Minutes
COAH Graduate Studies Subcommittee
2:00 pm, September 25, 2015
COAH Dean’s Conference Room
In attendance: Patrick Erben, Kevin Hibbard, Rosemary Kellison, Elizabeth Kramer, Nadya Popov
Williams, Melissa Sullivan, Jeffrey Zamostny
This was the committee’s first meeting of AY 2015-2016.
1. We approved the minutes of our April 15 meeting.
2. Jeffrey was elected to serve as chair of the committee for AY 2015-2016. He asked that Elizabeth
conduct the first meeting since she had prepared the agenda.
3. The composition and public visibility of the committee were discussed. There was some uncertainty as
to whether Theatre plans to have representation. Kevin noted that Dawn McCord is chair of the Graduate
Programs Committee of the Faculty Senate and that it would make sense to invite her to the meetings of
the COAH Graduate Studies Subcommittee. The COAH committee does not currently have a web
presence or post minutes to the COAH webpage; this should be corrected in AY 2015-2016.
4. Elizabeth reported on the ongoing discussions of a campus-wide ad hoc committee on graduate
assistantships led by Denise Overfield. The discussions center on:
(1) Tuition waivers. $1.8 million of tuition waivers were distributed last year, or approximately
one third of the profit from graduate tuition. There is concern in the President’s Office that tuition
waivers are not being granted strategically for academic purposes. An extreme example is that a
graduate student working for Athletics receives a tuition waiver for doing the laundry for a
particular team. One idea would be to grant tuition waivers in a more targeted fashion, such that
tuition waivers do not automatically accompany assistantships, as is currently the case. It would
also be possible to give a tuition waiver without a stipend or vice versa. Elizabeth included
information about the USG BOR policy regarding tuition waivers as well as Kennesaw State’s
tiered model of waivers in an email sent to the group following the meeting (Appendix 1).
Patrick emphasized that individual graduate programs need to know in advance of each year how
many waivers and how much funding for stipends will be available; otherwise, recruitment will
be difficult. The fact that English GTAs teach in the core needs to be taken into account in
planning waivers and stipends.
(2) Stipends. Elizabeth projected a spreadsheet concerning tuition waivers and stipends for
graduate students employed by various departments and units at UWG. Stipends range from $0$21,000 per year. The upper range is exceptional; for the most part, students cannot actually
live off of the stipends, which have changed minimally since the 1990s. The amount of tuition
waivers and stipends granted by different units varies widely, such that the numbers for COAH
are below average and modest vis-à-vis those in COSS, Academic Affairs, or Student Affairs, for
example.
(3) The Workload Release form. This form is problematic; for example, it requires certain
signatures that seem irrelevant and fails to require other relevant signatures. English currently
uses the form for all MA students because it deems 6 credits per semester to be a full load.
(4) PARs. This form needs to be submitted for all GAs, GTAs, and GRAs, and it needs to be
routed through an appropriate academic office to ascertain that the student in question is in good
standing. This is not always happening. There needs to be a job description for every available
graduate student position, and these descriptions must be posted publically online.
(5) Definitions of GA, GRA, and GTA. The committee led by Denise Overfield will discuss the
possibility of updating and standardizing definitions across campus. Currently English uses the
term GA as a catch-all position for graduate student positions not limited solely to teaching or
research duties, GTA for instructors of record, and GRA for students conducting research.
History uses the term GRA as the catch-all position. History typically has 5 GRAs per semester in
the department in addition to other GRAs working outside the department in Public History
assignments. GA money in English is often used to staff the Writing Center. In an email sent to
the committee following the meeting (Appendix 1), Elizabeth included American
University’s “Guidelines for Duties and Evaluation of Graduate Assistants” (Appendix 2).
Committee members advised that standardized descriptions need to be broad enough to allow
individual programs some flexibility.
5. There was time to discuss other items of interest.
(1) Patrick reported that at its September 11 faculty meeting (the minutes of which were yet to be
approved), English decided to keep its teaching certification track intact within the BA rather
than reserving certification for a postgraduate degree. Jeffrey mentioned that English’s
deliberations on this issue have shaped recent discussions of Spanish and French teacher
certification in FLLs; the inclination there is to leave the undergraduate certification intact.
History, on the other hand, finds that students with an MAT are significantly more likely to land a
teaching position than students with a BA, whose prospects are grim.
(2) Patrick suggested that we study the relationship between the MAT program and the MA in
English in terms of compensation and viability of the programs. MAT students currently take
MA courses in English, but English’s work in this area does not receive compensation when the
primary measure of program health is number of graduates.
(3) Melissa distributed a current list of incomplete applications to COAH graduate programs.
(4) There was discussion of issues regarding the good standing designation for graduate students.
A case is under investigation in which a student is listed as being in good standing in Banner but
does not have the appropriate GPA. It may be that the system and individual programs are not
using the same GPA standards to make this determination. Nadya stated that graduate students
who receive an F are often unable to bring their GPA up to the 3.0 required for graduation
because when they retake the class they failed, their new grade does not replace the F (as happens
for undergraduates). This policy may require review. Melissa will notify students who have taken
Incompletes about the requirement for completing those courses within one year.
6. Jeffrey will send out a call for agenda items and organize the next meeting via Doodle for late October.
At the October meeting, Elizabeth will report on the next meeting of the committee organized by Denise.
7. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 3:15 pm.
Appendix 1
Text of email dated 9/25/2015 from Elizabeth Kramer to
COAH Graduate Studies Subcommittee
I appreciate the opportunity to fill you in on some of the discussions being had about issues in graduate studies as well as get your feedback. Here are
a few of the items I promised to send:
(1) The committee looking at these issues is chaired by Denise Overfield and includes representatives from Academic Affairs, Student Affairs as well
as individuals such as Toby Ziglar (OGIA), Rodney Byrd (HR), and Keri Burns (Career Services)
(2)
I’ve attached American University Definitions of assistantships.
(3)
Here are a few more facts to ponder…
 Graduate students can work through federal work study without holding a GA, GRA, or GTA
 The USG BOR policy manual, section 7.3.1.2, explicitly states that institutions have the option of
waiving all or part of graduate tuition. When a full waiver is granted, the student must be charged
$25.
 Kennesaw State allows for the option of a student only receiving a tuition waiver and not a
stipend. They use a tiered system for their granting of tuition waivers as well:
Tiers
Tier I
Tier II
Tier III
Tier
IV
Special
Commitments
Hours
Worked
per
Week
6-10 hours
11-15 hours
16-20 hours
Stipend
Amount
per
Semester
$2,000/semester
$3,500/semester
$5,000/semester
max 20 hours
negotiated
Tuition Waiver Hours/Sem Max 6 semester hours
Max 9 semester hours
Max 12 semester hours
Max 12 semester hours
Appendix 2
American University’s “Guidelines for Duties and Evaluations of Graduate Assistants”
attached separately as a PDF