February 16, 2022

Lamar University 

Graduate Council  

Minutes #475

February 16, 2022 

Attending: Jerry Lin, Tammy Henderson, Carly Cox, David Short, Jeff Forret, Theresa Hefner-Babb, Brett Welch, Xianchang Li, Awais Saleem, Vivek Natarajan, Debbie Troxclair

Approval of Minutes 

#474 – January 19, 2021

Motion to accept: Saleem; Second: Hefner-Babb; motion passed

Old Business

Graduate Faculty Review

College of Fine Arts & Communication – Andre Favors does not have a PhD yet, Gloshanda Lawyer is no longer with the university. All others have been approved. Motion to accept: Forret; Second: Saleem; motion passed.

College of Engineering – Si Amar Dahoumane is no longer with the university, Port Management applicants do not have terminal degrees but Planning & Assessment has justification documentation on these already. Motion to accept: Forret; Second: Natarajan; motion passed.

College of Business – Dale Fontenot and Elizabeth Simmons do not have terminal degrees but the college based their approval on Master’s degrees and experience. Planning & Assessment does not have documentation indicating E. Simmons can teach graduate courses at this time. Dr. Natarajan asked that our spreadsheet be updated to reflect the current department divisions under the College of Business. Motion to accept: Forret; Second: Welch; motion passed.

College of Education & Human Development – all applicants were approved, Dr. Welch will continue to contact those that did not respond to requests to submit G4s. Motion to accept: Natarajan; Second: Forret; motion passed.

College of Arts & Sciences – all applicants were approved. Motion to accept: Natarajan; Second: Saleem; motion passed.

All approved applicants will be reviewed by the College of Graduate Studies for finalization and posting to Lamar websites.

New Business

Graduate Policy Revision – Change of Graduate Major, proposed revision in blue below:

Change of major. Graduate students may file a request to change their graduate major after taking at least one long semester of coursework in the degree program of admission. The request must be made using the G16 form (Request to Change Graduate Major, available at https://www.lamar.edu/graduate-studies/forms.html) and is subject to qualification review by the Academic departments and Colleges, and the College of Graduate Studies. Approval will be granted only to students who meet the admission requirements of the new program. No students are allowed to take multiple graduate majors except in the dual degree programs that have been approved by Lamar University, including the M.B.A./M.S.-MIS, M.S.A./M.S.-MIS, M.B.A./M.S.A. and M.B.A./M.S.N. programs. A student who has completed 50% of a graduate program’s credit hour requirement must submit an application to the new degree program at Apply Texas to change the graduate major, unless the request is for thesis option change or the change is within the same college at the same degree level. Financial assistance provided by an academic department is not transferable to other departments. Students who change their major and transfer from one department to another may lose financial assistance. Students who are admitted to a graduate program but have not taken courses should contact the Office of Graduate Admissions (gradmissions@lamar.edu) for the application to be considered for admission to another program.

Motion to accept change to graduate major change policy: Welch; Second: Forret; motion passed.

College of Education & Human Development

Teacher Education – proposing new M.Ed. Literacy Leadership in Urban Education (33 hr); includes 10 course additions, see below for details.

The syllabi for these course additions were reviewed by Planning & Assessment, and the college is already working on revisions. Since the course additions were not ready for review at today’s meeting, the council decided to table this proposal until March 2022. Council also discussed issues with the use of “Urban Education” in the degree title but not in the course titles or descriptions. Dr. Lin will relate these concerns to Dean Spina.

College of Engineering

Civil & Environmental Engineering – proposing new graduate certificate program: Engineering with Nature. This proposal includes one course addition that was not ready for review at today’s meeting. Council decided to table this proposal until March 2022 so that the course could be reviewed at the same time.