Graduate Council Minutes October 21, 2015
Present: Linda Underhill, Joe Hornak, Hector Flores, Chris Licata, Thomas Trabold, Carol De Filippo,
Marla Schweppe, Twyla Cummings, Jaimalya Mukhopadhyay, Sean Rommel, Sean Hansen
Discussion today focused on the Foundations of a Graduate Student Conflict Resolution Policy draft
generated by Hector Flores and Carol De Filippo.
Background of policy; this policy was conceived of a few years ago in an effort to reflect the student
perspective to ensure student success. The purpose of the policy is to provide a means for students to
grieve an issue. The policy was benchmarked with the many other universities who have a conflict
policy and much of what was developed in this policy reflects elements of other policies. What is being
presented in the policy is a draft for discussion and revision. The policy was first presented to Graduate
council in March 2015. Modifications were made to the original document but it appears more
modifications need to be done to build consensus on the policy.
Discussion/comments;
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Why should there not be a university policy for graduate student conflict resolution?
Should the policy deal with graduate student advising primarily as this seems to be the genesis
of this policy?
Perhaps one way to approach the topic is to compress the principles found in the document and
at a Graduate Advisor Workshop discuss the principles and then develop a panel to discuss how
they would apply the principles in dealings with students.
Question- who picks who for advising? Normal at RIT is student assigned to a graduate advisor
which may change when the student starts to formulate their research question. RIT uses the
apprentice model for advisor/ advisee while other universities use a collaborative model
between advisor and advisee. In a doctoral program ultimately the student is funded their first
year and then relies on a faculty members research funding which can make switching an
advisor difficult.
Potentially 400 out of 3000 students impacted by research funding and pursuit of a doctorate or
thesis.
Strategy/next steps
Hector and Carol will work to realign this document into more of a guideline versus policy statement for
students to follow.
The principles will be coalesced into a document along with a process defined telling students how the
process works for student to raise issues and concerns they are having with advisors related to their
research work. The outcome of this endeavor is to define a process for raising concerns students have
with their academic advising that the colleges and deans understand and can endorse.
The areas which will be prioritized to try this process with include the MFA degree and Ph.D. programs.
Once the process is refined with these areas the process will be reviewed for possible inclusion of the
RIT professional MS degrees.