April 20, 2022

Lamar University 

Graduate Council  

MINUTES #477

April 20, 2022

Attending: Jerry Lin, Carly Cox, Brett Welch, David Short, Debbie Troxclair, Jeff Forret, Xianchang Li, Awais Saleem, Donna Azodi, Vivek Natarajan

Approval of Minutes 

#476 – March 9, 2022

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

Old Business 

College of Engineering

Civil & Environmental Engineering – proposing new graduate certificate program: Engineering with Nature. Includes one course addition (CVEN 5339) and one course change (CVEN 5335).

-Council reviewed the syllabi and found they use high-level action verbs to demonstrate appropriate rigor at the graduate level. Motion to accept: Saleem, Second: Troxclair, motion passed.

College of Arts & Sciences

English & Modern Languages – proposing modification of MA Teaching Spanish degree plan to include two previously-approved thesis courses. Memo provided by department contains degree plans for thesis and non-thesis options.

-Council reviewed the thesis and non-thesis (portfolio) degree plans. Both are 30 hour programs. There are options for online or hybrid course delivery. There are study abroad opportunities built into the plans, but also contingencies for those that are not able to travel abroad. Motion to accept: Natarajan, Second: Forret, motion passed.

New Business 

Dr. Tammy Henderson has resigned from Graduate Council. Dr. Lin will work with the Faculty Senate to elect another representative from CoEHD.

College of Arts & Sciences

Nursing – proposing course additions for new Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program.

-Council reviewed the course syllabi and found the level of rigor to be adequate. The entire DNP degree plan is not ready for review by council at this time. Motion to accept: Natarajan, Second: Azodi, motion passed.

College of Business

School of Accounting & Information Systems – requesting approval of changes to admissions requirements for MS in Professional Accounting to provide consistency among graduate programs in the college.

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

Department of Business – requesting additional MBA concentration in Corporate Governance and Risk Management, no new courses or other resources needed

-Motion to accept: Forret, Second: Li, motion passed.

College of Engineering

Electrical Engineering – doctoral student special request for degree plan exceptions, see memo for details

-Dr. Lin described the extreme flexibility of the current DE degree plan and that in this student’s case, about half the degree plan consists of 5000-level computer science courses. Council members were presented with the justification provided from the faculty advisor. The student’s transcript will be uploaded for council members to review, and this will be revisited at the next council meeting.