July 21, 2021

Lamar University 

Graduate Council  

MINUTES #468

July 21, 2021 

Attending:  Jerry Lin, Brett Welch, Carly Cox, Jeff Forret, Jeff Dyson, Theresa Hefner-Babb, Awais Saleem

Meeting held in person at Wimberly 219 and online via MS Teams @ 12:30 pm

Approval of Minutes 

#467 – June 16, 2021

Motion to accept minutes: Forret, second by: Welch, motion passed.

Old Business 

• Minimum admission standards for LU Graduate Program. GRE required. Academic colleges set standards.   
• University-level policy regarding application of credits from Master’s degree toward D.E. or Ph.D., “double counting” courses. Hold until degree plan is well defined.
• Thesis/Dissertation course grading – update. Primary concern is financial aid. Will continue to communicate with Academic deans.
• M.S.N./M.B.A. dual degree program – update. Documented?
• Planning for syllabi review – Summer 2021 courses. A committee will review stacked course syllabi. Syllabus training planned.
• Plan for end to COVID related admissions waivers? No additional waivers planned beyond Fall 2021.
• G4 Approvals

CoFAC – Dawn Kidd, Martina Bienvenue, Outside Committee Members - Lindsey Snyder (student Brian Cheslock L20357425), Thangi Appanah (student Rajmonda Krasniqi L20384724)

CoEHD – John Boatwright

New Business 

College of Engineering

Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering – requesting addition of a 12-credit hour graduate certificate in Fermentation Science and Engineering

Student interest survey completed and constituents outside of campus were consulted, both indicated interest in program.  Admission criteria and curriculum are already established.  THECB approval is not necessary due to number of hours required.  BoR approval will be sought in November 2021. Motion to accept certificate program proposal:  Welch, second: Dyson, motion passed. 

Civil & Environmental Engineering – requesting a course change for CVEN 5331 to update the course title

Original course name was altered when entering into LU systems due to character limits, this request is to correct the course name, specifically changing the term “biologic” to “biological.”

Motion to accept:  Saleem, second: Dyson, motion passed.

College of Education

Educator Preparation Programs – degree plan modifications across multiple programs to stop need for mass exceptions in DegreeWorks, see memo

The college developed new courses to use cross-college and these were previously approved, however the degree plans were not updated and this resulted in the need for very many manual exceptions in degree Works in order for students to receive financial aid, etc.  Some discussion on the use of one school law course for multiple programs, Hefner-Babb has concerns with this.  Suggested modification:  approved pending additional documentation to justify using school law to replace special education law course.  Motion to accept with condition as stated previously:  Saleem, second: Forret, motion passed.

Graduate Faculty Application:  Full membership – Ricardo Tovar-Silos, College of Business

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

Discussion on Graduate Scholarship policy

Shared clarification on awarding terms, specifically that we will no longer award $500 in summer terms and instead we will award $50 in order to apply the non-resident tuition waiver as necessary for out of state students. 

Discussion on academic suspension appeal policy

Shared clarification on when an appeal is necessary.  Students are allowed to take summer courses without filing an appeal.  Forret asks about the timeline for GPA repair as it may impact part-time students.  Lin explains that students will move through P1 and P2 prior to receiving academic suspension, and they must take at least 9 hours before probation status may be applied. 

Motion to accept:  Forret, second:  Saleem, motions passed.