Graduate Council Minutes
Friday, March 11, 2011 – 10:00 am
325 Graff Main Hall
Members Present: VJ Agarwal, Carol Angell, Bernadette Taylor, Michelle Fuentes,
Katie Josephson, Bob Krajewski, Anton Sanderfoot
Consultants Present: Ray Abhold, Chris Bakkum, Charles Martin-Stanley
The meeting was called to order at 10:02 am by Carol Angell
1. Announcements
A good number of graduate students have submitted abstracts for the UWL
Celebration of Research Day this April.
The Graduate Student Thesis Award Committee will include Tom Kuffel, Anton
Sanderfoot and Bart Van Voorhies.
2. Consent Agenda
The Graduate Faculty Status application form and status descriptions document were
approved by consent.
3. First Readings
M/S to discuss graduate full time status. Full-time status may work better if modified
to fit individual graduate programs and stages within programs. It may help to better
internally define graduate assistantship roles (teaching versus research, or other
assistantships) for the purpose of adjusting workloads. It is important to protect
students’ rights to progress in their programs without being unfairly hampered by
graduate assistantship work. The requirement to maintain full-time status in order to
be eligible for financial aid is a key consideration – currently nine credits is required
for financial aid, but it is unclear where this rule arose from, or if it can be amended.
The motion was tabled for further consultation with graduate program directors and
financial aid administrative staff.
4. M/S to discuss Graduate Council Bylaws in response to a charge from Faculty Senate.
a. Senate indicated that the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs’ role on
Graduate Council should be as a consultant, not a voting member.
b. Senate indicated that the Graduate Council Advisory Committee (initiated in
2006) is not an approved senate committee. The committee must be justified
and approved, or deleted. It seemed to most members present that the consent
agenda will cover much of the work done by the advisory committee,
including graduate student appeals (with the option of a second reading if
needed, along with student attendance). Since RSEL grants do not require
approval by Faculty Senate, a subcommittee of faculty serving on Graduate
Council will be asked to review grants for convenience, but the grants will no
longer have to come before Graduate Council for approval. The Graduate
Council Bylaws will need further amendments to cover these changes.
Amendments to the Graduate Council Bylaws were tabled for further drafting.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:05 am.
Respectfully submitted,
Bernadette Taylor