Graduate Council – Minutes

East Tennessee State University

November 25, 2013 1:15pm

President’s Conference Room – Dossett Hall 206

 

Present:  Dr. Karin Bartoszuk, Dr.  Stacy D. Brown, Dr. Scott W. Champney, Dr. William R. Duncan, Dr. Marsh Grube, Ms. LaDonna Hutchins, Dr. Marie Jones, Dr. Jeff R. Knisley, Ms. Billie Lancaster, Dr. Lori Marks, Dr. Brian Maxson, Dr. Cecilia A. McIntosh, Dr. Martha M. Pointer, Dr. Kathleen M. Rayman, Dr. Mitch Robinson, Mr. John Savage, Dr. Marie Tedesco, Dr. Michelle Lee, Dr. Evelyn Roach, Dr. Florence M. Weierbach

 

Absent: Dr. Russell Brown, Ms. Maria D. Costa, Dr. Emmett M. Essin, Dr. Rob Pack, Dr. Janna Scarborough, Ms. Colleen Scott

 

Guests:  Dr. Janne Dunham-Taylor, Dr. Debra Knisley, Dr. Chris A. Ayres, Dr. Ron Roach, Dr. Mauro Palmero, D. Kelly Reath

 

Approval of October 2013 Minutes:

 

The motion made and approved to accept the October 28, 2013 minutes with two amendments.  One is to indicate Dr. Marie Jones was present and the other regarding the Thesis/Dissertation Vita template guide is to eliminate the date of birth.

 

Curriculum Subcommittee report – Dr. Marie Jones: 

Each of the proposals below was considered using the following characteristics as an element of the appropriateness of the proposal:

Appropriate credit hour assignment

Appropriate discipline-specific best practices

Appropriate purpose and goals of the proposal

Appropriate intellectual/learning outcomes

Appropriate content and topics

Appropriate major assignments

Appropriate class level

Appropriate course type

Appropriate course delivery method

Conflict with other courses or programs

Articulation and transferability of credit to other institutions

 

Non-Substantive Curriculum Change: CNSL-SCHL (Counseling—School Counseling) Replace 1-credit field course options with one 2-credit seminar course and one 1-credit field course.

 

The subcommittee recommends approval with the following changes:

 

A.   Add semicolon or other punctuation in faculty list

B.   Correct guided electives in proposed changes to include 5400 AND 5401

C.   The phrase would help to clarify: "need the following in place of electives"

 

Action taken by council:  approved with recommendations

 

 

New Course: MATH-5850 Stochastic modeling This course adds content to the mathematics program on the topic of stochastic modeling with an emphasis on applications and computation and is part of the proposal for a new graduate certificate.

 

The subcommittee recommends approval with the following changes:

A.   If this course will be required for the new certificate program, include that information on the proposal snapshot.

B.   Suggested change in prerequisite: “Course in Linear Algebra or equivalent”

C.   Implementation Term: Fall 2014

D.   Describe major assignments

E.   Include descriptions of graded assignments included in each module

F.    Grading scale: F- Below 73

G.   In “other information” include information on Disability Services and Academic Misconduct.

 

Action taken by council:  approved with recommendations and changed from 5850 to 5890 due to number in inventory per LaDonna Hutchinson

 

 

New Course: MATH 5840 Complex Networks and Systems 

 

This course is part of the proposal for a new graduate certificate.  It introduces the student to the study of complex networks through the lens of graph theory.  It was previewed in September and the following recommendations made.  It has been edited and resubmitted.

 

The subcommittee recommends approval with the following changes:

A. If this course will be required for the new certificate program, then this should be indicated on the proposal snapshot.

B. In catalog description last sentence, the first “network” should be deleted.

C. Implementation term should be fall 2014.

D. Purpose and goals, 2nd sentence, suggest “by identifying possible new connections”. Begin second paragraph with “the purpose of the course is to …” and add hyphen in “graph-based”

E. Major assignments: the descriptions of the modules are nice, but please include descriptions of the assignments for each module that will be graded. Module 5, last sentence, add hyphen in “well-suited”.

F. In “Other Information”, include information on Disability Services and on Academic Misconduct.

 

Action taken by council:  approved with recommendations

 

 

New Course: MATH  5880 Modeling of Infectious Diseases and Social Networks. This course is part of the proposal for a new graduate certificate.  It integrates mathematical model formulation, qualitative model analysis, computer simulation, and data analysis.  It was previewed in September and the following recommendations made.  It has been edited and resubmitted.

 

The subcommittee recommends approval with the following changes:

 

A. If this course will be required for the new certificate program, then this should be indicated on the proposal snapshot. If this is an elective for the certificate, then do not need to indicate it is required. (will certificate focus on infectious diseases?)

B. Prerequisites: cannot enforce undergraduate prereq’s for a graduate course unless the student was also an undergrad here at ETSU; can cover this in two ways, by listing courses as you have and adding “or equivalent”, or by listing names of courses (not ETSU numbers) and including “or equivalent”.

C. Major assignments: the descriptions of the modules are nice, but please include descriptions of the assignments for each module that will be graded.

D. Grade Assignment section talks about in-class exams and then cites RODP mechanism for having a site for the in-class exam: I think we should avoid any reference to RODP so should state the policy here in the syllabus (and in the certificate proposal if it is not already in there);

E. do not understand what is meant by “students outside of ETSU” – so you mean local versus non-local students?

 F. Grading Scale: change “no credit is given per Graduate School policy” to “F”.

G. Attendance policy states course will be offered either online or in-person, but the course snapshot states online and the certificate seems to be only online; this needs to be reconciled.

 H. In “Other Information”, include information on Disability Services and on Academic Misconduct.

 

Action taken by council:  approved with recommendations

 

New Course: MATH 5870 Mathematical Modeling Using Graph Theory   

This course is part of the proposal for a new graduate certificate.  It introduces the student to applied graph theory.  It was previewed in September and the following recommendations made.  It has been edited and resubmitted.

 

The subcommittee recommends approval with the following changes:

 

A. If this course will be required for the new certificate program, then this should be indicated on the proposal snapshot.

B. Course syllabus, major course topics please separate with semi-colons.

C. Major assignments: the descriptions of the modules are nice, but please include descriptions of the assignments for each module that will be graded.

D. Grading Scale: change “below 72 receives no credit per Graduate School policy” to “F below 72”.

E. Attendance policy states course will be offered either online or in-person, but the course snapshot states online and the certificate seems to be only online; this needs to be reconciled.

F. Is Gross & Yellen text the latest edition? Any other supplemental materials or recommended readings (Gross & Yellen listed again here)

G. In “Other Information”, include information on Disability Services and on Academic Misconduct.

 

Action taken by council:  approved with the recommendations

 

 

New Course: NRSE 5500 (Executive Leadership Practicum)

This change consolidates all practicum hours in the DNP Executive Leadership concentration into one variable-credit course, repeatable up to 7 credits total.

 

The subcommittee recommends approval with the following changes:

 

A.   Snapshot: rationale for proposal. Rewrite to focus on need for practicum course and less on the description of the course itself.

B.   Snapshot: identify faculty—add punctuation between the two people listed

C.   Catalog description (in both snapshot and syllabus): Add “Repeatable up to 7 credits” at the end of the description.

D.   Syllabus purpose & goals: write this from the position of the department, not student goals.

E.   Major course topics: Begin with “A practicum experience, including…”

F.    Learning outcomes: focus on outcomes, not course activities. Examples: “function more effectively and efficiently as a nurse administrator;” “communicate more effectively in administrative roles, both orally and in writing;” “more effectively collaborate interprofessionally;” and “critically analyze the nurse administrator role in organizational strategies and processes, and be able to implement such processes as appropriate.”

G.   Major assignments: strike “(See sample Learning Plan…content)” and “(see ‘Content’ of this D2L site).” This information can be put in student syllabus, but is not necessary for CPS.

H.   Other information: Change the Academic and Classroom Misconduct statement to read “policy of ETSU” rather than “the School of Graduate Studies.”

I.      strike parenthetical references to other documents in major assignments

 

Action taken by council:  approved with recommendations

 

 

TBR Proposal: Modify Reading Education Programs

 

The subcommittee recommends approval with the following changes:

A.   Snapshot: Narrative description, delete “Education” from the phrase, “The Master of Arts in Reading Education.” Change from 3 to 4 points, as described below.

B.   Throughout all documentation, refer to concentration as such, not as a stand-alone M.A.

C.   On cover page, concentrations: add Storytelling

D.   Throughout, define the points as four separate changes rather than three. In the proposal, this would read: 1) to revise the admission standards for the Master of Arts in Reading for both concentrations, Reading Education and Storytelling; 2) to add further admissions requirements for the concentration in Reading Education; 3) to revise the program of study for the Master of Arts in Reading with a concentration in Reading Education and 4) to establish a progression requirement for the Reading Education concentration.

E.   Page 3, Need: Delete the word “Education” from item 1. Rewrite second sentence to read, “Historically, students with less than a 3.0 have been dismissed from the program, while students with a higher GPA have succeeded in the program.” Add #2 describing the need for letters of recommendation for Reading Education concentration admissions, revising paragraph two to fit. Change #2 to #3 and clarify “The changes for the program of study in the Reading Education concentration are in response to updated requirements in the field. In order for the concentration to achieve full national recognition…” Change #3 to 4 and remove first “education” in the first sentence.

F.    Make appendices mirror the new 4-point structure of the entire document by creating a fourth appendix, which will become appendix B.

G.   Appendix A, point 1: remove “This 3.0/4.0 GPA requirement will likely improve…” and replace with: “Historically, students with less than a 3.0 have been dismissed from the program, while students with a higher GPA have succeeded in the program. Therefore, increasing the requirement should improve retention to completion in the Master of Arts in Reading program.” Delete reference to alignment with other departments in COE.

H.   Be sure text in Appendix B (current) is verbatim from current catalog.

I.      Remove the asterisk and associated notes under the charts in appendix C.

 

Action taken by council:  approved with recommendations

 

TBR Proposal: Establish Online Graduate Certificate in Mathematical Modeling in Bioscience

 

The subcommittee recommends approval with the following changes:

A.   Insert page numbers in the Word document TBR form.

B.   Be consistent with the name of certificate throughout the proposal

C.   Page 2: Under institutional priority, first sentence of 2nd paragraph change “need” to “goal”

D.   Date of implementation Fall 2014

E.   Bottom of page 5: Delete section of form “*evidence of cooperating....the approval process.” (bottom of page)

F.    Strike section II on collaborative programs items A-L on TBR form; put NA after section header.

G.   Section III, Program Structure: consider renaming the math 5880 course to de-emphasize infectious disease. For example, Higher Order Modeling--infectious disease and networking

H.   Section III B. line 4: this "course" replace with "certificate"

I.      Section III D: be consistent with capitalization of course titles.  Be certain that course descriptions in this document exactly match course proposal forms

J.    Section IIII, table:  No fulltime students in this concentration. Revise table to provide appropriate headcounts ramping up to 5 graduates per year (minimum) in the fifth year.

K.   Section following the table: explain how you got to the FTE figures in the table, writing out the arithmetic.

L.    Change “CAM faculty” to either spell out or replace with “the faculty”

M.   Student advisement support: Include information on the role of graduate coordinator and how other instructors will help. Suggest information about the online graduate student liaison and their student service support role.

N.   Add low producing and financial projections information.

 

Action taken by council:  approved with recommendations

 

 

TBR Proposal: Establish a graduate certificate in athletic administration

 

The subcommittee recommends approval with the following changes:

 

A.   Snapshot, Narrative description: Capitalize Administration in first sentence. Standardize “on-ground” throughout (add hyphen or remove it).

B.   Start each goal with verb: “apply” “differentiate” “make” (remove “be able to”)

C.   Last sentence under Impact: revise to read “The Graduate Certificate in Athletic Administration can potentially enhance admission to the sport management concentration within the M.A. degree in Kinesiology and Sports Studies by recruiting students in the certificate program that may opt into the full M.A. program.”

D.   Impact: bracketed sentence the graduate program can potentially help enhancing. exclude all but admissions.

E.   Plans for Accreditation: Change last sentence to “SACS notification not required.”

F.    Section III C: Rewrite: “In addition to the school of graduate studies admissions requirements, prospective students in the Athletic Administration certificate program must provide three letters of recommendation.”

G.   Organizational chart: put appropriate names and titles inside of the boxes on the chart (i.e., Tristan Denley, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Brian Noland, University President; Bert Bach, Vice President of Academic Affairs; Hal Knight, Dean; Chris Ayres, Department Chair; Mauro Palmero, Graduate Coordinator). Do not include other departmental faculty.

H.   Section III, E: Delete However in second sentence. Change last sentence to begin “The reason for choosing this delivery method…”

I.      Delete unnecessary parts of the form (per Dr, Grube's notes)

J.    Section IV, last sentence: make clear that this is over the course of 5 years, not the total number in year 5.

K.   Section V, Evidence of Demand and need: delete “full blown”

L.    Section V, Anticipated Impact on Existing Degree Programs: Revise final sentence to read, “The Graduate Certificate in Athletic Administration can potentially enhance admission to the sport management concentration within the M.A. degree in Kinesiology and Sports Studies by recruiting students in the certificate program that may opt into the full M.A. program.”

M.   Other needs for support, student advisement support: flesh this out to describe the role of the graduate coordinator and the online graduate student support specialist.

 

 

Action taken by council:  approved with recommendations

 

Graduate Faculty Subcommittee report and recommendations – Dr. Marks. 

Appointment

 

 

 

Applicant

Department

Recommendation

1.      Ferguson, Neina

Audiology and Speech Language Pathology

Member

2.      Ross- Sheehy, Shannon

Psychology

Member

3.      Whitaker Dotson, JoDee

CUAI

Affiliate

 

 

Action taken by council:  approved

 

Reappointment

 

 

 

 

Applicant

Department

Present Status

Recommendation

1.      Alsop III, Fred J.

Biological Sciences

Full Member

Senior Member

2.      Cantrell, Peggy J

Psychology

Full Member

Senior Member

3.      Champney, Scott

Biomedical Sciences

Full Member

Senior Member

4.      Cottongim, Constance M

Teaching & Learning

Member

Affiliate

5.      Dalton III, William T.

Psychology

Member

Member

6.      Dorgan, Kelly

Communication

Full Member

 

Member

7.      Enloe, Sandra

Education

 

Affiliate

8.      Hillhouse, Joel

Community and Behavioral Health

Full Member

Senior Member

9.      Hong, Jinseok

Engineering Technology, Surveying and Digital Media

Member

Member

10.  Miller, Larry S.

Criminal Justice & Criminology

Member

Member

11.  Nelson, Ardis L

Literature & Language

Full Member

Senior Member

12.  Parker, Herbert Mark

Communication/ Division of Theater and Dance

Member

Member

13.  Ross, Jeremy

Engineering Technology, Surveying and Digital Media

Affiliate

Affiliate

14.  Shemwell, Donald

Management and Marketing

Full Member

Member

15.  Wykoff, Randy

Health Services Management  and Policy (College of Public Health)

Member

Senior Member

 

Action taken by council:  approved

Report from Academic Council – Dr. Marks:

Dr. Marks reported the Academic Council reviewed and approved one proposal to terminate Masters of City Management in Public Administration.  This termination proposal was sent to TBR.

Old Business:

Dr. Grube reminded members that Daniel Boner’s graduate faculty recommendation was previously tabled and a motion should be made to remove from tabled item.  The motion was made, seconded, and carried.  The Council reviewed the definition of graduate faculty affiliate status as well as documents from Dr. Ron Roach, chair of Appalachian Studies, from Dr. Roberta Herrin, director of Center for Appalachian Studies, and a memo signed by Pres. Stanton and Dean Anderson.  The Council also heard from Dr. Roach and the graduate faculty subcommittee.  After discussion by council members, a motion was made, seconded, and the majority voted to approve Mr. Boner as affiliate graduate faculty member; there was one “no” vote and one abstention.

Dr. McIntosh summarized the Dean’s Council discussion regarding Academic Audit versus Program Review for graduate programs.  The Dean’s Council concurred that Program Review is the more appropriate option for graduate programs since it is a peer review process.  Therefore, Dr. McIntosh strongly suggested choosing program review rather than academic audit. 

New Business:

The motion was made to approve the 2012-2013 Graduate Council Annual report and seconded with the following corrections.  The corrections are: to change Marie Jones from Ph.D. to Ed.D under the Graduate Council members; correct ill Stinson McKnight to Jill Stinson McKnight.  These corrections will be made before the 2012-2013 Graduate Council annual report is posted on the Graduate Studies website.

Dr. McIntosh informed the council of a winter graduate coordinator’s meeting scheduled for January 13, 2014.  The graduate coordinator meeting will cover several topics within the scheduled two hour period.  The agenda will be sent before the holiday to gather additional topics. If successful, and with graduate coordinator support, Dr. McIntosh plans to schedule the graduate coordinator’s meeting for August and January in the future to assist in covering policies and procedures.

 Other:

The Boot Camp has assisted thirteen graduate students in completing their Thesis/Dissertation and they are on track to graduate. Dr. McIntosh thanked many of the council members who are volunteers.  Also, the committee chair of IRB has been very helpful leading a workshop and the IRB forms are online and easily assessable.   The spring 2014 boot camp is scheduled for January 24, 25, February 7, 8 and 21, 22, and March 21, 22.  The website is up for registration and there is no limit for reenlisting.  The charge is $150.

The GRE prep registration is quickly filling up and is scheduled for February 1, 2014.  The first GMAT prep is scheduled for February 8, 2014.  The format for the GMAT is similar to the GRE, such as, writing workshops and quick feedback. 

Dr. McIntosh commented on the Meet the Deans that was held November 14, 2013. Dr. Bartoszuk and Dr. Maxson were the presenters of the application process and overall benefit of a graduate education.  There were twenty-eight juniors and seniors that attended.  These are the undergraduate students that are targeted with a good GPA and 60 hours completed.  It is co-sponsored by the School of Graduate Studies and Career Services.

The next scheduled Graduate Council will be January 27, 2014.  There will be no December meeting.

 Adjournment:

There were no further business to discuss; therefore, the meeting was adjourned at 2:25 pm.