Minutes Commission on Graduate Studies & Policies February 7, 2001 206 Sandy Hall Present: Dr. Virginia Maxwell, Mr. Hunter Pittman, Dr. Greg Brown, Dr. Ron Daniel, Dr. Klaus Elgert, Dr. Peter Graham, Dr. Joe Merola, Dr. David DeWolf, Dr. John Ney, Mr. Bronson Bullock, Mr. Sorin Popescu, Mr. Murugendra Chigateri, Ms. Tracey Slotta and Mr. Jay Khare Absent with Notification: Dr. Annette Burr, Dr. Eileen Hitchingham, Mr. Jeff Cullen and Ms. Christina Coukos Absent without Notice: Dr. Larry Alexander, Dr. Ruth Alscher, Dr. Mike Moore, Mrs. Kathryn Young and Ms. Virginia Young Invited Guests: 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- Dr. Joe Merola was introduced as the Acting Dean for the Graduate School. He discussed the transition of separating Research from Graduate Studies. Dr. Len Peters will continue to stay on as Vice Provost for Research and Dr. Merola will be the Acting Dean for the Graduate School until the end of this year. At that time, when the new Provost is in place, they will then fill the Dean's position. Dr. Merola suggested looking at the Virginia Tech homepage to review the Strategic Directions documents that are posted there. Dr. Eaton was pleased to announce that a Virginia Tech masters student, Terri Pettinger won the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools best master's thesis award in humanities. She will receive the award at the CSGS meeting next week. Terri was also the William Preston Award winner here at Virginia Tech and will be recognized again at the Graduate Education Week in March. Dr. Maxwell discussed the meeting that Dr. Steger had with the commission chairs. CGS&P may not directly work upon the topics discussed but we might see some of the resolutions associated with the topics. Some topics discussed were: *Commission on Staff Affairs has brought up the issue of parking. Parking is becoming a serious concern. They discussed a plan to build several tiered parking facilities on campus. *Commission on Undergraduate Studies and Policies are looking at some inconsistencies in the policies that apply to what courses students can take and what the criteria were for those classes. They recently passed a resolution that students can take a course as a Pass/Fail option with a 2.0 average. In the past, they were required to have a 2.5 average. To be in good standing as an undergraduate student, they have to have 2.0 average. The inconsistency was why couldn't you take a P/F class if you had an average that was adequate to keep you as a student. *They also discussed the accountability of Faculty to undergraduates regarding some of the needs for resources and new courses. There are a lot of new courses being introduced at the undergraduate and graduate level. New curriculums being approved and after the curriculum is in place there is no money to support it. Dr. Maxwell asked if we should start taking a more careful look at new course proposals that state no new monies, supplies or personnel is needed. Should we make the colleges more accountable? *Commission on Faculty Affairs has numerous items on a list but here are a couple that Dr. Maxwell wanted to mention to CGS&P: -There was a move to have an annual survey of the performance of department heads. This survey would not be as extensive as the five year review. -They have asked for people to take a close look at faculty duty and responsibilities towards the Honor System. There is a question on how familiar faculty is with these policies. -College of Arts and Sciences has questioned what role does faculty have in hiring new faculty. There are committees formed to do searches. Each college interprets the results or recommendation of the searches differently and in some cases, it is almost a given that the search committee recommendation will be pursued. While at other colleges, the search committee recommendation is simply regarded as only a recommendation and if the administration disagrees, they ignore it. What should the practice be? *Commission on Research - In the past, CGS&P looked at the policy on intellectual properties. This policy may be reviewed and re-circulating again. The policy states who owned intellectual properties produced by faculty under different circumstances. Approval of the agenda - Approved. Approval of minutes from January 17, 2001- Approved. Committee Reports Graduate Curriculum Committee- Mr. Hunter Pittman was concerned about items #8, 9 and 10 of the GCC Minutes from the January 25 meeting. What is the structure for approving certificates? Dr. Eaton stated that two types have been through governance before. One type is approval of a certificate and the other type was the approval of an option in a program. The certificates listed in item #8 in the MBA concentrations seem to fit best in the certificate program. Dr. Eaton recommended that the GCC minutes on item #9 to be revised to read as: Increase from 12 to 18 hours -- the number of doubled counted hours for the 5 year BS/MS in MURP. Commission approved the minutes as amended. Graduate Student Appeals- No Report. Graduate Student Relations- No Report. DRSCAP- Dr. Klaus Elgert referred to the minutes from their last three meetings. The minutes address three issues that were referred to DRSCAP by Dr. Eaton. -The first issue is Animal and Poultry Science department is having trouble finding enough 5000 level courses for their non-thesis masters students to take to count towards the 21 hours required for their master degree. The department wants their project and report hours to count towards the 5000 hours--which currently is not allowed. The consensus was that the APSC department could grant exceptions for their students as long as the numbers stayed to a minimum. -The second issue recommends that the Bursar's Office allow the departments to offer and allow students to register for 1-2 credit hour courses. The Bursar's Office currently has a 3-hour minimum registration requirement. Banner would have to be changed to allow this change if approved. Dr. Eaton suggested that the college representatives take this recommendation to their faculty to ask for their input. CGS&P will discuss this issue again at their next meeting on March 21st. -The third issue addressed what the maximum timeframe should be between a preliminary written and oral exam. CGS&P members discussed what their departments were currently doing and felt that this should be discussed more at their colleges and, if necessary, they would discuss this again at their next meeting on February 21st. If CGS&P decides that this is an issue, a resolution would need to be written up to be included in the Graduate Catalog. DRSCAP minutes were approved by CGS&P. Other Reports Graduate Student Assembly- Mr. Bullock reported that April Mayes gave an overview of the upcoming Graduate Education Week to the graduate student delegation. GSA approved two resolutions. One resolution was to establish a permanent committee on Graduate Student Assembly Community Service Outreach Committee. Steps to form a committee to help with community outreach and service-goodwill committee that will go out and give a helping network to various people. The second resolution passed was for support to the proposed new bike path additions. Office of Transportation is asking for a grant from Department of Transportation to support the additional bike paths. Hopefully to promote and encourage people to use alternative means of transportation to school. Graduate Honor System-Mr. Khare reported they have closed two cases that were left over from last semester. The first case had two students who were found guilty of cheating on an exam. They received zeros and placed on academic probation. In the second case, a student was found guilty of falsifying course transcripts from another university. This student has been permanently dismissed from the university. Mr. Khare is currently writing an article with the Undergraduate Chief of Justice and this will appear in a newsletter printed for the Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. The purpose of this article will be to give faculty an idea of where the university stands right now in terms of academic integrity-what are our strengths and weaknesses. Also give general tips on how to improve academic integrity in the classroom. University Library Committee- No Report. Old Business- None. New Business- Dr. Eaton announced there will not be a March 7th meeting due to spring break and we need to think about getting a nomination committee together to find the new Chair and Co-Chair for next years CGS&P. Adjournment- The meeting was adjourned at 4:39 PM. Respectfully submitted: John L. Eaton, Associate Provost for Graduate Studies ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Judy Davis, CPS Executive Secretary Senior President's Office, Virginia Tech 210 Burruss Hall (0131) Blacksburg, VA 24061 (540) 231-6232 FAX: (540) 231-4265 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~