07 meeting) was a satisfactory description of the changes we would recommend, and that the draft should be put on the agenda for approval action at the department faculty meeting next Friday. It was further recommended that the first item in the guidelines for the comprehensive examination be modified to read, “The examination will be written and administered each semester.” There was considerable discussion concerning the types of questions which could be on the examination, and how those questions would be graded. Tom Matthews agreed to provide the committee with an example question which would address both technical competence and engineering judgment. It was agreed that the draft guidelines needed further discussion at the next meeting, but that they could be presented to the faculty next Friday for their information.
  1. Copies of the course change proposals associated with changes of the EEE 259 course were distributed. (These are now posted on the committee web page under the materials for this meeting.) Miro Markovic gave the committee a brief introduction to the circumstances surrounding the creation of these proposals, and his rationale for proposing changing EEE 259 into two separate courses. He clarified that he preferred that these courses be upper-division electives that would be also be suitable for graduate electives; however, he wanted the committee to consider them for inclusion as graduate elective courses, which might also be taken by qualified undergraduate students. The consideration of these proposed changes will be put on the agenda for the next regular meeting on April 20.
  1. Along with the consideration of EEE 259 changes, the agenda for the next meeting will include discussion of elective core course changes in the Communication Systems area, and discussion of a possible modification of the graduate program to permit 9 (rather than 6) units of undergraduate electives in the MS Program of Study.

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