Graduate Council Meeting - Minutes
May 4, 2001

Graduate Council Members

Ken Bowers, College of Letters & Science (Mathematics)

Janice Bowman, College of Agriculture (Animal & Range Sciences)

Doug Cairns, College of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering)

Gretchen Iman, Graduate Students

Ralph Johnson, College of Arts & Architecture (Architecture)

Bruce McLeod, Graduate Dean

Gretchen McNeely, College of Nursing

Craig Stewart, College of Education, Health & Human Development (HHD)

Kent Swift, College of Business

Present:  Ken Bowers, Janice Bowman, Doug Cairns, Ian Godwin, Gretchen Iman, Bruce McLeod,  Bruce Raymond, Craig Stewart, Ron Tobias (alt - Media & Theatre Arts), Lynn Taylor (College of Nursing), and Rebecca Ward.

Informational Topics Discussed:

Graduate Council chair McLeod discussed his perception of the role of Graduate Council under new MSU President, Geoff Gamble.

Graduate Council Items:

Item 1: Certificate program for Family Nurse Practitioners.

The Notice of Intent to declare a 'Post-Master's Family Nurse Practitioner Certificate' program at MSU was reviewed. Council members questioned whether the FNP certificate program would add additional costs and if so, from where the budget would come to cover the additional costs. Students attending for certification would enroll in current courses thus filling vacant classroom spots. Additional faculty, courses and staff would not be necessary.

MOTION: Bowman moved to approve the Family Nurse Practitioner Certificate proposal. Stewart seconded the motion.

VOTE: unanimous.

Item 2: Moving forward with Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETDs) at MSU.

McLeod and Ian Godwin gave a brief overview of Electronic Theses and Dissertations, continuing the discussion with an update and answering specific council members' questions. MSU will incur additional costs in requiring the use of ETDs and will need to develop a student support system to help students develop the ETD. A formal motion to proceed with ETDs at MSU by joining the Networked Digital Library of Theses an Dissertations was made. Graduate Council members unanimously supported MSU membership in NDLDT.

Item 3: Policy discussion to require the attendance of department heads or department graduate Coordinators and committee chairs to attend Graduate Student Academic Appeal Board (GSAAB) meetings when one of their students has submitted an appeal.

In light of the content of many graduate student appeals, Dean McLeod requested policy discussion and drafting of a policy requiring a graduate student's department head or the department's graduate coordinator and committee chair to attend any graduate student's academic appeal. This request was prompted by the membership of the GSAAB believing that those involved in the faculty advising system need to be held accountable for academic appeals.

Following discussion, the Council approved requiring the student's department head and the chair of the student's graduate committee (another member of the committee may represent the chair if the chair does not reside on the MSU campus) to attend all GSAAB appeals. This will be in the form of a recommendation until the CGS policy and procedures manual is formally reviewed. At that time, the policy will be formally adopted. As such, graduate student appeals will not be presented to the GSAAB without the department and committee representatives in attendance.

Item 4: Transfer of credits between degree programs.

The CGS is increasingly being asked for policies about use of credits from one master's degree to another; from a master's degree to a doctoral degree and from a doctoral degree to a master's degree. The following recommendations will be reviewed, reworded and considered as part of the CGS policies and procedures discussion to be held this coming summer.

The was discussion revolving around the requirements for a master's degree at MSU.

Recommendation: A maximum of six (6) credits will be applicable from one completed master's degree to a second master's degree, with the approval of the student's committee. This limit also applies to the transferring of credits from a non-MSU master's degree to a second master's at MSU.

Recommendation: A minimum of 70 credits including a maximum of 18 dissertation (14 dissertation credits for Ed.D.s) past the bachelor's degree is required for doctoral degrees.

 

* The next Graduate Council meeting has not been scheduled at this time.
 

 

Graduate Council Meeting - Minutes May 4, 2001