CORRECTED MINUTES OF THE GRADUATE COUNCIL |
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The regular meeting of the Graduate Council was held at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 in 110 AIME Building. MEMBERS PRESENT: Dr. Martin
Bakker, Dr. Catherine Davies, GRADUATE SCHOOL REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT: Dr. John Schmitt,
Associate Dean I. Dean’s Welcome to the Graduate Council Dean Francko welcomed everyone and made introductions. Dean Francko asked if there were corrections to the April 22, 2008 minutes. No corrections were mentioned and the minutes were accepted. Dean Francko reported on records being broken at the Graduate School. Record enrollment for fall was approximately 4,050 students. This is up 125-140 from last year and up over 200 from the previous year. We are on an upward trend. The goal is to have 5000-plus graduate students. Last year we received approximately 6,500 applications. Currently the Graduate School receives all of the money from the application fees, and all of the money is directed to graduate students through fellowships and research/travel funds. The Graduate School conferred a record number of degrees this year. Almost one-third of the University’s granted degrees are graduate degrees, and approximately one-fourth of all alumni have graduate degrees. According to Associate Dean John Schmitt, the ACHE inventory has 192 degrees, with 122 (64%) of those degree programs being graduate degrees. Last year we awarded 191 doctoral degrees out of almost 1500 total graduate degree awarded. Last year we had 6 McNair Scholars and expect 6-8 more this year. The total number of Graduate Assistantships is up (both research and teaching). Currently we are working on a
development campaign for fundraising. A mailing will be sent out in the
next few weeks, and several significant contributions have already been
received. Committee on Financial Aid – Dr. Vivian Wright reported that currently, 86 offers had been made to students for the Graduate Council Fellowships. Sixty-three accepted, which is a typical percentage. Official notification will be sent out in October. The deadlines for this year are as follows:
There were 49 out-of-state offers and 32 acceptances. Thirty-seven in-state fellowships were offered with thirty-one accepted. The trend has been to increase the out-of-state offers and recipients. The goal is to have 40-plus out-of-state fellowships accepted. This is one step closer to UA’s being viewed as an International University. Questions have come up about sending
out an email before the official letter goes out. The official
notification letter is mailed the very next day, but students don’t
receive it for several days. But the main problem is the quick response
of students. The alternative list is immediately put into effect once a
student declines a fellowship. If this happens in the fall semester, ETD submission will be voluntary, with mandatory submission beginning in a year. No special training is needed for submission through ProQuest, but the Graduate School will have ETD seminars for students, faculty, and staff. Because the Graduate School will not be using any editors, the responsibility for editing and final submission will be rest (as it always has) with students and their departments. ProQuest will require a single PDF file, but under rare circumstances of students’ wanting to submit additional files that were not part of the body or appendices of the manuscript will be permitted to submit those files to ProQuest as well. A new “Certificate of Approval” page will incorporate signatures of committee members and certification by the committee chair that he or she has reviewed the final electronic version (PDF) of the document and has determined that it is an accurate representation of the document reviewed and accepted by the committee, and that its content, form and style are ready for publication and submission to ProQuest. We expect the ETD submission and approval process to be streamlined considerably compared with the process for paper-based manuscripts. Committee on Program and Degree
Requirements - The Alternative Doctoral Residency option was passed
last year. Any proposals need to be submitted to the committee to be
approved. After that, the Graduate Council will approve all final
submissions. Included in the plan there are only the following four
components: Statement of need, Statement of how each of five value
constructs for doctoral residency will be met, Brief description of the
ongoing measures of academic success that will be used to demonstrate
the efficacy of the alternative residency, and a Brief description of
the proposed alternative residency. (See Handout #2). The committee is ready for proposals,
and the first one will be used as a template to share with other
departments. An outline and support material for departments requesting
an alternative doctoral residency were sent to all graduate faculty,
with an invitation to contact the Graduate School for assistance in
preparing brief (2-3 page) proposals. |
