December 16, 2020

Attending:  Jerry Lin, Brett Welch, Jeff Forret, Soumava Bandyopadhyay for Jeff Dyson, Joe Kruger, Teresa Hefner-Babb, David Short, Xianchang Li, Dorothy Sisk

Approval of Minutes

#460 – November 18, 2020

Motion to accept: Forret, Second: Welch, motion passed.

Kruger abstains, left early last meeting; S. Bandyopadhyay abstains, attending as CoB rep in place of Jeff Dyson

Old Business

-Approval of Graduate Council bylaws: Will use rounded average over 3 years as calculated by banner to determine student enrollment by college to determine number of grad council member representatives. Version 2 portion on ex officio members needs correction, University Planning & Assessment is new name of Dr. Hefner-Babb’s office.

Motion to accept version 2 of the bylaws: Kruger, Second: S. Bandyopadhyay, motion passed.

-Discussion/approval of stacked course review process:  This is guideline and not policy but this committee will review and approve all syllabi according to these guidelines.  May be option to establish rubric for evaluating these syllabi.  Will look at our sister institutions for existing model for this.  May need to reevaluate policy on no syllabi for small graduate courses per Dr. Hefner-Babb.  Records office does not require syllabi for their operations.  Need to change language RE terminal degree requirement for faculty teaching graduate courses, amend to include “or approved as graduate faculty member by the graduate council.”  Motion to accept: Forret, Second: Welch, motion passed.

-Discussion/review of Graduate Faculty applications:  Rafael de la Madrid amended application for Full grad faculty status – approved. Si Amar Dahoumane application – not employed by LU but serving on grad student committee, applied for Associate membership but will change to Special since he is not an employee…approved.  Council member final comments on membership applications:  Dr. Li – noted two late additions from Port Management, asks if we will review today.  Dr. Lin states we will review these in January 2021.  Motion to accept: Forret, Second: Kruger, motion passed.

-Discuss the transferring in of expired (greater than six or ten years old) courses for credit:  Need to have clear policies on recertification of expired LU credits, recertification of expired credits transferring in from other institutions.

-Review revised Graduate Studies scholarship policy … by degree credit hours: Students may not receive doctoral tuition waiver in addition to graduate studies scholarship.  Removed barrier of fiscal year requirement causing summer start students to be awarded $1k.  Will be counted by calendar year instead.  Delegate departments to decide on students not meeting scholarship requirements due to academic performance.  Selective service requirement is waived for international students.  Will include language to this regard in policy and reference specific code.  Motion to accept: S. Bandyopadhyay, Second: Welch, motion passed.

College of Engineering

College-wide:  submitting a memo regarding the application of credits from a Master’s degree toward a D.E. or Ph.D.  This will need to be University-level policy and needs further discussion.  Some graduate degree plans/curriculum are not clearly defined currently.  Would be best to wait until this has been resolved before moving forward with this decision.  Hoping to have all degree program curriculum defined by end of Spring 2021 semester. 

College of Fine Arts & Communication

Deaf Studies & Deaf Education – requesting 4 course changes, see info below. Motion to accept: Forret, Second: Sisk/Kruger, motion passed.

Roundtable Discussion

-”double counting” courses – will be further discussed along with policy around recertification of expired graduate credits and College of Engineering proposal.

Motion to adjourn: Kruger, Second: Forret, meeting adjourned.

Cc 12/16/2020