January 20, 2021

Lamar University

Graduate Council

MINUTES #462

January 20, 2021

All members attending except Dorothy Sisk.  S&T 275 and via MS Teams

Approval of Minutes

#461 – December 16, 2020

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

Old Business

• Recertification of expired graduate courses, recertification of expired graduate courses from other institutions for transfer credit

Current graduate policy states that graduate-level courses expire at 6 years and doctoral-level courses at 10 years.  Dyson: need to consider average completion times for graduate and doctoral programs. Kruger: agrees with Dyson that we need to consider completion times.  Lin: we need to rely on program administrators and their expertise in content areas to ensure transfer and/or expired courses are meeting the current standards.  Kruger: asks about technology courses being reviewed for current content.  Dr. Lin suggests discussing this with specific departments such as Computer Science.  Also asks if certain departments could apply more stringent expiration requirements on technology related courses, Dr. Lin explains that departments currently have this ability.  Hefner-Babb: need to make sure that these departments have this documented and communicated to students. 

• University-level policy regarding application of credits from Master’s degree toward D.E. or Ph.D., “double counting” courses

Lin: need to continue work on defining graduate degree plans before returning to this discussion after SACS reaffirmation.  Hefner-Babb:  a lot of schools will set a percentage threshold, such as 20% of the degree program that can be double counted.  This would help us to set a SACS-appropriate policy.  The recent proposal from College of Engineering to accept up to 6 hours would equal 20%. 

• Thesis/Dissertation course grading scale – letter grades or S/U

Lin: thesis and dissertation courses would previously receive NG and once thesis or dissertation completed, faculty member would need to issue grade change for final thesis or dissertation course.  The benefit of letter grading scale is it helps boost student GPAs, but sometimes faculty members forget to initiate grade change and this causes delays with graduation.  Records office asked faculty to issue S or U grade before last semester, then change via grade change if desired.  This created confusion among faculty as to which grade to enter.  NG is no longer an option for grading, but currently the letter grade scale, S/U and I are available.  Other universities utilize pass/fail grading system for thesis and dissertation courses.  We are not required to give a letter grade to thesis and dissertation courses.  What does council favor…current practice requiring grade change at end of student study, or S/U system only?  Aiming to make decision on this at February meeting.  Hefner-Babb:  will look into what other institutions are doing and send that info to Dr. Lin. 

New Business

• Academic suspension appeals – do we need to set a standard for the types of cases that can appeal, and is it appropriate to expel students with non-recoverable GPAs?

Is there a need for us to reform current system of appeals?  Dyson:  this is worth considering, especially for “non recoverable” GPA students.  Lin: asking council members to provide any opinions on this matter via email for further discussion.

• Minimum admission standards for LU Graduate Program

Currently there is a general trend nationwide to do away from relying on standardized test results for admissions.   Some LU colleges currently have a mechanism for waiving test scores for admissions.  What is council’s general opinion on minimum requirements for admissions?  Is there a need to make changes to our currently documented minimum admissions requirements.  Council members should confer with their respective colleges to determine which standards they wish to keep, then we can review these and determine which will be kept to make up our “minimum” requirements.  Colleges and departments can still set more stringent requirements.  Dr. Lin will draft email to council members regarding current minimum admissions requirements.

College of Business

The School of Accounting and Information Systems – requesting a change in the CIP code of the Master’s program in Accounting to a STEM code (Old CIP Code: 52.0301.0016, New Requested STEM Code: 52.1399). In conjunction with request for a new CIP code, the College of Business is also requesting a change in the title of the program from Master of Science in Accounting (M.S.A.) to Master in Professional Accounting (M.P.A.).

Dyson: this is a move to make title of program more contemporary and include coursework that builds skills for modern accounting professionals.  This will help enhance the Accounting program and help students.  Kruger: looks like STEM program to begin with under M.S., then changed to something not specifying STEM in title…how can CIP code change to STEM now?  Dyson cannot address, was not involved in creation of this proposal, suggests question be addressed to Don Warren in School of Accounting.  Hefner-Babb comments that she has reviewed this prior to this meeting and states that the “information systems” aspect of the program qualifies as STEM and warrants the CIP code change to reflect STEM.  Lin: the program has certain computer science requirements, and tuning the CIP code to STEM would make the program more visible to students.  No objection to vote on this today from council members.  Motion to accept proposal:  Dyson, Second: Saleem.  Motion passed.

College of Engineering

Civil and Environmental Engineering – requesting a course addition, CVEN 5337 Engineering with Nature: Engineering to be implemented in the Master’s and Doctoral CVEN programs effective Summer 2021.

Lin: This course has been offered multiple times as special topics course.  Hefner-Babb: if this will be offered to doctoral students, will this be a case where the 5000-level course would count or does a 6000-level version need to also exist?  Lin:  currently both level courses can be counted to D.E. and Ph.D.  This will be defined in more detail after further discussion with academic departments and colleges.  Li: questions the course title restating “engineering.”  Dr. Lin believes this ties into language used by U.S. Corps of Engineers.  Hefner-Babb: per comments from Dr. Hasselbach included in proposal, there will be other courses in this series that will follow the same naming conventions.  Motion to accept: Kruger, Second: Dyson.  Motion passed.

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