Graduate Council Meeting Minutes

Coastal Carolina University

September 3, 2008

 

 

Members Present:  Mark Mitchell (Business Administration-sitting in for Dr. John Marcis and Dr. Dennis Rauch), Emory Helms, (Education), Joe Winslow (Education), Jill Sessoms (Humanities and Fine Arts), Miglena Ivanova (Humanities and Fine Arts), Susan Libes (Natural and Applied Sciences), John Reilly (Natural and Applied Sciences), Dan Lawless (Registrar), and Richard Johnson (Associate Provost for Graduate Studies and Academic Outreach).

 

Guests: Judy Engelhard (Associate Dean, School of Teacher Education), John Lox (MBA Director, Wall College of Business)

 

The meeting was called to order by Dr. Richard Johnson at 11:30 a.m. in the Conference Room of the University Hall Building. 

 

Old Business:

 

  1. Dr. Richard Johnson provided copies of May 7, 2008 agenda to all attendees.  Requested that attendees verify that the May 7, 2008 minutes were approved. Passing of the May 7, 2008 Graduate Council Meeting minutes was verified; however, the Administrative Action forms for the courses passed by the Graduate Council has not been signed off on and finalized with appropriate signatures. It was stated that there were some issues with the syllabus of the courses which were too close to the undergraduate course, needed more distinction.  Dr. Judy Engelhard stated that she sent the requested changes revisions to all attendees and confirmed that what Dr. Johnson had were the changes. Dr. Johnson stated that he remembered the courses were approved pending resubmission. Any motion on verification of this. Motion was made, seconded, and approved by the majority.

 

New Business:

 

1.     Dr. Richard Johnson provided all attendees copies of initiatives for the next year or so with regards to Graduate Studies which he has submitted to the Provost.   He will be meeting with the Graduate Directors on a monthly basis to assist in looking at aspects of graduate programs.  All proposals will come back to the Graduate Council for approval. 

 

Several issues he will be bringing forward in the Graduate Directors meeting is;               

(a) Try to find uniformity between the programs such as admissions processes.

(b) To find some common grounds with regards of Graduate Assistantships in prioritizing and awarding assistantships.  They will be prioritized in the following manner:  Teaching assistants, research assistants, and clerical assistants.  Specific duties and criteria should be outlined in detail with each assistantship request. Also need to clarify how the assistantships are awarded with monies awarded meeting minimum wages, number of hours work, etc.

(c)  Graduate admissions processing is done in the Graduate Studies Office.  Need to determine where publications/public relations materials are paid from. Either Graduate Studies or the Departments will have to build this money in their respective budgets.

 

  1. The next new business item are agendas which will be addressed throughout the coming year by the Graduate Council;            

(a)  To come up with a set of policies and procedures for curriculum submission and guidelines, 

(b)  The current council by-laws need to be reviewed and any necessary changes made.  Dr. Richard Johnson will make copies of the current by-laws and sent to each member for review,                                                                                                                        

 (c)  The Provost has requested that the Council begin defining graduate faculty.  Dr. Johnson provided some models from Towson University, USC, and the University of Illinois to define graduate faculty and curriculum guidelines. 

 

 

 

  1. Dr. Johnson asked  for 2-3 members to volunteer to serve on a couple of committees;

(a) One subcommittee to review the by-laws of CCU to look at areas to where revisions are needed or putting in items with regards to definitions of faculty if need be and what models to propose and put some type of draft together for the Provost by the end of this semester.

(b)  One subcommittee to put together procedural curriculum guidelines so that the departments will have a complete picture of what is expected when items come to the Committee.

 

Dr. Johnson requested that members think about this request and email him as to if they would like to serve and on which committee they would like to serve.

 

Dr. Susan Libes raised the question that this had been put forward before and met with concern from the Senate on the Graduate Council taking on any more formality and authority. To the best of her recollection, at that time the Council would stand back and when the University grew large enough, this would be put forward again.  Is the University at that point now?  It was recommended that this be discussed with the Senate.

 

Dr. Johnson responded that he feels the University Provost is supportive of this move.  Most of the Deans did not realize that the Graduate Council does not report to the Faculty Senate.  We only report to them what the Graduate Committee has approved.  He wants to make sure that whatever the Council decides to do meets with Faculty Senate approval. He would also like to sit down with the Chair of the Senate to go over some of the initiatives before going too much further but the Committee should begin looking at some models in regards to the initiatives. 

 

Dr. Susan Libes also asked “Is it standard operating procedures for all Directors of the Graduate Colleges  to be present at the Graduate Council meetings”?  Dr. Johnson responded that he would like them to be.  It has been his past experience that they have been included. He asked for any thoughts.  Dr. Libes suggested that each college graduate program director be the communication conduit between the Graduate Council and their respective college to make sure that their college faculty gets the information they need about what is going on in the Graduate Council.  After much discussion, this proposal was not voted on.

 

Announcements

 

1.        Dr. Johnson announced to the Council that the Board of Trustees has put a charge to the Provost who in turn has put the charge to Dr. Barbara Burd, Executive Director of the Library & Instructional Technology, that they would like an on-line program at CCU in three years.  Dr. Burd will be meeting with the Program Directors on September 17th to bring this back to their respective colleges for possible programs or parts of programs.  Rational is what demographics are we meeting.  More information will be brought to the Graduate Council in future meetings along with the possibility of Dr. Barbara Burd addressing the Council.

 

 

Meeting was adjourned at 12:40 p.m. Next Graduate Council meeting is 10/01/08.