College of Graduate Studies
Graduate Council Meeting - Minutes
April 1, 2002
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)
Marc Giullian, College of Business
Richard Helzer, College of Arts & Architecture (Art)
Bruce McLeod, Graduate Dean
Gretchen McNeely, College of Nursing
Alison Spain, Graduate Students (Art)
Craig Stewart, College of Education, Health & Human Development (HHD)
Present:Chair Bruce McLeod, Mark Giullian, Craig Stewart, Doug Cairns, Janice Bowman, Ken Bowers, Gretchen McNeely, Rebecca Ward (College of Graduate Studies), Donna Negaard (College of Graduate Studies) and Maggie Gudatis (College of Graduate Studies).
Graduate Council Items:
Item 1: Summer graduate student employment, GSA category (Graduate Summer Appointment) max hours of employment etc.
The previous College of Graduate Studies' policy allows Graduate Research Assistants (GRA) and Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA) to work up to 40 hours per week during the summer without taking any credits.
Proposal – Eliminate the GSA, allow student to work up to 40 hours but the student must be enrolled in at least 3 credits. Bowers stated that math TAs may have to be paid as an adjuncts for summer session if GTAs are required to take credits. Bowman mentioned there could still be a problem if a student is doing research and not going to follow up with a thesis.
The following options were suggested:
If a student is enrolled, the student should be paid as a GRA or GTA for carrying out teaching or research responsibilities.
If a student is not enrolled, he/she should be paid as an adjunct research associate, student hourly, or other employment designations as recommended by payroll.
Issue is tabled for further discussion.
Item 2: Continuous enrollment policy. Questions, complaints and misunderstanding of the policy – should anything be changed?
Graduate Council reviewed the following areas:
1) Maintain Continuous Enrollment (CE) policy as stated
2) Require for doctoral students only
3) Request a maintenance fee (some universities use a fee comparable to 1-credit of tuition. Others use a flat fee amount from the Regents to be assessed to all student status. Other schools’ fees range from ~$190 to almost $1000)
4) Require a maintenance fee to keep students in “active status”. This is lower than tuition.
5) Change to 1-credit registration instead of the current 3-credits
6) Don’t require summer registration
Graduate Council reviewed the above areas. Comparisons of schools with a continuous enrollment policy were also considered.
The dean with concurrence from council members decided to retain the the current Continuous Enrollment policy as it is.
The College of Graduate Studies current Continuous Enrollment Policy is:
To maintain graduate status, a student must be enrolled in three (3) or more credits (including thesis or dissertation) and/or Extended Studies credits, applicable to the degree program, each semester (including at least one summer session), upon the following occurrence:
Masters students- after the completion of required content course work as approved on the graduate program of study or after the student passes any portion of the comprehensive examination, whichever comes first.
Doctoral students- after passing any portion of the comprehensive examination.
Item 3: Graduate Office Staffing
Chairman McLeod excused CGS staff members. Following a discussion regarding CGS staffing, a motion was made by Stewart and seconded by Bowman to approve the staffing changes proposed by Dean McLeod. Motion passed.
* The next Graduate Council meeting is scheduled for 1:00 p.m., April 15th in the President's Conference Room (MT Hall 103).