Grad Council Minutes, April 23, 2014
Meeting started 10:05am
Attended: Hans-Peter Bischof, Carol DeFilippo, Hector Flores, Deanna Jacobs, Joseph Hornak, Chris
Licata, John McCluskey, Ferat Sahin, Hrushikesh Saga, Andreas Savakis, Marla Schweppe, Tom Trabold,
Linda Underhill, Don Wilson
Hrushikesh had two announcements: A new graduate student senator was elected. Today RIT has the erecycling event. Faculty can call for help with recycling items from their offices.
Main Agenda Item: Continue discussion on policy D1.0 as it relates to The Graduate Council
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Carol: Proposed change in 1st bullet: replace “collegial faculty” with a more appropriate language
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After some discussion, and recommendations that included “college,” “college or equivalent unit,”
“college or institute,“ ”constituents,” “faculty,” it was decided that the appropriate language is to
replace “collegial faculty with “faculty constituents.”
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Marla: Proposed change in 2nd bullet” from “members at large” to “at large faculty members”
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Hrushikesh: Proposed a change in the 5th bullet: graduate student representative may not be from
Student Government. After some discussion the 5th bullet was changed to: “a duly elected graduate
student representative.”
The proposed changes on the bullet items are shown below:
1. The graduate council is a standing subcommittee of the Academic Senate. The Graduate
Council shall be composed of:
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one faculty member with experience in graduate education from each college of the
university, each to be elected by his or her collegial faculty constituents.
three members at large faculty members elected by the Academic Senate,
the dean of Graduate Studies (ex-officio, voting):
the provost or his or her delegate (ex officio, voting);
a graduate senator from Student Government serving as a duly elected graduate
student representative.
The following changes were proposed in the next two paragraphs:
Each college representative shall be a voting member of the curriculum committee or committees
of that college that deal with graduate issues education. Terms of representatives excluding the
graduate student representative shall be for three years, with the terms staggered so that
approximately one-third shall expire each year. The graduate student representative shall serve
for a term of no longer than one year. Faculty representatives may be reelected.
The Graduate Council shall be presided over by a chairperson elected by the assembly of
Graduate Council representatives with a term of no more than two years, normally. The
chairperson will be elected from one of the faculty representatives of the Graduate Council
assembly. The chairperson of the Graduate Council shall have the authority to call and chair
regular and special meetings and oversee the Graduate Council functions.
There was a question on how to handle a change in chair after the first year, instead of waiting for two
years. It was decided to work this out if necessary instead of writing it into policy.
For the second part:
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Hector proposed moving the second paragraph to the top.
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Marla proposed removing or significantly revising the first paragraph.
In the discussion, the following items were brought up:
Move the items in the first paragraph to another paragraph.
Keep the first paragraph because this is the only place where Academic Senate is mentioned.
1st paragraph: Change “graduate work” to “graduate education.”
1st paragraph: The word “govern” is too strong. Grad Council gives recommendation to the Acad.
Senate. The alternative language proposed was “oversees” instead of “governs”.
2nd paragraph: Remove “along with the academic deans”
2nd paragraph: The word “promote” is too weak, as Grad Council does more. The alternative language
proposed was “evaluates and proposes policies”. From D1.0 language “The Graduate Council oversses
graduate curriculum.
One recommendation was to check the description of ICC functions.
Another finding was that the language describing the functions of Graduate Council is the same in B2
10.4 and any proposed changes in B1 should also be recommended for B2.
Joe suggested finishing the revisions over email, since there was not enough time during the meeting.
Meeting adjourned 10:58am.
Minutes submitted by Andreas Savakis.