Graduate Council Retreat
UC Pano
Thursday, August 22, 2014
11:30 – 3:00
Present: Linda Black, Paula Conroy, Jennifer Harding-Dekam, Susan Hutchinson, Brian Iannacchione, Melissa
Malde, Katherine Mandel, Rutilio Martinez, Carissa Reddick, Jennifer Ritchotte, Tod Sedbrook, Khalil Shafie
Holighi, Rhonda Squires, Joyce Weil, Stephanie Wiegand
Absent: Rick Adams, Tina Stoody, Stephen Wright
I. Welcome & Introduction of Members
Linda Black welcomed new and returning members. New members include Rick Adams, Biological Sciences,
Jennifer Ritchotte, Special Education, Khalil Shafie Holighi, Applied Statistics & Research.
II. Purpose of the Graduate Council
Linda remarked that Graduate Council members are a representative body of Graduate Faculty. Faculty
perspective has to be strong on this committee and Linda Black is pleased that people take the role of Council
member seriously. It is a time of high change at UNC; the Provost has spoken about issues UNC is facing in
the next couple of years. Linda Black is quite hopeful and energized about the future. She will provide regular
updates to Council as things progress.
III. Leadership & Committee Assignments: Standards, Program Review, Senate, PEC
Frances emailed Council materials to members that included a list of new and continuing members and a
meeting schedule for Council, Standards and Program Review. Linda Black called for nominations or
volunteers for open positions for Graduate Council Chair, Standards Chair and Chair of Program Review.
 Chair of Graduate Council: Melissa Malde – Fall Semester only as she will be on sabbatical beginning
spring 2015.
 Program Review: this committee reviews new graduate programs. This committee also reviews and
provides recommendations for 5 year program reviews. They provide recommendations about
student/faculty ratio and provide clarity on some program issues. Chair of Program Review: Paula
Conroy to serve as Co-Chair; Linda Black will ask Tina Stoody if she will Co-Chair with Paula.
 Standards Committee: Rutilio Martinez. Rutilio who is currently on Program Review will switch
committees with Tod Sedbrook who served on Standards last academic year. Standards Committee is
responsible for the review of Graduate Faculty status (GF/DRE) appointment/reappointment
applications. Melissa shared that as the past Chair of Standards, the work this group does is very
important. The Graduate Faculty Guidelines will need to be reviewed as interpreting the guidelines is
not very easy.
 Faculty Senate Representative: Stephanie Wiegand volunteered to represent Council at Faculty
Senate.
 PEC: Jennifer Harding-Dekam will represent Council at PEC. PEC meets during the same time as
Council, so Jennifer will only attend if there is discussion regarding a graduate program or issue.
 There are 2 open seats – one for the College of Education & Behavioral Sciences and one from the
College of Humanities & Social Sciences. Linda Black will speak to Dean Eugene Sheehan Interim
Dean Donna Bottenberg about adequate representation. Linda will also seek additional representation

from the College of Performing and Visual Arts in the spring as Melissa Malde will be on sabbatical
spring 2015.
New GSA Director: Katherine Mandel
IV. Enrollment Update
Graduate enrollment is projected to increase by 3% which is number of applications accepted and denied.
8,000 applications to admissions gave a yield of 48-52%, but admitted to enroll is low at 40%. We are actually
down 120 graduate students this semester. The tuition budget is based on the number of students enrolled and
30% of the institutions budget is to fund GA/TA/GRA. We will have to readjust budgets.
UNC is a tuition driven institution. UNC has reserves but those reserves will be used up within the next 2
years. State funding continues to dwindle, 6% this year and 4% next year. Adams, Western and Mesa are
institutions that may not make it due to financial issues. UNC needs to be ready to maintain quality, be more
efficient and add new programs. We need to look at the market to see what programs we should be looking in
to; example a Behavioral Health Certificate.
MBA launched their program fall 2014 and currently have 18 students enrolled. Teaching English to Speakers
of Other Languages (TESOL) is a new program. NHS has added a Professional Science Masters which is
much like the Biomedical Science Degree which is an intensive 1 year program. UNC has been approved at its
first reading of a Hydrology and Water program and just needs to be approved at the national level. UNC will
see up to 18 students enrolling from China. The President and the Provost have collaborated with Mexico to
bring business and education students from Mexico. We need to have these creative solution based
conversation as we go forward.
The new Graduate Student Orientation and the Graduate Teaching Assistantship Conference were both very
successful this fall. The Graduate School received tremendous feedback.
The Board of Trustees (BOT) approved the $22.50 per credit hour Capital Fee. This fee will help defray
UNC’s 1 million dollar maintenance costs. All graduate students will have to pay this Capital Fee. A letter
explaining the fee will go out to graduate students via their student bear mail on Monday. There was a
question as to whether online students can waive the Capital Fee.
V.
Old Business
Workload Survey - The Workload Survey will be an early agenda item in the fall.
Before the meeting, Melissa sent out the Workload survey link so that new members could read the survey and
returning members could reacquaint themselves with it. Matt applied for and received IRB approval. We
noticed that the survey will need to be changed to include UNC in the dropdown menu of institutions. Stephen
was not present but it should be easy for him to make that change. As council members review the survey one
last time, changes may be made and an amendment to the IRB may need to be filed. There was discussion
about who the audience should be. Should the survey be sent to unit heads or to faculty? A vote was taken, 1
person voted to Unit Heads and 14 voted to send the survey to individual faculty. Linda will assign grad
school student workers to generate a distribution list of faculty in areas and programs comparable to UNC from
the list of institutions embedded in the survey. A letter will accompany the survey that faculty are to answer
the survey for themselves and not their unit. We want faculty perspective.
Student Intellectual Property
Linda Black and Teresa McDevitt will be crafting a policy on Student Intellectual Property and will post to
appropriate websites. More information will be coming as well regarding IRB approval for students engaging
in the use of human participants. Linda will provide specific language and get it out to Council for review.
Linda and Susan talked about Traditional, Alternate and Discipline Specific dissertation formats. Susan
commented that we need some consistency around dissertation formats. No issues with the Traditional format,
but Susan commented that there needs to be some consistency regarding the use of the other types of formats,
especially when students and faculty all of a sudden request an Alternate form.
If student would like to use a different format, this should be forwarded to the Graduate School and approval
received before the student gets to the proposal stage. Linda Black, Susan Hutchinson and Carol Steward will
discuss and provide a follow-up on this issue to Council.
Update on Graduate School Notification of Faculty – Faculty Status
The Graduate School notifies the College Deans every fall semester regarding the GF/DRE status of their
faculty. Unfortunately, faculty has not always been notified that their terms are expiring and that they will
need to apply for appointment or reappointment. Beginning fall 2014, every faculty with GF status will
receive an email from the Graduate School “Your status expires fall 2014” and the email will notify faculty of
the process for renewal. Faculty will receive notification in the spring if their status is due to expire fall 2015.
Faculty with DRE will also be notified via email if their status is expiring fall 2014. Faculty will be advised
that they need to attend a DRE Workshop to fulfill one of the criteria for DRE status
appointment/reappointment. The DRE Workshops have been quite successful and informative. Susan
Hutchinson, Assistant Dean of the Graduate School will be leading the workshops in the fall.
Confirming DRE Status & Terminal Degree
There was discussion regarding terminal degrees and whether faculty are eligible for GF or DRE status if they
do not have a terminal degree. They can be eligible for GF, but should a faculty member who does not have a
terminal degree direct doctoral research? Melissa commented that there should be a strong writing component
if the faculty member does not have a terminal degree. Council voted that faculty members must have a
terminal degree in order to be approved for DRE status. Melissa asked that the Graduate Faculty Guidelines
and the DRE Application be modified to reflect this change. However, more discussion is needed to address
the issues for our diverse offering of doctoral programs.
Linda Black added that if terminal degree is offered in the discipline, faculty can serve on committee as CoResearch Advisor but must have a faculty with DRE as Research Advisor.
Other Updates
Linda Black informed Council that she is on a Compliance Committee. This committee helps people with
issues regarding policy.
Degree Works is rolling out fall 2014. Degree Works will help students, faculty and staff check on courses
students have taken and what more is needed. Laura Hulsey will be contacting departments/schools regarding
training.
Kate Mandel, Director of the Graduate Student Association provided an update.
The GSA has been in transition for the last couple of years. GSA would like to expand out from just
providing conference grant funds. The GSA Council is in place and the Council consists of members from all
colleges and 1 representative from Extended Campus. Following are some comments from graduate students
and some things Kate would like to see happen in GSA for 2014-15:
 Graduate students want a sense of community.
 Kate would like to improve resources for graduate students
 Several smaller events to appeal to smaller groups. Maybe hold 1 each semester or hold a meet
and greet with GSA reps at each college.
 Kate would like to request an increase in GSA funding especially for the grant process.
 The Pizza Social at Roma’s – 50 attended after New Graduate Student Orientation.
 1st conferences grant cycle saw 31 applicants. Grad students received 38% of the funds they
requested. Rubric to be developed to assist in the review of grant applications.
 Kate would like to produce a monthly newsletter for graduate students.
 Students are asking how they can get involved with GSA. Work on GSA webpage, Facebook,
Twitter.
Kate would also like to begin a conversation with the development people about perhaps finding donors to
fund graduate conferences and research. Next application cycle with open September 10 and close October
3rd with a 2 week review. Award letters will go out in November and students have until spring to claim their
reimbursement. Deadlines are on the GSA website. Linda Black asked that faculty encourage their grad
students to read emails coming from GSA or GSPD. Please help getting the word out and if there is
something a grad student wants and don’t have, please let Kate know at katherine.mandel@unco.edu.
Coming Fall/Spring 2015
 Digital measures
 Live Text
 Recruiter
VI. Agenda for Year
Council Initiated Goals for 2014-15
 Faculty Workload Issue
 Interdisciplinary Degree Policy Revisions – What is the thinking of GIDP degree? Linda Black
will provide a presentation regarding GIDP and outdate policies. Currently, the policy is very
loose and unclear and negotiating the process is very difficult. Linda will present some critical
issues to Council and she asks for Council to forward their thoughts.
 Review and Update Graduate Faculty Guidelines
 Review and update Graduate Council Bylaws
o Succession policy?
o Working committees to advise and update the policies
 Restructured Graduate catalog: the catalog will be much more user friendly. It is near final form
and Linda would like Council to review. She will email a copy to Council; please give Linda
your feedback.
 Any other items – Please send to Melissa Malde to be added to the agenda.
Respectfully Submitted,
Frances Braafhart