Graduate Academic Council
2009 – 2010
Minutes of the Council meeting of March 1, 2010
Approved by the Council on April 7, 2010
In attendance:
J. Baronner (staff), J. Bartow (staff), F. Bolton (staff), S. Chittur,
N. Fahrenkopf, C. Fox, L. Fuller, T. Groves, J. Kimball, L. Kranich (Chair),
H. Miller, G. Stevens (Guest), E. Wulfert (Guest)
Unable to attend: S. Commuri, M. Pryse, K. Reinhold
1. The minutes from 2/2/2010 were unanimously approved.
2. Deactivation of Russian MA and Certificate of Advanced Study Programs
Edelgard Wulfert, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences and Gregory Stevens, Assistant Dean,
College of Arts and Sciences discussed the deactivation of the Russian MA and Certificate of
Advanced Study Programs with the Council. This is a suspension of admissions only, and
the program will remain registered with NYS Education Department. Notification to NYS is
required only when a program is completely eliminated. It was emphasized that the proposal
is in response to decreased enrollment and not to the elimination of assistantship support for
MA students. Dean Wulfert noted that there are fashions or trends in languages. Some have
fallen into disfavor and are not meeting the minimum enrollment requirements. She noted
that interest in Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic has increased, and resources will most likely be
augmented for those languages. It was also mentioned that, given the nature of the courses, it
is not appropriate for graduate language courses to be offered as shared resources with
undergraduate courses. The Council approved deactivation of the programs by a vote of 6-0-
2. The proposal must be approved by UPPC before advancing to the Senate.
3. Chair’s report – L. Kranich
No GAC related matters were discussed at the February 8th Senate meeting. At the Executive
Committee meeting on February 22nd, the President reported that we are past the point where
we can absorb additional cuts without serious consequences such as extending the time to
completion or cutting programs. The final report of the GSS Review was distributed to four
councils with the expectation that each would forward comments to the Senate Chair and
Provost. An item on today’s agenda is to discuss how we wish to respond.
Two charter amendments have not been signed by the President: (1) the Charter amendment
that would preclude ex officio members of a Senate council from chairing the council or a
standing committee or subcommittee of the council and (2) the charter amendment requiring
that all graduate courses originate and be housed in a school or college. However, it is not
clear that the President’s signature is necessary for such amendments.
Chair Kranich has an upcoming meeting with the Chair of CAA and a representative from
Institutional Research to discuss the process of GAC’s consideration of CAA assessment
reports.
GAC Minutes
March 1, 2010
Page 2 of 3
4. Committee Reports
CAAS – H. Miller, Chair
Chair Miller provided a report of the CAAS’s review of a student appeal for readmission.
After thorough discussion, CAAS denied the appeal. The Council voted unanimously to
approve and accept the Committee’s report. It was noted that the University Counsel has
been contacted to determine what and how much information should be reviewed in such
cases. For example, there may be information pertaining to the case that the student has not
presented as part of the grievance. A suggestion was made to establish a secure wiki site for
members to access large attachments for reviewing. Jon Bartow will follow up with ITS.
CC&I – T. Groves, Chair
Chair Groves noted that the Committee will meet on March 30th.
CEPP – S. Commuri, Chair
Nothing to report.
5. Old Business
2009 Graduate Student Support Review Panel Final Report
Chair Kranich mentioned that GAC is expected to forward comments on the final report of
the GSS Review to the Senate Chair and Provost. He solicited members’ views on the form
and substance of GAC’s response. There was unanimous agreement that the Council is not
in a position to adequately evaluate the report until it has received the panel reports on which
it is based. Therefore, the Council will refrain from commenting on the report until such
time.
It was noted that only 35 doctoral programs were included in the review, whereas there are
42 listed on the University’s web site. Jon Bartow clarified that two programs had suspended
admissions and some combined programs are listed separately on the web site.
CAA Assessment Reports
This item was discussed in the Chair’s report.
6. New Business
Graduate Assistantship Trends
Prior to the meeting, Chair Kranich had e-mailed to the Council a revised version of the
Initial Graduate Support Allocation document that was distributed on Friday. This contains
data on graduate assistantships for 2008-09 and 2009-10 and projected figures for 2010-11.
Institutional Research posts information on their web site on the number of assistantships for
each program up to year 2004-05. There are a number of holes and anomalies in the IR data,
and it is not clear if they are comparable. Chair Kranich will check the 2004-05 figures and
distribute them to the Council. He requested that Council members forward questions about
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March 1, 2010
Page 3 of 3
Graduate Assistantship Trends (Continued)
the data to him, and he will then try to resolve or reconcile the differences with IR and
Graduate Studies. It was suggested that the Chair request data for the intervening years from
Dean Pryse.
A member expressed concern that Governance was not involved in the decision by former
Provost Herbst to reallocate authority over assistantships from the Schools and Colleges to
the Dean of Graduate Studies. As GOV indicated regarding the GSS review, all funding
decisions potentially affect the performance of graduate programs and therefore lie within the
jurisdiction of GAC. Therefore, GAC should have access to all data on graduate
assistantships.
Dean Wulfert discussed the trends in graduate assistantships within CAS and described the
factors affecting the distribution within the College. She does not expect further cuts this
year.
END OF GAC 3/1/2010 MINUTES
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