Executive Committee Meeting Minutes: December 19, 2003


Whetten Graduate Center - Giolas Conference Room
2:00 P.M.

  1. The meeting was called to order at 2:05PM. Vice Provost Janet L. Greger presided.
  2. It was moved, seconded, and passed without dissent to approve as distributed the minutes of the 11/14/03 meeting.
  3. It was moved, seconded, and passed without dissent to approve the Doctoral Plans of Study and Dissertation Proposals.
  4. It was moved, seconded, and passed with one abstain to approve the request to change the grading basis for LING 4XX & LING 4XY to satisfactory/unsatisfactory.
  5. It was moved, seconded, and passed without dissent to approve the request to change the grading basis for PNB 4XX to satisfactory/unsatisfactory.
  6. Announcement of the Results of the Pilot Program for the Recruitment of U.S. Graduate Students
  7. A sub-committee of the GEC selected the winning proposals. (Attachment)
  8. Award recipients will be required to report the results and assess the impact of their project with the Graduate Faculty Council in either May or September.
  9. It has become very important for departments to improve recruitment of domestic students for several reasons. NIH training grants are only available to domestic students. DOE/DOD/DHS are increasing requiring only U.S. citizens to work on projects.
  10. Post-doc Policy Revision

    Human Resources made suggestions in regard to the GEC draft policy on post-doctoral trainees and fellows. The policy was revised slightly to emphasize key phrases:

    • A postdoctoral fellow is an employee; a postdoctoral trainee is not an employee but receives a stipend.
    • By definition, a training experience is temporary.
    • The primary focus.is research and scholarship.

    It was moved, seconded and passed with one abstain to approve the modifications. The FINAL policy is attached. The policy becomes official on Feb. 1, 2004.

  11. Discussion of journal publications vs. on-line publications

    General discussion of the University Senate's DRAFT proposal ensued. D. Cournoyer agreed to compose or rewrite the DRAFT statement on behalf of the Executive Committee and Graduate Faculty. The statement would then be distributed to all Executive Committee members for comments/revisions. This statement would be the basis of the program for the next Graduate Faculty Committee.

    UPDATE: Suggested statement was commented on by only two GEC members. Here is the statement:

    Resolved:

    Access to the scholarly literature is vital to members of the academic community.  To assure continued access to peer reviewed literature, the Graduate Faculty urge all members of the university community to examine their participation in the scholarly communication system.  In particular we ask scholars, members of professional organizations, librarians, university officials, and others in the business of preparation and distribution of scholarly communications to consider how their actions
    might be organized to best serve the scholarly mission of the university.

    With this resolution in mind, the Graduate Faculty call for a public forum on the topic of scholarly communication systems.  This forum would involve scholars, persons representing professional organizations, librarians, university officials, publishers, and others in a discussion of the current state of scholarly communication systems, best practices, worst practices, and strategies for maintaining easy access to scholarly
    communication.

    Two members of the library staff have agreed to participate in the February GFC meeting.

  12. Update of NRC rules/methodologies

    Charlotte Kuh will be coming to visit March 25-26 th . The new NRC book is available from the Dean's office for review.

    In February or March, the GFC meeting should include a program on the NRC survey, perhaps with a point/counter-point discussion by E. Smith & L. Strausbaugh. Department Heads should be invited.

  13. Announcements

    • Faculty in Allied Health and Continuing Education agreed with the GEC's suggestions that the off-campus master's in Allied Health-Occupational Health & Safety fits our MPS (distance education) model.
    • Graduate applications are being processed quickly with 80% of them being submitted electronically.
  14. Adjournment was at 3:58 PM.

Present: G. Anderson, J.G. Clifford, D. Cournoyer, D. Herzberger, D. Lillo-Martin, G. Maxwell (Associate Dean), E. Pagoulatos, E. Smith, L. Strausbaugh, J.L Greger (Vice Provost), J. Henkel (Associate Dean)

Regrets: J. Marsden

Respectfully submitted,
Carleen Morneau
Administrative Assistant