MINUTES
Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators
January 30, 2012
Mendenhall 221
Attendance: Anderson, Alice; Alston, Paul; Armstrong, Robin; Bertrand, Brenda; Congleton, Susan; Cope,
John; Cox, Kathy; Daniel, Randy; Dar, Saeed; Decker, Jim; Dingfelder, Michael; Eagle, Scott; Eble,
Michelle; Edwards, Bob; Gares, Paul; Gemperline, Paul; Grobe, Bill; Huener, Thomas; Jacobs, A.J.;
Jantzen, Chris; Kasperek, George; Kulas, Anthony; Lamson, Angela; Mahar, Matt; McCammon, Susan;
Morehead, Andrew; Morris, Alexis; Patterson, Belinda; Pokorny, Marie; Prividera, Laura; Ozan, Erol;
Preston, Ron; Ringler, Marjorie; Schmidt, Steve; Stuart, Andrew; Swanson, Carl; Tabrizi, Nasseh; Teleki,
Jane; Trujillo, Leonard; Wallen, Michele; West, Terry; Williams, Tina; Wolfe, Linda; Woods, Terri; and
Elaine Yontz.
1.
Call to Order
3:32 PM
2. Approval of minutes from Nov 14, 2011
Approved
3.
Graduate assistantship allocations
a. Minimum full-time amount will be $9000 per year, up from $7500
o This amount covers 2 semesters of support ($4,500 per semester)
o Dr. Gemperline requests program directors plan accordingly
o One time funds may be available; Dr. Gemperline will keep all graduate program
directors and coordinators informed
b. Most programs will receive same allocations as last year
c. Large un-encumbered balances in your budgets will be swept back in late April
o Please submit EPAFS for students continuing through first summer session as
soon as possible so funds can be encumbered and that encumbered balances
will be as close to $0 as possible by June 30, 2012
d. Process for reallocating assistantship budget in Fall 2013
o Reallocation process will begin as early as possible so there is a chance for full
deliberation by the Academic Council, Deans and Associate Deans, Graduate
Council and Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators
o Data will be provided by the Graduate School to inform the decision making
process, PPC reports will also be considered
o Once strategic priorities are set a proposal process will be developed whereby
colleges and their individual programs apply for assistantship funds under the
new reallocation scheme
o This RFP draft will be shared with the Academic Council, Deans and Associate
Deans, Graduate Council and Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators for
input
o Decision making process to reflect input gathered across campus
o The finalized RFP draft will be issued in early August 2012. Programs will be
asked to submit their reallocation proposals by September 30, 2012.
o RFP’s will be evaluated by Dr. Gemperline and a recommendation made to the
Academic Council on the reallocation of funds
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Proposed reallocations will also be shared with Deans and Associates Deans for
feedback
After receiving feedback and making any necessary revisions final budgets will
be issued
4. Continuously updated BIC report showing Graduate Faculty rank is now available
a. Please review for faculty with expiring appointments
b. https://reports.intra.ecu.edu/Reports/Pages/Folder.aspx?ItemPath=%2fecuBIC%2fStud
ent%2fGraduate+School%2fGraduate+Faculty+Report&ViewMode=List
o The Graduate School will continue sending reminders to Graduate Faculty
members before the end of their expired term
o Suggestion to build report so can drill down to college/program level
5. Change from thesis to non-thesis option – new procedure
 Grading scheme of thesis grades recently changed from Q/R to U/S/R
 Resulted from issues associated with retroactively withdrawing students from 7000
courses with grades of Q or Incomplete in order to meet graduation requirement of
no incompletes
 Retroactively dropping students resulted in a transcript not accurately reflecting the
academic history of the student and a financial aid impact for the student
 To prevent this, the Registrar’s Office will insert comment on student’s transcript
stating the student changed from a thesis to a non-thesis option and the effective
date of the transfer
 For those students still having assigned grades of Q on the record, the instructor of
record will submit a change of grade form to either S or U
 Thesis credits will not count toward the degree, however if the thesis meets
requirements for a capstone project, credit can be transferred (as long as the work
done in the thesis course meets the standards of quality for the capstone project)
with program director support and a brief justification to the Dean.
 This new procedure will be added to the Graduate Program Directors Handbook and
communicated to new program directors
6. Timeline for tuition remission and health insurance
 All scholarship and remission awards for fall enrollment are to be submitted by April
15th
 Dr. Gemperline is aware all decisions cannot be made at this time, however for all
students whose situations in known (e.g. returning students) submit information to
the Graduate School so Financial Aid information can be packaged and delivered
before the crunch time
 Web based form with workflow to GPDs/Associate Deans/ Alexis Morris under
development.
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Students receiving tuition remissions who drop courses during the refund period
may potentially receive a tuition refund to their Higher One account rather than the
funds being returned to the funding source. Because of this, the Graduate School
(Alexis) is now monitoring student schedule changes daily to catch changes in
students’ credit hours.
Students will need to repay money if after receiving a tuition remission they drop
courses
o Tuition remissions are limited at this time
Tuition remissions can be prorated.
Can cover DE courses only if the DE section is only delivery option for specific course
that particular term.
The Graduate School will send out a Qualtrics survey to students containing terms
and conditions of award that they will sign electronically after reading
o Non-responders will be sent a series of automatic reminders
Dr. Gemperline will resend the tuition remission template letter to graduate
program directors and coordinators
7. Recruiting and admissions
a. Action plan for increasing graduate enrollment
 Volunteers needed to serve on an ad-hoc implementation workgroup for increasing
graduate enrollment
b. Proposed application deadlines (degree non-degree, ECU faculty)
 During the Christmas holiday students want to submit last minute application
materials
 Proposal made by the Graduate School to relax deadlines for readmitted and nondegree students to accommodate these applications
o Non-degree applications have significantly decreased
 Group consensus to relax deadlines for readmitting students
c. Best practices-communication with prospective and admitted students
d. Printing applications from Xtender and FERPA issues (Amanda Fleming and Leon Gibson)
 According to FERPA regulations, if applications are being printed, control must be
maintained of those records
o Applications should be stored in a central location under lock and key
o Develop a mechanism to destroy documents immediately after a
decision is made
 The Office of the Registrar prefers application be viewed in Xtender in order to
protect student confidentially
o Xtender applications provide greater security than applications in paper
form
o Xtender only allows appropriate viewers access to applications
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Dr. Gemperline will continue discussions regarding graduate enrollment increases,
specifically examining admission practices and looking for possible admissions
barriers and ways to eliminate these barriers
 The time lapse between when a student completes an online application and when
it appears in Xtender is about a week and a half
o The Graduate School is working on ways to reduce scanning volume such as
electronic input of personal statements
e. New GRE scores
8. Revised Appendix F
 Revised Appendix F is ready for ratification
 Appendix F will be sent to all Graduate Faculty members for an electronic vote
through Qualtrics
 Voting options: yes/no/meet to discuss
 For a quorum to be established there must be a 50% participation rate of all
Graduate Faculty members
o Voting will be anonymous
o Voting reminders will be sent to non-responders based on a Qualtrics ID
 If 15% of voters select ‘meet to discuss’ a meeting will be held
9. Adjourn
5:00 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Amy E. Tripp