Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Council in Attendance: 
Ahmed Al-Kaisy (Engineering)
Christopher Livingston (Architecture)
Brock Smith (Agriculture)
Dennis Aig (Arts)
Lisa Davis (Letters & Science)
Tena Versland (Education)
James Becker (Health & Human Development)
Michael Brody (Faculty Senate)
Craig Ogilvie (Dean of The Graduate School)
Susan Kollin (Letters & Science)
Sara Mannheimer (Library)
Sobia Anjum (Student Representative)
Que Vo (International Programs)

Also in Attendance:
Lauren Cerretti (Graduate School)

Absent:
Marc Giullian (Business)
Wade Hill (Nursing)

Meeting started at 11:04 am on Webex

Approval of March 4, 2020 Minutes

Motion to approve made by Aig, 2nd by Davis, unanimously passed

Announcements

Faculty Senate Update (Brody)

  • Courses in the queue to be reviewed
  • In general, plan for faculty and university is to cut down on as many expenses as possible in coming months/year to preserve current faculty working
  • No decision about graduation, summer orientations yet

Old Business

Graduate Certificate for Dual Enrollment Mathematics Teachers, proposal (Livingston)

  • Recap: 9 credits seemed low, anything below 12 seems low
  • Did not have a chance to reach out to Math
  • Ogilvie: half of our peer universities have 9 credit certs, half have 12.
    • 12 does seem better, 9 feels low
    • Is there a financial concern? If 9 is all required for state certification, why would student take an additional 3?
      • Davis: agreement that’s likely the department’s perspective; possible Math Ed group feels could use the cert as a way to recruit more students to MS program
  • Q: should these students take a teaching course? Do the courses they will take have pedagogical content or just straight math?
    • Davis: Department Head would be better answering that question
  • Q: how urgent would a policy for Graduate School be?
    • Dean Ogilvie is encouraging depts to create certificate programs, so having guidance as soon as possibly would be beneficial
    • Something like “12 credits are required but there are exceptions for state or professional requirements”
  • District often pays for dual enrollment teachers because it’s a need the district has. The financial piece might not be an issue for individual students
  • Livingston will ask if dept thinks 12 cr would be unattractive to students and ask for more info on 9 credits
    • Will report at next meeting

MS in Veterinary Science (Livingston)

  • Asked Dr. Quinn to attend today but he could not make it
  • Will put something together from minutes to ask Dr. Quinn and have him revise proposal. Then UGC review the new proposal

New Business

Discussion re: Covid-19 (Ogilvie)

  • GS attention split between current students and prospective students
    • Current students: GS is concerned about their health. Survey by OPA shows students are worried about their families. This stress combined with their courses, GTA responsibilities, research, is weighing on them.
      • GS working on pass/fail language with Registrar
      • GS extended spring deadline to May 1 (from April 21)
      • GS offered to pay for 1 credit extension tuition for students who need to extend
      • GS sending out a lot of messages with both FAQs/policy, and social connection ideas
    • Prospective students:
      • Those who’ve already applied: GS in constant communication with them
      • GS asked graduate coordinators to reach out to admitted students to check in
      • Fall 2020 students who’ve accepted offer are higher than previous 2 falls
      • There might be students whose work situations change because of Covid- 19 and could return to school because of it
    • President has asked for weekly report on enrollment for fall 2020
    • Q: Do you think fall classes will still be online? Would there be delayed starts because of that?
      • Ogilvie: expectation is that fall classes will be face to face
    • Q: Students who are working as GRAs could be affected by current situation. Doesn’t know extent of impact because length of effect of Covid-19 is unknown. Can these students look to GS for support?
      • All the models show July timeframe is likely massive reduction in Covid issues. For face to face research GRAs, end of summer/beginning of fall is likely restart for them. Funding agencies are being flexible on work deliverables and individual PIs are being encouraged to contact funding agency. Some are extending grants
      • GTA contracts are being honored by Provost through spring
      • Hiring freeze in place does not include GTAs
    • Three grad students in Math received summer internships at national labs and all were contacted and told internships on pause. Department is working to support these students

 

 

Adjourned at 12:04 pm

Next scheduled meeting – April 15, Webex