4-8-2011 GAC Minutes
Minutes of the Council meeting for April 8, 2011
Approved by the Council on May 9, 2011
In attendance:
J. Aini, J. Baronner (staff), J. Bartow (Staff), F. Bolton (Staff),
S. Chittur, N. Fahrenkopf, C. Fox, L. Fuller, T. Groves, S. Kazanas,
L. Kranich (Chair), T. Timmons, K. Williams
Unable to attend:
R. Beach, S. Commuri, W. Lanford, F. Leiva, H. Miller, N. Novroski
Agenda
1. Consideration of the minutes of the GAC meeting on 3/25/2011.
Council approved the minutes with two abstentions.
2. Dean’s Report – K. Williams
Paperwork for suspension of admissions to programs in French, Italian, Russian,
Theatre and Classics will soon be filed.
Two weeks ago, a meeting was held with the SUNY Board of Trustees. NRC ratings
on diversity issues were discussed, and Dr. Betty Shadrick made a presentation of
available programs here at the University.
The Graduate Student Survey has been distributed. Two weeks ago Master and
Doctoral students were provided with the survey link. The deadline will be this
month. Programs and departments will be provided with survey results in the
summer. The last completed survey was three years ago.
The concern of Graduate enrollment falling below desired levels was discussed at a
recent Administration meeting. It was acknowledged that decreased funding affects
Graduate enrollment. The University hopes to attract more students with the COLT
and MPH programs. Undergraduate enrollment is on course. Completed applications
have increased across the board. Application submission on-line has made the
process easier resulting in increased application numbers. Graduate applications from
international students have also increased.
3. Chair’s Report – L. Kranich
Five GAC items were discussed at the March 28th SEC meeting: (1) School of
Education’s proposal for a Certificate of Graduate Studies in Online Learning and
Teaching (COLT), (2) proposal to amend policy pertaining to graduate certificate
programs, (3) proposal to amend policies pertaining to the submittal of a thesis
applicable to Masters degree program requirements, (4) proposal to establish graduate
level policy pertaining to grade changes, and (5) School of Public Health’s proposal
for fully online Master of Public Health program. Items (2) and (4) were deemed to
require only administrative action by the Dean of Graduate Studies. The Chair
pointed out that, whereas (4) was a matter of aligning the language that appears in the
GAC Minutes
April 8, 2011
Page 2 of 2
3. Chair’s Report (Continued)
Graduate Bulletin with the current practice of the Registrar’s office (as it appears on
the change of grade form), item (2) establishes residency requirements for the
different types of advanced graduate certificates. At next Monday’s Senate meeting,
both the COLT proposal and the bill requiring the digital submission of Master’s
theses will be on the agenda. Since item (5) pertains to a change in the delivery
format of an existing program, GAC approval is final. Finally, the last item on
today’s agenda, namely, the proposal from the School of Public Health to suspend
admission to the M.S. in Health Policy Management and Behavior will be postponed
until April 29 since Professor Diane Dewar was unable to attend today’s meeting.
4. Continuation of CAA Reviews
Council member S. Kazanas presented a report on the Sociology Department, and the
Psychology Department report was presented by Council member J. Aini.
The Chair mentioned that the Council will seek to approve the remaining program
review summaries at the upcoming meeting on April 29th. If necessary, an additional
brief meeting will be held in May to finish the reviews. It was agreed that our
contribution consists of the issues raised during our discussions, and that the
summaries should focus on those. The Computer Science summary has already been
approved. The History review has been modified to include additional points from
the discussion. The Chair requested that members review their discussion notes for
each of the reviews and forward additional comments to the member responsible and
to him. It was suggested that updated summaries be distributed electronically and
approved via an email vote. It was requested that members forward their summaries
by the end of next week. The Chair will inform members unable to attend today’s
meeting of the Council’s decision to vote electronically.
END OF GAC 4/8/2011 MINUTES
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