BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY
MINUTES OF THE December 7, 2015 MEETING OF THE GRADUATE COUNCIL
PLACE:
Couper Administration Building - Room148
PRESIDING:
Susan Strehle, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School
MEMBERS:
Serdar Atav, Subimal Chatterjee, Shelley Dionne, Mark Fowler, Kevin Hatch,
Norah Henry, Adam Laats, Michael Lewis, Patrick Madden, Elizabeth Mellin,
Pamela Mischen, Rosmarie Morewedge, Cindy Olbrys, Sara Reiter, Pam
Sandoval, Daryl Santos, Pam Smart, Libby Tucker
GSO:
Shengsheng Zhou
EX OFFICIO
MEMBERS:
Sarah Lam, Paul Parker
EXCUSED/ABSENT:
Fahda Alasraj, Anne Clark, Mary Beth Curtin, Heather DeHaan, Fernando
Guzman, Mohammad Khasawneh, Ricardo Laremont, Alistair Lees,
GUESTS:
Matthew Sanger, Anthropology
I. CALL TO ORDER:
Dean Susan Strehle called the meeting to order at 3:02 pm.
II. MINUTES
The minutes from the October 19, 2015 Graduate Council meeting were approved as written.
III. COMMITTEES
Academic Standards Committee This committee has not met; however Dean Strehle gave a brief
update regarding embargos on dissertations that may have commercial value. This issue had been
discussed in detail five years ago, and the conclusion then was to allow students to embargo their
work. Although a dissertation is a public work, defended in public, there are now many cases where a
student has developed an original creation, a patentable idea, or a marketable translation. ProQuest
allows doctoral graduates to file the work, but not release it to the public.
Advisory Committee for Scholarship and Research This committee met twice -- October 22nd and
November 19th. The interdisciplinary collaboration grant program guidelines have been posted with a
deadline of February 1. The Chancellor’s Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities deadline is
December 17th. ACSR is managing one organized research center external review this year, the
Center for Leadership Studies; this one is different in that ACSR will be actively involved in the
facilitation and the planning of the program for the external review. Annual reports are due February 1
and Organized Research Center Requests for Graduate Assistants is due on December 12th.
Student Affairs/Budget Advisory Committee This committee met four times; first on November 16
to discuss the applications for the Binghamton Foundation Travel Grant. There were 22 applicants
with ABD status recommended for this grant. The second meeting was held on November 23rd to
discuss nominations for graduate student excellence awards in the categories of research, teaching
and service/outreach. The committee recommended 13 students for the research award, 4 for the
service and outreach and 11 for the teaching awards. The third meeting was held on November 30 to
discuss a grievance appeal. The last meeting was held just before the graduate council meeting today
to formally consider a grievance appeal that was submitted to the Graduate School. The committee
reviewed the document and decided that a hearing will be tentatively scheduled for December 16,
2015.
Clark Advisory Committee This committee has not met.
Curriculum Committee This committee met on November 30, 2015. A curriculum change proposal
was discussed for the Masters in Public Archaeology. This change would increase the number of
methods-oriented courses from 1 to 3 by removing subfield requirements which are not as useful for
the public archaeology program, whose goal is to prepare graduates for method-intensive positions.
No questions were raised and the proposed change received unanimous approval.
Strategic Planning Committee This committee has not met.
IV.
NEW BUSINESS
Letters of Intent: Two new programs have been designed and submitted as letters of intent. One is
in data analytics; it is designed to combine math statistics expertise, computer science analysis
through data sorting and business courses in data analytics into a curriculum team-taught by
members of all three departments, with SSIE in addition. It would prepare graduates to analyze large
data aggregations related to any of several fields, including health, real estate, education, etc. The
other letter of intent will establish a master’s in public health. Public Health programs and schools are
not plentiful in NYS. This degree is often taken by health workers, including doctors, nurses, social
workers and others allied to medical fields. This degree draws on coursework in 5 core fields,
including environmental health, biostatistics, epidemiology, health policy, and behavioral sciences and
health; we are already teaching courses in these fields at present.
Placements/Grievance: There are at least three fields on this campus where students take
coursework and then internship placements, which are a degree requirement (social work, education,
and nursing). Sometimes things go wrong with the external placement. We have three cases where
students who have done well in coursework then have major issues in placements; they can’t
complete the degree without passing grades in successful placements. We need to have a structural
remedy that will inform students in advance that if they can’t successfully complete the placement,
they can’t receive the degree.
Stipends: Provost Nieman and Dean Strehle met with the GSO regarding stipends. There were 80 to
100 students present; the students feel the increase is unfair. That argument is not lost on the Provost
and the President, and the administration is holding meetings to discuss ways programs can help
continuing students. The expectation is that a stipend increase will be offered to incoming students
and there will be some additional funds for continuing students.
V. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 3:44 p.m. after a motion by Norah Henry, seconded by Patrick Madden.
_____________________________
Minutes recorded by Melissa Spencer,
Secretary to the Vice Provost and Dean
of the Graduate School