Minutes
Commission on Graduate Studies & Policies February 16, 2000
206 Sandy Hall

Present:	Dr. Greg Amacher, Dr. Julia Beamish, Mr. John Cosgriff, Dr.
Ron Daniel, Dr. Klaus Elgert, Ms. Barbara Fraticelli, Dr. Peter W.
Graham, Ms. Erin Hanley, Mr. Chris Heine, Dr. Eileen Hitchingham, Dr.
Martha Johnson, Dr. Virginia Maxwell, Dr. Malcolm McPherson, Dr. Kent
Nakamoto, Mr. Tomoya Ochinero, Mr. Hunter Pittman, Dr. Doug Strickland,
Dr. Richard Veilleux, and Mrs. Kathryn Young

Absent with Notification: Dr. Annette Burr, Dr. Len Peters and Dr. Mike
Vorster

Absent without Notice:	Ms. Christina Coukos, Dr. Ellie Sturgis and
Mr. Surya Vakkalanka

Invited Guests:	Dr. John Eaton, Mr. Marvin Foushee and Ms. Angela
Duncan

Dr. Julia Beamish, Chair, called the meeting to order.

Announcements- Dr. Eaton announced the number of enrollments compared to
last year. On campus, we have 20, 390 undergraduates (increase of 291).
On campus we have 3,403 graduate students (decrease of 85). Extended
campus graduate students we have 2,118 (decrease of 72). The Colleges
have increases and decreases. On-campus for graduate studies, the
College of Business, Engineering and Veterinary Medical Sciences are up
and the other Colleges are down. Off-campus Architecture, Forestry and
Inter-College, Master of Information Technology program are up in
enrollments and the rest of the programs are down.

Approval of the agenda - Approved.

Approval of minutes from February 2, 2000- The Minutes from this meeting
were approved with the following corrections needed: 
-The approval of minutes of January 19th had the date of 1999 and the
Minutes have been corrected to read January 19, 2000.
-The minutes had Dr. Greg Amacher absent without notification and the
minutes have been corrected to absent with notification.

Committee Reports

Graduate Curriculum Committee- Dr. Virginia Maxwell went over the
minutes from the two previous meetings. The GCC is still waiting on the
corrections for five Vet Med courses that were approved with minor
corrections needed at the January 27th meeting. Dr. Julia Beamish
questioned the last approved item on the January 27th minutes. Dr.
Maxwell explained that the Vet Med courses were being dropped or
replaced. Dr. Eaton replied that the CGS&P would not need a list of the
courses in order to approve the GCC minutes. The minutes were approved
for January 27th and February 10th, 2000.

Graduate Student Appeals- Dr. Beamish announced that Ms. Erin Hanley has
agreed to be the graduate student representative for this committee.

Graduate Student Relations- Dr. Beamish announced several
representatives for this committee did meet last Wednesday. Ms. Erin
Hanley thanked Dr. Beamish for taking the time to meet with the student
committees. Ms. Hanley reported that they had met with six students and
discussed what this committee could do for students.

Ad Hoc ETD Advisory Committee- Dr. Eaton announced that the proposed
changes to the ETD Approval Form was sent out to the Department Heads
and Chairs on February 16th with a note to please respond by March 15th.

DRSCAP- Mr. Hunter Pittman opened the discussion on the draft for the
Proposed Revised Statement of Residency Requirements. The major
revisions on this draft, compared to the residency requirements that are
currently in place, are: 
-Old Statement has 24 hours of course work completed in residency at
Blacksburg. New Statement was to try to open this statement up to
recognize the Northern Virginia Center, Alexandria Center and Tidewater
Center. Any exceptions for a program or student has to be approved.

-In the middle paragraph of the proposed revised statement, "Where the
proposed alternate residency location is a commercial entity or
government laboratory..." This was inserted for the Engineering
Department who had sent in suggestions for the residency requirements.

Ms. Erin Hanley asked the question, "What were the other Graduate
Schools at other Universities doing with their residency requirements?"
Dr. Eaton replied that most Graduate Schools were conservative
organizations and most probably did not have alternative residency
policies.

Mr. Pittman did not receive responses from the departments. Dr. Maxwell
did bring some questions and suggestions from the faculty at Vet Med.

Dr. Eaton commented that the Graduate School Regulations are meant to be
minimal regulations and the departments are free to set more rigorous
requirements as long as the student is notified before they enter a
program. Dr. Martha Johnson commented that the 20-hour requirement is
also addressed in the assistantship agreement.

Dr. Malcolm McPherson mentioned some minor changes for the proposed
revised statement. They were:
-In the first paragraph, fifth line, it should be "employed more than
one-half..."
-In the second paragraph, it should read, "The Graduate School may
permit individual degree....."

Dr. Maxwell asked about the intellectual property rights. Mr. Pittman
said the intellectual property rights were included in the last year's
revision but they made the decision to leave it out. The property rights
would be in the negotiation between the University and student.

Dr. Beamish asked DRSCAP to take this revision and present it to CGS&P
at the next meeting in the correct resolution format.

Other Reports

Graduate Student Assembly- Ms. Erin Hanley reported that the Executive
Board of GSA held it's first Round Table discussion on February 15th
with other registered graduate school organizations. All of the
organizations agreed that it was difficult to maintain stability in
their executive board because of the board members short length of
service. The organizations thought they should work on longer-term
issues that would be in-place from year to year. For example: The
Graduate Center conversion at Donaldson Brown. Each graduate school
organization can have a similar goal in mind to see that the future
graduate students needs are meet. Day Care was a big issue at this
discussion-will it be provided for graduate students?

The Board of Visitors selection process has started. There were eleven
applications received and they were narrowed down to six by review of
written materials. They will meet one more time and reduce the number of
candidates to three.

Elections for the GSA Executive positions are open for next year.
Nominations will be accepted on February 24th.

At the next CGS&P meeting, Ms. Hanley will bring a printout describing
the "Graduate Student of the Month Award." This graduate student will
receive $75.00. A student can nominate himself or herself or a Professor
can nominate the graduate student. This nomination form is on-line at
http://gsa.uusa.vt.edu. The first award will be given on February 24th.

The Research Symposium on March 27th is still looking for judges. Please
fill out the handout if you are interested in being a judge. There are
seven categories. Judging will be done between 1-4:00 PM.


Graduate Honor System- Ms. Barbara Fraticelli reported that they closed
two cases. Three cases are still open and two are underway.

University Library Committee- Dean Eileen Hitchingham reported that the
Va Tech Athletic Department is giving the library $250,000.

Old Business- None reported.

New Business- The draft for Management of Potential Conflicts of
Interest and Commitment will be discussed at the next CGS&P meeting on
March 1st, 2000. Dr. McPherson did urge the members to get on-line and
read the 44-page document.

Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 4:55 PM.

Respectfully submitted:
John L. Eaton, Associate Provost for Graduate Studies