GRADUATE COUNCIL MEETING

March 19, 2010

Regents’ Room

Minutes

INVITEDGUESTS: Elizabeth Boyd, Assistant Vice President, Office of the Responsible Conduct of Research

Tom Rhodes,Research Specialist, Principal

Paul Kreig, Professor, Cell Biology and Anatomy

J. Harwood,Professor, Communication

Celeste Pardee,Associate, Curriculum Office

MEMBERS PRESENT: Andrew Carnie, Andrew Comrie, Zhao Chen, David Chisholm, Matthew Cordes,Steven Dvorak, William Epstein, Kathie Insel, James Johnson, Suzanne Knosp, Carl Maes, Katherine Morrissey, Betul Ozkan, Barry Pryor, Eliane Rubinstein-Avila, Andrei Sanov, Tim Secomb,Rose Ylimaki

MEMBERS EXCUSED: Jose Alvarez, Nathan Cherrington, Dennis Doxtater,Stephanie Fryberg, Gautaum Gowrisankaran,Dianne Horgan, Chuck Hutchinson, Lisa Ordóñez, Ivy Pike, Priya Sundareshan, Gail Varin, Maria Teresa Velez

CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL. Chair Carnie called the meeting to order at 3:05 p.m. A member sign-in sheet was passed and the minutes of the February 19, 2010 meeting were approved.

DEAN’S REPORT. Dean Comrie reported that the new tuition proposal with a reduction in fees (which was a compromise/collaborative effort with the GPSC) has been approved. He also reported that Assistant Dean Voorhees, Finance in the Graduate College , will be getting the college-level allocations out to the deans shortly.

CHAIR’S REPORT. There was no report from the Council Chair.

GPSC REPORT. Member Johnson announced that David Lopez-Negrete will be filling in the rest of David Tollenfeld’s term as GPSC President. Applications for the GPSC are currently being taken and elections for the 2010-2011 academic year will be held the week of April 3.

INFORMATION ITEMS

  1. Office of Responsible Conduct of Research. Dean Comrie introduced guest Dr. Elizabeth Boyd, Assistant Vice President, Office of the Responsible Conduct of Research (ORCR). Dr. Boyd discussed the new NSF/NIH regulations which affect research on campus and across the nation. There are 9 categories of regulations: conflict of interest; human subjectsprotection; animal subjects protection; peer review and mentoring; authorship; collaborative research; scientists as members of society; research misconduct; and data management. If a department, graduate student group, or faculty members have needs or concerns about the new regulations, Dr. Boyd is available to meet with them. The Graduate College and ORCR Office have provided funds to award on a competitive basis seed grants of up to $3000to student/faculty teams to design, develop, and implement innovative approaches to teaching responsible research practices. For additional information go to

NEW BUSINESS

Guest Pardee was present at the meeting to bring to the Graduate Council’s attention two proposals that came up and were passed by the Undergraduate Council on Tuesday, March 16, 2010.

  1. Policy on credit for military service/training. Guest Pardee indicated that the last time this policy was published was in 1995 and with all the veterans now returning from deployment, a proposal was brought before the Undergraduate Council and approved on March 16, 2010 to give credits for military service and military training to veterans, based on ACE guidelines. After discussion, Member Comrie made a motion to add an addendum to the policy to state that graduate students should petition their department and the Graduate College for credits for military service and training .The motion was seconded by Member Johnson and the vote taken. The motion passed with 17 in favor, 0 opposed, and 0 abstentions.
  1. Replace SPCDE grades with SPF. Currently seminars and colloquia are sometimes SPF grades and sometimes regular grades. Motion to amend to include 900 level courses was made by Member Johnson and passed unanimously. Motion was made to replace SPCDE grades with SPF and passed unanimously.

INFORMATION ITEMS (Part 2)

  1. SIS/Matrix shut down; effects on the Graduate College. Dean Comrie reported that within a week SIS andMatrixwill no longer be the systems of record; PeopleSoft will be the system of record for student data. It was also reported that WEB roster will be gone as of the Monday after spring break. Faculty will be able to retrain such information from UAccess.
  1. GRO option and Pass/Fail grade designation. Chair Carnie reported that the proposal toeliminate the Grade Replacement Opportunityand the Pass/Fail policy have passed the Faculty Senate. Effective in Fall 2011, there will no longer be a GRO option for Graduate students. Member Horgan had asked Chair Carnie to remind the Council that there are other options to GRO – the student can retake the class, in the case of personal tragedy retroactively withdraw, oracademicrenewal if moving to a new discipline. Regarding “Pass/Fail” grading, it will be up to the department and the individual instructors to determine which courses will be available as “Pass/Fail.”
  1. ProgramAssessment in the Age of Mosaic . Tom Rhodes presented a short PowerPoint demonstrating use of Analytics (BI part of Mosaic) for program assessment.
  1. PIT update. Admissions are up 16% and Admits are up 37%

OLD BUSINESS

  1. Clarification on double-counting of credits for multiple degrees. Chair Carnie reminded the Councilmembership that this item had been presented for discussion at the February 19, 2010 Graduate Council meeting. At that time a suggestion had been made to limit the number of Master’s Degree credits toward a PhD to 30 credits. Further discussion on this item was tabled.
  1. Change the major and department nameof Cell Biology and Anatomy (CBA) to Cellular and Molecular Medicine (CMM). This item was initially presented at the Graduate Council meeting of February 19, 2010. Although Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) indicated that in the interests of collegiality they had no objections to the name change, it appeared to the Council that there might still be unresolved issues. Therefore, the Graduate Council had suggested to Guest Krieg at the February meeting that it might be best for individuals from CBA to confer further with MCB so if concerns existed due to the similarity in the names of the majors and the departments between the two departments, they could be worked through. Guest Krieg reported at today’s meeting that he followed theCouncil’s suggestion and there are no longer any concerns on the part of either department on the requested name change. After Council discussion, Member Ozkan motioned that the request to change the major and department name of Cell Biology and Anatomy to Cellular and Molecular Medicine be approved. The motion was seconded by Member Comrie and was approved with 16 in favor, 0 opposed, and 1 abstention.

ADJOURNMENT. The meeting was adjourned at 5:01 p.m. with a reminder the meeting of April 23, 2010 will be the last meeting of the Graduate Council for the current academic year.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda Nultemeier

Graduate Council Secretary