GRADUATE COUNCIL MINUTES 9/17/14
GBB 205, 12:10-1:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Members Present: M. Alwell B. Bach, S. Bywater-Reyes, M. Berthelson, K. Briknarova, I.
Crummy, R. Delaloye, L. Gray, M. Kia, A. Kinch, M. McGuirl, D. Spencer, K. Swift
Members Absent/Excused: N. Lindsay, C. Stanick, S. Williams
Ex Officio Members Present: R. Arouca, S. Ross
Past minutes: The minutes from September 3rd 2014 were approved.
COMMUNICATION:

New student member Sharon Bywater-Reyes was welcomed to the Committee and members
introduced themselves.
BUSINESS ITEMS:

Chair Swift gave an overview of the Graduate Council’s Calendar for fall semester.
Curriculum review will start October 8th and is hoped to be completed in November. This
will depend on whether there are many items with questions that require further
investigation. Subcommittees are encouraged to contact proposers for clarification. Guests
may be invited to Graduate Council if there are still unresolved issues. A few dates are
reserved for finalizing the Graduate School’s internal review document. It is hoped that the
Provost will be able to join the Council for discussion prior to the end of the semester.
Unfortunately the date reserved for this was identified as the Thanksgiving travel day, so will
need to be reconsidered pending the committee’s progress on curriculum review.

Professor McGirl agreed to serve as Chair-elect. She has served on Graduate Council
previously. She will chair the meeting on October 15th when Chair Swift will be attending a
conference.

The Humanities and Professional School Subcommittees will have their program review
documents available for discussion next week. Draft documents will be circulated prior to
the meeting. The Social Science Subcommittee will have a document ready for discussion at
the October 1st meeting. The goal of the document is for the Council to emphasize what it
views as important about the program.

Raquel described the information in the Graduate Schools self –study. Members made
several suggestions of information to include in the document:
o Percentage of graduate students that have financial support. (The GSA is working on
gathering this data.)
o Percentage of international graduate students.
o Comparative operating budgets, and funding structures / mechanisms for Graduate
Schools.
o Identify national trends for successful structures.
Members should think of specific recommendations for improvements as talking points with
the Provost. Such as suggesting the Graduate School retain a higher percentage of the
revenue from application fees.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 p.m.