Minutes of the Graduate Academic Council meeting of March 8, 2021, 9:00 AM via Zoom
Approved by the Council by vote of 10-0-0 on 4/5/2021.
In attendance: G. Berg (Chair), S. Appe, A. Dawson, S. Faught, M. Ferraino, A. Gill, O. Lunin, R. Morse, K.
Stanwicks, C. Wolff, K. Williams (ex officio member), C. Davis (staff), S. Kent (staff), J.
Deden (staff)
Guests: Rachel French – Registrar’s Office
Zina Lawrence – Assistant Dean, Full-time MBA program
Shanise Kent – Graduate School staff
1.
Agenda for today’s GAC meeting approved.
2.
The minutes of the GAC meeting of 2/8/2021 were approved by a vote of 10-0-0.
1.
Dean’s Report – Kevin Williams reported the status of the Academic Affairs working group in
regard establishing budget metrics. Their progress timing is on track with the State’s budget.
Course and class scheduling have been proposed and sent for approval and should be available
to students by end of April. Plans are on track for a pre-Covid fully in-person Fall semester. Cases
of Covid on campus are going down after a spike at the beginning of the term. SUNY system
considering replacing Blackboard with a better LMS.
2.
Chair’s Report – George Berg is on Efficiency and Financial working group for the budget metrics
reporting to the Provost. Group well representing University interests.
3.
CC&I Report – Sydney Faught reviewed the Committee’s report on the 4 proposals (2 belonging
to the same program). Computer Science MS & PhD minor changes to required courses,
Sociology MA program minor course changes, and Biomedical Sciences PhD program’s request
to reduce the total required credits from 66 to 60 with changes to amounts of the academic and
research credits. All 4 proposals were approved by the CC&I
GAC accepted the CC&I’s report by a vote of 10-0-0.
4.
No other Business
Meeting adjourned without opposition at 9:30 AM
CCI Report
Meeting via Zoom 3/3/21 9am
Committee Members in Attendance: Susan Appe, Haijun Chen, Sydney Faught (chair), Andrew Gill,
Jeannette Sutton, Stephen Weinberg
Staff: Colleen Davis, Electronic Vote: Ilka Kressner
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Program Proposals Reviewed: Computer Science MS and PhD Program, Sociology MA Program,
Biomedical Sciences PhD Program
Computer Science MS and PhD Proposal
The Department of Computer Science is proposing minor edits to both their MS and PhD programs. Each
program includes the course ICSI509 (Theory of Computation) in the core course requirement. In the
MS, it is an option in the core course requirement; in the PhD program, it is a specific core course. They
are requesting that this be changed to a newly created course ICSI609 (Formal Languages and Theory of
Computation). ICSI509 will still be applicable to the elective requirements in each program and the
student can take both courses for credit. Currently, ICSI509 is a shared resource course with ICSI409. The
department’s Graduate Curriculum Committee has found that incoming students do not have the
necessary skillset to properly engage with the course content of ICSI509 (many students lack the
necessary background to cover more advanced topics). The creation of ICSI609 includes the prerequisite
of ICSI409 or ICSI509, and will include the more advanced topics. Adding ICSI609 as a degree
requirement will guarantee that students complete the degree program with the depth and breadth of
knowledge necessary for computer science professionals to succeed in industry upon graduation.
Based on the department’s justification above, the committee voted to approve the proposed program
changes (7 approve, 0 disapprove, 0 abstain).
Sociology MA Program Proposal
The Department of Sociology is proposing a minor edit to their MA program. They would like a newly
created course (ASOC 524 Social Science Data Analysis and Visualization with R) to be added as a course
option in the core requirement. Currently the core requires ASOC522 (Intermediate Statistics for
Sociologists) and they would like the requirement to allow ASOC522 or ASOC524. The department
indicated that ASOC 524 (cross listed with GOG 505/PLN 554) has specifically been designed with the
MA student level student in mind. This course provides a level of quantitative methodological training
that focuses on social science statistical analysis in more applied settings. This course can fulfill the
quantitative requirement applicable to the MA degree.
Based on the department’s justification above, the committee voted to approve the proposed program
changes (7 approve, 0 disapprove, 0 abstain).
Biomedical Sciences PhD Program
The Department of Biomedical Sciences updated their PhD program in 2011 to reduce the program
requirements to 60 graduate credits. The proposal reduced the academic credits from 38 to 30,
increased the doctoral research credits from 28 to 30, and reduced the overall program credits from 66
to 60. As part of that proposal, they had intended that students would be admitted to candidacy after
completion of a minimum of 30 academic and seminar credits rather than the previous requirement of
38 credits. However, that change never made it into the graduate bulletin, despite the fact that students
are not required to take more than 30 credits of courses and seminars. This was discovered recently
when a student was recommended for admission to candidacy but did not have the current 38 graduate
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credits required. The department is requesting that the admission to candidacy requirement be adjusted
to satisfactory completion of 30 graduate credits, instead of 38. This does not adjust the overall program
requirements. The student still completes 60 graduate credits overall; this just changes the credit
requirement for admission to candidacy.
Based on the department’s justification above, the committee voted to approve the proposed program
changes (7 approve, 0 disapprove, 0 abstain).
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