Commission on Graduate Studies & Policies
January 17, 2001
206 Sandy Hall


Present: Dr. Virginia Maxwell, Mr. Hunter Pittman, Dr. Ruth Alscher, Dr.
Greg Brown, Dr. Annette Burr, Dr. Klaus Elgert, Dr. Peter Graham, Dr. Eileen
Hitchingham, Dr. Mike Moore, Dr. David DeWolf, Dr. Robert Bush, Mr. Jeff
Cullen, Mr. Bronson Bullock, Mr. Sorin Popescu,
                  Mr. Murugendra Chigateri, Ms. Tracey Slotta and Mr. Jay
Khare

Absent with Notification: Dr. Ron Daniel and Dr. Len Peters

Absent without Notice: Dr. Larry Alexander, Mrs. Kathryn Young, Ms. Virginia
Young and Ms.  Christina Coukos

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

Conference Call: Ms. Patti Foutz



Dr. Virginia Maxwell, Chair, called the meeting to order.

Announcements- Welcome to Dr. David DeWolf -College of Engineering
Representative.

Approval of the agenda- Mr. Jeff Cullen added UCITA to today's agenda.
Amended agenda was approved.

Approval of minutes from November 15, 2000- Approved.


Committee Reports

Graduate Curriculum Committee- No Report.

Graduate Student Appeals- No Report.

Graduate Student Relations- No Report.

DRSCAP- Abbreviation for Degree Requirements, Standards, Criteria and
Academic Policies Committee.    Dr. Klaus Elgert reported they will meet
next week and report at our next meeting.

Other Reports


Graduate Student Assembly- Mr. Bronson Bullock reported that the next
delegate meeting has been changed to Tuesday, January 23rd at 5:30pm in 219
Squires.  Ms. Tracey Slotta gave the title for the Research
Symposium-Technological Frontiers: Research at Virginia Tech.  Symposium is
during the Graduate Education Week from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM on March 26th.

Graduate Honor System- Mr. Jay Khare reported he participated in a 2-day
workshop on Academic Integrity earlier this month.  Mr. Khare believes more
participation from faculty and students is needed.  We need to focus on
increasing communication on what the rules are involving academic integrity
and why we have those rules.  There is an investigative board meeting on
Friday, January 19th and on Monday, January 22nd.

University Library Committee- Dr. Eileen Hitchingham reported they met on
November 16th.  Their meeting was used as a demonstration of the Sumo
Service.  Which is a new service introduced to the university community this
fall.  Sumo allows the delivery of articles from publications which the
university library does not subscribe.  ULC did not meet in December.  Their
next meeting will be next week.   Dr. Hitchingham did handout what she was
going to present at the next ULC meeting which discussed the Virginia Tech
Library in the Context of a Major Research Library.  Last year, The
Chronicle ranked Virginia Tech at 93 out of 111 research libraries.  Dr.
Hitchingham will share with us a list of the top 30 research libraries.

Old Business- None Reported.

New Business- UCITA (Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act)
discussion by Mr. Jeff Cullen.  Mr. Cullen handed out a printout from The
Richmond Times-Dispatch that describes UCITA as setting the laws that apply
to software license agreements and other computer-based transactions.
Libraries are warned that UCITA will restrict their ability to make archival
backups of CD-ROMs, lend them to patrons or to other libraries or use them
in classroom settings.

Adjournment- The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 PM.

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