MINUTES OF THE OCTOBER 2015

MEETING OF THE GRADUATE COUNCIL

The Graduate Council held its regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, October 7, 2015 in Plaster Student Union, Room 315. Council Chair Randy Dillon called the meeting to order at 3:31.

Members Present: Drs. Agnew, Buchanan, Calihman, Carr, Chang, Dillon, Dollar, Duitsman, Evans, Finch, Franklin, Gerasimchuck, Gutierrez, Haggard, Hickey, Kaula, Kemp, G. Masterson, J. Masterson, Morris, Moses, Novik, Piston, Prescott, Stanojevic, Suttmoeller, Test, Tomasi, Williamson, Worman and Yarberry; Ms. Miller; Ms. Bengel

Members Absent: Drs. Beckman, Berquist, Ghosh, Harsha, Hubbard; Ms. Cleveland, Ms. Patterson

Approval of Minutes

A motion was made by Dr. Agnew and seconded by Dr. Buchanan to approve the minutes from the September, 2015 meeting. The minutes were unanimously approved.

Committee Reports

Report of the Council Chair – Randy Dillon

Dr. Dillon announced that it had been a very busy few weeks at MSU with the HLC site visit, the new electronic curricular process and Degree works both going live and a new online grading system.

At the September Graduate Council meeting, Dr. Dillon asked Council members submit Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) to graduate education and the Graduate College and a report was distributed listing these comments. The Executive Committee felt that all of the comments fell into four categories: Recruitment, Modality/Delivery of Courses, Respect of MSU within and outside the University, and Faculty Resources. At the November Graduate Council meeting, the program will consist of discussions groups of these four categories facilitated by Executive Committee members.

Dr. Dillon reminded everyone of the ongoing Long Range Plan and again encouraged faculty to check the documents on the website and to let their voices be heard and incorporated into the plan.

Report of the Graduate Student Senate – Brooke Bengel

The GSS has elected officers and will hold the first meeting of the semester on October 14. All information about GSS can be found at http://organizations.missouristate.edu/GSS/.

Report of the Graduate Dean – Julie Masterson

A.  Announcements: For a complete listing of announcement and deadlines, see the “Graduate College Update” at http://graduate.missouristate.edu/council.htm under the Graduate Council section.

B.  A draft sheet of the mission, vision and values for the long range plan was distributed. Feedback can be given at http://www.missouristate.edu/developingplan/. Dr. Masterson and Dr. Paul Durham are chairing the Academic Profile taskforce and she asked the Graduate Council members to give her ideas on how to best solicit feedback from faculty across campus.

C.  The Graduate College is working to get a Foundation Account set up. This will assist us in fundraising and donations as well as funding future initiatives. Graduate Council members were encouraged to consider contributing. More information will be forthcoming.

D.  Dr. Tomasi reminded the Council that all theses submitted to the Graduate College this fall MUST use the thesis template supplied by the Graduate College. The instructions for using this have been enhanced (see THESIS GUIDE), and the template is now a separate document with the template watermark on the “Thesis Resources” webpage. Students must not delete this watermark, or add it to a different document. They can paste other text into this template, but it must be done following our instructions.

E.  Dr. Tomasi also announced changes in the Distinguished Thesis Award. Due to a change in the way MAGS is conducting their Distinguished Thesis Award, MSU will be able to submit TWO theses for competition - - in the areas of Biological/Life Sciences, and Humanities (they include HST here). Theses can be nominated (1 per graduate program) if completed in the last TWO years. Because of this change, the Graduate College is extending the nomination deadline two weeks, until Oct 16, for programs to re-evaluate which thesis they nominate. Top theses not in these two area can be submitted to MAGS next year.

Report of the Graduate Faculty Membership Committee – Bill Piston

The following faculty were approved for full graduate faculty status:

Julie Baldwin CCJ Research

Amir Behzadan TCM Research

Nebil Buyurgan TCM Research

Michael Clayton PSY Research

Leslie Echols PSY Research

The following were tabled by the committee at previous meetings:

John Byrd BMS Professional

Adriane Fain BMS Professional

Michael Hammond ACC Professional

Darcy Miller BMS Professional

John Nagelhout BMS Professional

Michael Nichels BMS Professional

Thomas Rice BMS Professional

Steven Senger MTH Research – probational requested

Patrick Sullivan MTH Professional – probational requested

Report of the Graduate Grievance Committee – Tyler Morris

No report.

Report of the Graduate Scholarship Committee – Kevin Evans

Applications for the Aileen and Keith Ford Endowed Scholarship and the Basil and JoAnn Boritzki scholarship are being evaluated by the committee.

Nominations for the MSU Distinguished Thesis Award are due October 16, 2015. Information can be found at http://graduate.missouristate.edu/currentstudents/ThesisAward.htm.

Report of the Graduate Recruitment Committee – Martha Finch

The fall Graduate Recruitment Mini grants are due November 2, 2015. Information and applications can be found at http://graduate.missouristate.edu/facultystaff/RecruitmentGrants.htm.

Report of the Graduate Screening Committee – Ching-Wen Chang

The following Non-Substantive Proposals were reported:

Course Changes

CSD 760 Language Development: Deaf I – change periodicity

CSD 761 Language Development: Deaf II – change periodicity

HLH 700 Research Mthds/Hlth, Ped, Rec – change title

KIN 705 Applied Statistics: Hlh/Ped/Rec – change title and description

The following Substantive Proposals were approved:

New Courses

ECO 673 Mathematical Methods for Economics I

EDT 660 Digital-Age Learning Environments

MED 660 Beginning Screenwriting

MED 671 Writing the Web Series

MED 672 Advanced Screenwriting

MED 792 Independent Study in Media

Course Changes

CSD 723 Sign Language – change number to 631, title and description

CSD 758 Early Intervention Assessment – change title

CSD 759 Early Intervention: Deaf – change title

CSD 762 Speech Development: Deaf I – change periodicity, title and description

CSD 763 Speech Development: Deaf II – change title and description

CSD 764 Instructional Strategies: Deaf – change title and description

CSD 780 Devlpmnt, Diversity & Deafness – change title and description

CSD 835 Diagnostic Audiology II – change title and description

CSD 921Sign Language I – change number to 621, title and description

PSY 765 Individual Psychotherapy – change title and description

Unfinished Business

An ad hoc committee has been formed to discuss accelerated graduate certificate programs. The committee has been asked to submit a report to the Executive Committee by January.

New Business

None.

Program

Nathan Hoff, Associate Registrar, gave a presentation on Degree Works. Degree Works is a new degree audit system that replaces the current DARS system which has been in use for the past 25 years. The degree audit system that went live on October 5 is the first module of Degree Works. Other modules, including a student planner, will be implemented beginning Spring 2016.

Nathan showed the Council some of the features of the degree audit and the exception process and answer questions.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 4:34. The next meeting of the Graduate Council will be on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 in Plaster Student Union, room 315.

Randy Dillon, Chairperson