GRAD COUNCIL MINUTES
April 1, 2015
Attendees: Joe Hornak, Don Wilson, Carla Carol De Filippo, Christine Shank, Jim Perkins,
Stephanie Ludi, Christine Licata, John McCluskey, Tom Trafold, Charles Bouder, Hector
Flores, Chris Jackson, Sean Rommel
Joe Hornak made a couple of announcements:
1. The PhD in Mathematical Modeling with go to the Academic Senate on April 9.
2. A proposal for a MS in Media Arts and Technology will be discussed at the next
meeting of Grad Council.
A presentation from the Graduate Council Course Scheduling subcommittee has been postponed
as Joe Loffredo plans to send a survey to faculty and staff to solicit their views on the pros and
cons of the current course scheduling system. One change being considered is to set aside a
block of time on Friday afternoons for student activities. The current M-W-F system will then
need to be modified to accommodate this change. Joe Loffredo will be invited to attend a future
Grad Council meeting to discuss the changes being considered and when they will go into effect.
Discussion then turned to a proposal for archiving thesis and dissertations in the RIT library. The
proposal will modify section D12.0 of the RIT Policy & Procedure manual to include the
following sentence: “Graduate students will not be certified for graduation until the
dissertation/thesis is registered with the library and uploaded onto the national database.”
Hector reported that approximately 60 out of 250 thesis are missing required title ages, signature
approvals, and other required papers. Two RIT colleges are responsible for most of the
problems encountered. In some cases students have been certified for the degree without them
submitting the proper documents to the library. In short, there are a significant number of quality
issues that need to be addressed.
There was a considerable amount of discussion among Grad Council members as to whether or
not a printed copy of a thesis should be required or whether an electronic version of the thesis is
sufficient. Although a print version is archived in the RIT library, very few people look at these
thesis and they do take up a considerable amount of library space. Another consideration is that
printed copies may be the best way to make sure a thesis is available in the future as electronic
standards may change making old versions of electronic thesis inaccessible.
Students are required to send a copy of their thesis to ProQuest which then makes the thesis
available to other interested parties. One concern expressed is that ProQuest is a subscription
service. Will this discourage some individuals for assessing this material? The print version
stored in the library is free and open to everyone. Also, who notifies the student’s thesis advisor
that the thesis has been submitted to the library? Is there a procedure in place so that the thesis
advisor knows that a print version has been delivered to the RIT library and an electronic version
submitted to ProQuest?
Other concerns and comments expressed by Graduate Council members include the following:
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What about students completing their degree online and residing out of New York
State? Should they be required to hand deliver a print version of their thesis to the
RIT library?
Do international students need to submit a copy of their thesis to the RIT library?
Our campus in Dubai has their own library. Should copies of thesis from graduate
students in Dubai be stored in the Dubai library or in the Rochester library?
Should a standardized template be developed for thesis and dissertations that students
would then need to follow?
CIAS has a number of students completing a non-traditional thesis that may not be
easily transferred to an electronic version.
What are other universities doing? Are they still requiring print versions of thesis?
Could the library conduct some benchmarking so we better understand current
practices?
How is a student informed if the library finds a problem, such as missing pages, with
a thesis?
Some graduate programs require students to complete a capstone project instead of a
thesis. Should a student’s capstone project fall under the same guidelines and policies
as a thesis?
Hector will work with members of the library staff to develop a draft policy on thesis archiving.
This draft will then be sent to all RIT Graduate Directors for their review. Graduate Directors
should also be asked if they have any objections to requiring electronic copies of thesis instead of
print copies.