University of Massachusetts at Amherst Graduate Council of the Faculty Senate Linda Shea, Chair

Transcription

1 University of Massachusetts at Amherst Graduate Council of the Faculty Senate Linda Shea, Chair Minutes of General Membership Meeting - Revised Wednesday, November 18, Goodell 508 Twenty One (21) individuals attended the meeting. Michael Alderman, Susan Chinman, Pat Stowell, and Patrick Sullivan from the Graduate School attended. Also, in attendance were Graduate Council members Tony Butterfield, James Cathey, James L. Craig, David Dudek, Linda Griffin, Li Gu, Christine King, Arthur Kinney, David Kotz, Bill McClure, Ben Normark, John Mullin, Jose Ornelas, Linda Shea, Nate Therien, Howard Stidham, H. Martin Wobst. I. Welcome and Introductions Chair Linda Shea called the meeting to order at 12:03 PM. II. Approval of Minutes The minutes from October 14 were approved with no corrections. III. Comments by the Graduate Dean Dean John Mullin reviewed and discussed several items. a. Budget Cuts Mid-year Fiscal Year 2010 budget cuts have been announced. There has been no mid-year additional cut to the Graduate School. However, the base budget cut for FY2010 for the Graduate was previously cut 3% from the ending base budget for FY. This budget cut totaled $65,096. The Graduate School has been able to adjust and keep all current programs intact. However, the Dean noted that the requests for help from the other Deans and Departments are significant. As an example, the Dean noted that there are graduate assistants funded by endowments within the different schools and colleges. However, with the decrease in the value of the endowment, the monies needed to fund the assistantships are significantly reduced. b. UMASS Amherst Re-accreditation The team reviewing the re-accreditation of UMASS Amherst was recently on campus. The team issued a report that did not mention the Graduate School. The Library and Commonwealth College were praised. However, the re-accreditation team s report noted some discontent with the manner in which UMASS compiled its informational report to them. It was felt the report should have been written from the bottom up and that there should have been more faculty involvement in writing the document. Additionally, the lack of a university vision was noted as an issue by the re-accreditation team. c. Paperless Graduate Applications The system that allows recommendations for graduate school application to be submitted electronically is now operational

2 Rev. Minutes of Graduate Council General Membership Meeting November 18, d. Professional Science Masters Degrees A meeting with Michael Malone to discuss and finalize proposals for Professional Science Masters Degree Programs will be held soon so that the proposals can be submitted for review and approval. e. Joint/Dual/Cotutelle Degrees In continuing efforts to move forward, Graduate School staff is continuing to meet and discuss the issues concerning joint degrees, dual degrees, and cotutelle degrees. f. Career Services The Dean noted his concern with the lack of graduate student participation in UMASS Career Services programs. He wanted to find ways and means for graduate students to better utilize this office. He said that graduate students pay $40 each in fees to fund Career Services. Bill McClure noted that Professional and Continuing Education funds Career Services with about $130,000. The Dean then solicited comments and experiences concerning Career Services. Christine King noted that Career Services personnel do come to her undergraduate classes when she requests. Martin Wobst said he saw little value in their current services for graduate students. Tony Butterfield questioned how much generalized recruiting is done at the graduate level with which Career Services can assist. The Dean said we must determine if the graduate student money is being used wisely. g. Student Mentoring Beverly Hill from UMASS Outreach will oversee an undergraduate mentoring program for Springfield students here. The program will be modeled after the NEAGEP program. It will monitor student progress and follow-up to assist students. This is a pilot study to determine if we could implement a similar system at the graduate level. h. Export Controls Federal Grants and Federal Laws require that we properly review and manage students from certain countries. The Federal government is enforcing these laws, and, as a result, a faculty member in Tennessee is in jail. Susan Chinman and Patrick Sullivan will attend a legal briefing on the matter. They will bring back a report to the Graduate Council. There was a request that a list of countries that require special scrutiny also be included in the report. It was mentioned that faculty wishing to recruit international students should complete any special review now rather than later. i. National Research Council The release of the National Research Council (NRC) graduate programs rankings has not yet occurred. It is almost becoming useless at this point. j. Special Recognition The Dean acknowledge that Pat Stowell was attending her first Graduate Council meeting since retiring, and he praised her for her efforts and dedication

3 Rev. Minutes of Graduate Council General Membership Meeting November 18, III. Comments by the Graduate Dean (continued) k. English as a Second Language (ESL) Training The Dean said he wanted to learn how ESL is working for graduate students. The Graduate School funds ESL with $60,000. It was noted that international students who are Teaching Assistants have to use their services to take a test in order to verify their English skills. There is also a one semester training course offered that meets for 2 hours each week for students who do not pass the test. David Kotz noted there were other places to send students for this training, such as the bilingual education program. Christine King asked if ESL provides services to students who are not Teaching Assistants but still need help with their written skills. It was noted that the UMASS Writing Center will not work extensively with an individual. It was suggested that we should determine if the bilingual education program could help. It was concluded that at this time we need to determine whether providing oral and written English skills to graduate students could be done better with greater effectiveness, efficiency, and less cost. l. Funding of Master Degree Students It has been asserted that Master Degree students should not be funded out of state formula funding. Master students are being viewed as students that should pay their own way. Research money can be used to fund Master students but teaching assistantships should first be assigned to Ph.D. students. However, the Dean stated that he did not believe that one policy should govern all academic departments because graduate student programs within different academic departments are different. m. Graduate Commencement Michael Alderman stated that Graduate Commencement will be held on Friday, May 14 from 10AM to noon. n. Graduate Program Director Newsletter The Graduate Program Director Newsletter is expected to be issued next week (Nov ) There was a request to put members of the Graduate Council on the distribution list of the newsletter. o. Equipment Purchase The Dean mentioned that he wished to purchase new chairs for Graduate School administrative staff. Members of the Graduate Council noted that this was a good idea. IV. Old Business None Discussed - 3 -

4 Rev. Minutes of Graduate Council General Membership Meeting November 18, V. New Business A. Academic Standards and Curriculum Committee (ASCC) Requests for Approval Arthur Kinney briefly reviewed the program proposal to revise the graduate degree programs in the Department of Natural Resources Conservation and to change the department name to Environmental Conservation. The proposal was approved unanimously. Arthur then briefly noted that ten course proposals were reviewed and approved by the ASCC: - Art Monotype: The Painterly Print - Art Animation Fundamentals - Art Computer Animation I - Art Computer Animation II - Biochemistry 657 Drug Design - Computer Science Computational Geometry - ChE/MIE 571: Physical and Chemical processing of Materials - ChE/MIE 572: Physical and Chemical Processing of Materials Lab - ChE/MIE 579: Advanced Materials Engineering - Microbiology 660: Genomics and Bioinformatics All ten courses were approved unanimously. VI. Committee Reports A. ASCC See New Business Item A above. B. ALANA No report. C. Fellowship No Report. D. Ethics No Report E. Special Admission No Report F. Student Affairs No Report. G. Mentoring No Report H. Travel There was a question about how the travel program approvals were administered. It was noted that the travel grants are approved on a rolling basis on a first come-first served basis within each department. However, each department has an established maximum number of travel grants that can be granted to that department. It was also noted that a Travel Grant application must be accompanied by the Graduate Program Director s approval. VII. Comments from Administrative Officers and Others A. Online Education Bill McClure distributed and reviewed a one page report with Graduate Data for enrollment in Continuing and Professional Education Classes for Fiscal Years (FY) 2007, 2008,, and for the Fall (FY 2010). He noted the 13% decrease in face-to-face graduate credit hours from Fall 2008 to Fall and the 11% increase in online graduate credit hours for the same period. He noted as well the 7% decline in gross revenues from graduate face-to-face courses and the - 4 -

5 24% increase in gross revenues from graduate online courses for that time period. Rev. Minutes of Graduate Council General Membership Meeting November 18, VII. Comments from Administrative Officers and Others (continued) A. Online Education (continued) It was also noted that although the credit hours and revenues for face to face graduate courses had declined, the number of classes offered had actually increased slightly. Additionally, the number of classes for graduate online classes had slightly decreased while the number of credit hours and the revenues had increased. Online classes currently have a larger number of students, from 41-57, which accounts for this statistic. A discussion followed in which the time and effort required to teach large graduate classes as well as the resulting quality of the instruction was reviewed. It was noted that the changing nature of education is something we need to be concerned about. Chair Linda Shea noted that she teaches online graduate classes and that it does take more time than face-to-face classes. The Dean noted that the price of allocating more time to online classes could decrease the amount of time allocated to research. While a concern about the number of graduate students you can teach and still provide a quality class was noted, it was also noted that the course evaluations were a good method of monitoring class quality. It was also stated that large online classes could be separated into smaller discussion sections. Linda Shea stated that many of the online graduate students are very demanding. Therefore, course evaluations are an excellent source of information, and those evaluations have shown that you can deliver a quality course online with a larger number of students. She also noted that many online discussions were very thoughtful because they allowed the students to take their time and think about their responses in their discussions. There was a perspective expressed that online classes should be encouraged because it improves education by improving access to education. David Kotz noted that there seems to be a shift among individuals who can attend graduate school to choose online courses. It was said that online classes advance the university outreach, both domestically and internationally. A UMASS Amherst residential graduate Hotel and Travel Management (HTM) program in Switzerland which uses online courses was mentioned as an example. It was noted that international students who cannot get visas to study in the U.S. use this program. It was requested that the Graduate Council form a committee study these issues. However, since there have been two prior Faculty Senate Committees/Task Forces to study the issues concerning online learning and courses, it was decided that the Graduate Council will discuss the matter further at later meetings before deciding on another course of action. B. Masters Program Listing Patrick Sullivan distributed a 5-page listing of Masters Programs with course and thesis requirements. This report was requested at the October 14 Graduate Council meeting. VIII. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 1:20 P.M. Respectfully submitted, - 5 -

6 David E. Dudek - 6 -