August 18, 2021

Lamar University 

Graduate Council  

Minutes #469

August 18, 2021 

 Attending: Jerry Lin, Carly Cox, Theresa Hefner-Babb, Brett Welch, Vivek Natarajan, Jeff Forret, Xianchang Li, Awais Saleem

Will plan to hold future meetings in person at Science & Technology building, room 275.

Approval of Minutes 

#468 – July 21, 2021

Motion to accept minutes – Welch, second – Natarajan, motion passed.

Old Business 

• 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.

 All old business items are concluded at this time.

New Business 

College of Arts & Sciences

Criminal Justice – Course Addition: CRIJ 5344; SLOs need revising per Dr. Hefner-Babb

SLOs include language that could be stronger and repeated use of the phrase “be able to.” Motion to accept pending revision of SLOs: Saleem, second: Natarajan, motion passed.

History – Course Addition: HIST 5315 Comments from Dr. Hefner-Babb: move to Concourse format, remove campus carry reference, Baptist textbook is also required for HIST 5305 American Slavery; some SLOs need revised terms (the rigor is there), also "graduate course statement in course description" can be removed in lieu of the academic rigor statement being added to the syllabus. No prerequisites listed. 

Multiple course additions for 18-hour graduate certificate in History - see files for details and proposal

Dr. Forret described nature of certificate program in History.  The department developed the certificate program for target audiences including high school teachers wishing to teach AP courses and 2-year higher ed institution instructors.  The certificate program may also help encourage students into the full M.A. program.  No new faculty is required.  The 8 week course delivery schedule is new to the department.  Other courses are in the works now to eventually be added to this program.  Program will be fully online, eight-week format courses.  It’s possible for students to receive the certificate within one year.  Courses used in this program already exist in University inventory but had not previously been offered online.  The request for course development is due to the need for faculty to transfer these courses to online format.  The enrollment projection at four years is an educated guess, and a similar program at Sam Houston that was started earlier was used as comparison.  Academic Partnerships is involved in recruiting for this program.  Lin:  5305, 5306, 5332, 5354 and 5365 SLO level in Bloom’s taxonomy could be higher to demonstrate the difference in rigor at the graduate level.  Vote today will be pending revisions of SLOs to demonstrate higher level of student accomplishment.  Hefner-Babb:  there is a book being used in both classes being taught by Dr. Forret, was this intentional?  If students take both classes they may be confused.  Forret: this was not intentional, though the book is important to the course, he will revise.  Hefner-Babb:  Dr. Kibbe’s class, women & gender, is using a lot of content that would be copies in Blackboard to avoid having students purchase the book, but this is not allowed.  The books can be put on e-reserves in the library for students to access, and this will avoid any copyright or free-use issues.  Motion to accept pending revision of SLOs: Natarajan, second: Saleem, motion passed.  

Graduate Faculty

• G4 Approvals Needed

CoFAC – Dawn Kidd, Martina Bienvenue, Outside Committee Members - Lindsey Snyder (student Brian Cheslock L20357425), Thangi Appanah (student Rajmonda Krasniqi L20384724) Dr. Saleem will review initially and respond to Dr. Welch with approval or questions/comments, if approved council will review at next meeting.

CoEHD – John Boatwright Dr. Welch will reach out to new CoEHD reps to review and provide feedback or approval for full committee review next month.

NEW – CoE: Catherine C. Thomas (adjunct faculty), Tosin Sekoni (adjunct faculty); CoEHD: Joe Rodriguez (outside committee member for Ed.D. student Marta Rivas), Virginia McRay (outside committee member for Ed.D. Student Philip Wittkorn) Dr. Li will review and provide feedback to Dr. Lin, will move forward will full council review next month.

Dr. Hefner-Babb brought up the issue of graduate teaching assistant and how their qualifications are checked when they are hired, as well as their FT or PT status, FTE, etc.  Guidelines need to be established and communicated.  Questions around the differences between IAs and GAs will need clarification.  Will set a goal of developing a policy this semester for review at college level later on.  Do we want to begin discussions with colleagues and deans around preferred qualifications for GAs?  Dr. Lin and Dr. Welch can use this info to draft policy for review.  Council agrees to this, timeline for feedback from each college will be Sept. 30.  Please submit feedback in writing via email.  Feedback on both IAs and GAs or TAs is helpful.