February 15, 2017

GRADUATE COUNCIL MINUTES

February 15, 2017

#433

The Graduate Council of Lamar University met in the Wimberly Bldg., conference area, room 219 at 1:30 p.m.  Dr. William Harn, Dean of Graduate Studies, presided.  Dr. Ashwini Kucknoor, Dr. Max Loges, Dr. Tracy Benson, Dr. Nick Rissman, Dr. Jimmy Moss, and Dr. Dorothy Sisk attended.  Also present were Carmen Breaux, Coordinator of Graduate Studies, as Ex Officio and Dr. Eric Bronson from the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Criminal Justice.

MINUTES:

Minutes of the December (#431), January (#432) meeting were reviewed by the Graduate Council.  Dr. Loges motioned to approve the documents, Dr. Sisk seconded the motion, and the Council unanimously approved.

OLD BUSINESS:

Tabled item from the College of Fine Arts and Communication in Speech and Hearing was reviewed by the Graduate Council.  The total number of hours on the degree in MS-SLP will change from 36 to 39 hours.  Dr. Rissman motioned to approve, Dr. Loges seconded the motion, and the Council unanimously approved.

NEW BUSINESS: 

College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Eric Bronson representing the Department of Criminal Justice, attended the meeting to present the proposal to the Graduate Council.  The proposal is to reduce the hours to the non-thesis option from 36 to 30 hours; the thesis option will remain the same at 30 hours. The Council carefully reviewed the proposal. Dr. Benson motioned to approve, Dr. Loges seconded the motion, and the Council unanimously approved.

Course Changes:

College of Education

Course change EDUD 6353 was submitted by the Department of Doctoral Studies.  The Graduate Council carefully reviewed the document and suggested that some of the wording in the syllabus did not align with the online scenario that the course change presented.  Dr. Rissman motioned to approve with the condition that the changes to the syllabus be corrected, Dr. Kucknoor seconded the motion, and the Council unanimously approved with conditions.  Changes to the syllabus were made and resubmitted and approved by the Graduate Dean.

Course Additions:

College of Engineering

Civil-Course Additions, CVEN 5334 (Sustainability: Green Engineering), and CVEN 6334 (Sustainability:  Life Cycle Assessment) were submitted by the Department of Civil Engineering.  Dr. Moss motioned to approve, Dr. Rissman seconded the motion, and the Council unanimously approved.

Mechanical-Course Additions, MEEN 5317(Advanced Solid Mechanics), MEEN 5329(Advanced Solid Mechanics), and MEEN 5330(Two Phase and Heat Transfer) were submitted by the Department of Mechanical Engineering.  The Graduate Council carefully reviewed the additions and noticed several errors and mismatched documents that would need to be corrected.  MEEN 5317 was already in inventory and could not be used.  The course addition forms were not filled in correctly and the signatures were not obtained.  The documents were sent back to the department for correction.  The department made the corrections and they were sent to the Graduate Council via email for consensus on March 2,2017.  MEEN 5329 and MEEN 5330 were unanimously approved by Council.

Industrial-Course Addition, INEN 5314 (Risk Management) was submitted by the Department of Industrial Engineering.  The Graduate Council carefully reviewed the addition and determined that there were several minor errors in the syllabus that the department would need to correct.

Dr. Rissman motioned to approve the course addition with corrections as suggested by Council, Dr. Kucknoor seconded the motion, and the Council unanimously approved with conditions. The corrections were made as specified by the Graduate Council.

College of Arts and Sciences

Sociology-Course Additions, SOCI 5320 (Minority Health), SOCI 5330(Epidemiology and Global Health), SOCI 5370(Spatial Analysis in Health), were submitted by the Department of Sociology.  The Graduate Council carefully reviewed the additions and discussed the fact that the Sociology department does not currently have a Master’s degree program in place.  The additions are to enhance the Master’s in Public Health in Health Promotion currently available in the College of Education, Department of Kinesiology.  After their discussion, the Council made the decision to decline the course additions at this time. 

Conclusion:

The next meeting is scheduled on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 at 1:30 p.m. in the Wimberly Bldg., Room 219.