4 Feb 2009
Graduate Council Meeting
Summary
Present: J. Banks, C. Christensen, O. Clark, S. Congden, B. Crane (for C. Certo), M.
Crosbie , J. Mehm, S. Moslehpour, R. Murphy, N. Politikos, M. Schiano (for C.
Saunders), J. Schloss, C. Silverstein, C. Smith
Absent: P. Bray, J. Harney, B. Intriligator, R. King, C. Sahay, B. Thomson, M.&C.
Tinkelman, M.J. Williams
Announcements:
1. Michael Schiano is the new representative for the Hartt School replacing Clark
Saunders.
2. The Graduate Admission Board meeting has been rescheduled for 11 Feb.
3. There are several deadlines looming. Most of the forms can be found on the dean’s
web page at http://www.hartford.edu/graduate/dean/.
-Requests for graduate student help for post acceptance recruiting and/or alumni
relations. 1 March. See attachment.
-Nominations for the Presidential Scholarships. 15 March. See attachment.
-Applications for the Research and Creativity Symposium. 25 March. See
attachment.
-Announcement for the Regents Honor Award. 25 March. See attachment.
-Changes to the Graduate Bulletin. 3 April.
-Applications for the Graduate Travel Grant. 30 days before the meeting. See
attachment.
Most of these forms are on the deans website at http://www.hartford.edu/graduate/dean/.
Unfinished Business. A complaint was lodged at the last meeting concerning transcripts.
Students who had both undergraduate and graduate degrees from UH were claiming that
both transcripts were printed together when they only wanted one or the other. Upon
investigation, I found that students can specifically request their undergrad, grad, or both
transcripts on the transcript request form. Therefore, if they fill in the correct box, they
should get what they want.
New Business. A new complaint was lodged. Students, who have enrolled in more than
one graduate program have all of their course grades included in the cumulative GPA.
For example, a student who started in the MSN program and then moved to the EdD
program had courses and grades combined from both programs on the transcript and in
the GPA. Frankly, I don’t know if this is a bad thing or not or if Banner can sort it out
but I will discuss it with the Registrar and report back.
Academic Strategic Plan. The Provost asked the Council of Deans to draft an academic
strategic plan for UH. This draft is now being presented to faculty, staff, and students for
their input. I brought the plan to the Graduate Council to determine if anything was
missing with regard to graduate education. We concentrated on the mission statement,
the faculty and graduate student parts of Goal #1, and the degree program/graduate
curriculum sections of Goal #2. The following comments were made:
1. While “research, scholarship, and creativity” are prominently displayed terms in the
document, “service-learning”, a significant component of professional training is not.
Goal #1, Graduate Student Bullet #3 seems like a good place to put it.
2. In the same bullet is the term “theoretical methodologies.” It should read “theory and
methods.”
3. It should be made clear that the term “community involvement” includes everything
from global to local communities.
4. “Interdisciplinary” is a word often mentioned. However, some graduate program
study plans do not lend themselves to courses or research outside of the field. It should
be made clear that “one size does not fit all.”
Current Practices: Commencement. Recognition of your students’ degree-completion
is the first step in developing alumni relations. Alumni serve as important sources of
information for outcome assessment and program improvement. Graduation celebrations
will always be well attended when incoming students enter as a single cohort and most of
them graduate at the same time and/or if the students continue to live in the area after
graduation. However, all programs should have an event to mark graduation as a first
step in staying connected to alumni. John Mehm described the types of programmatic
celebrations that mark the graduation of their students.
1. A presentation of work by the graduates is followed by a reception or dinner (e.g.
Nursing, Illustration). Other graduate students and sometimes family and friends are
invited.
2. A hooding ceremony that occurs during college ceremonies at the May
commencement (e.g. PsyD program, PhD/DMA in Hartt) or is privately held on a
different date (e.g., EdD program). A reception follows the ceremony for the graduates,
their family and guests. Sometimes this reception is for graduate students and guests
only; sometimes it is a college reception that includes both undergraduates and graduate
students.
3. Other signs of recognition during the college ceremonies in May (e.g., special seating,
first in line to walk the stage) are followed by a reception that includes both undergrad
and graduate students. This is the very least that we can do to recognize our graduates.
At the university level, recognition of specific graduates occurs at the Regents’ Honor
Awards ceremony held at the Graduate Research/Creativity Symposium, and at the
Anchor Awards dinner. A suggestion was made to sponsor a reception in May to honor
the graduates as is done in September to welcome all graduate students. I am willing to
give it a try but the date will have to be chosen carefully.
MAPP, Section XX: Academic Honesty. Michael Crosbie was the facilitator for this
discussion. He noted the following in his presentation (in italics).
A. “ generally accepted principles of scholarly writing in all examinations, compositions,
papers, essays, tests, quizzes, reports and dissertations.”
COMMENT: Nowhere in the MAPP are “generally accepted principles of scholarly
writing” defined. Perhaps there should be a reference to a style manual, which also
covers conventions of citation of reference materials. This omission might be
incorporated into the MAPP, otherwise it could be included in the Bulletin of Graduate
Programs in the “Academic Regulations” section, page 40.
In the ensuing discussion, the council came to the conclusion that “generally accepted
principles” means content and not style (which will vary from discipline to discipline). I
will check with the head librarian to determine if a reference can be found to define the
term.
B. “Students are forbidden to submit as their own any project, papers, or creative work
that is in whole or part the work of another.”
COMMENT: Today’s students are accustomed to cutting, pasting, borrowing, riffing, and
generally appropriating images and text for “remixing,” revamping, and reconstituting
work that they may or may not see as their own. There is a change in the notion of
authorship. Content from other sources is often recast in student work, without
attribution. Should the MAPP be more definitive about intellectual property and
appropriation? If not, should the Bulletin of Graduate Programs be more explicit about
defining work that is “in whole or part the work of another”?
When does a collage stop being a rip-off and start being art? In these days of easy access
and “cut and paste” options, that question is asked in many media. I think that we as
educators are challenged to first teach how to survey the literature and second how use
that material to come up with a novel question, hypothesis, or idea.
I will also determine if the university subscribes to a plagiarism-detection service.
I2. Penalty. The student is considered guilty of the alleged violation by a preponderance
of the evidence, and therefore one or more of the following actions be taken:
(a) instructor's penalty shall be upheld.
(b) that the student be dropped from the course or assigned a grade of “F” for the
specific assignment or for the entire course.
(c) that the student be suspended (i) for the remainder of the current semester, losing
credit for their current academic program, or (ii) for the following semester or year, or
both.
(d) that the student be dismissed from the University, and the dismissal be entered on the
student’s permanent academic record (transcript original), maintained by the Registrar
in the case of dismissal.
COMMENT: Should the penalties for a graduate student be more severe (for example,
failing the course as the first level of action)? It would seem that such measures would be
expected at the graduate level, where students are expected to appreciate the gravity of
compromised research, writing, and scholarship.
Severity is one issue; so is the range of possible penalties. Cheaters may get:
1.
an F on the paper or test,
2-3. receive a W or an F for the course,
4-5. be suspended for a semester or a year
6.
be dismissed from the university.
The Graduate Council needs to carefully consider this section.
J-K. Appeals beyond the college. According to the MAPP, complaints regarding
academic honesty are to be discussed with the student by the Instructor, Program
Director, Chair, Dean, on up until a resolution is reached. The Dean of Students becomes
a party to these reviews when the complaint involves paragraph E, the falsification of
academic documents, and determines the Dean or Program Director with whom the
complaint should be filed.
COMMENT: Should the Dean of Graduate Studies be involved in any of these
conferences if the accused student has graduate standing? Should the Dean of Graduate
Studies be expected to be invited by the Academic Standings Committee for conference or
its report on findings and decisions if the student has graduate standing?
I think that the title “Dean of Graduate Studies” needs to replace “Provost” in many of
the MAPP policies. The Council will need to look at these proposed changes.
Other Issues. Although the Bulletin of Graduate Programs mentions the Manual of
Academic Policies and Procedures, there is no mention or discussion of Academic
Honesty.
COMMENT: Shouldn’t the Bulletin of Graduate Programs contain at least a listing of
the Academic Honesty Policy points, without necessarily including the procedures? This
would communicate to graduate students the University’s expectation of honest graduate
work, and direct them to further information in the MAPP. This could be included under
the “Academic Regulations” section on page 40.
I will check with Beverly Kennedy in the Office of Communication to determine if a
section on Academic Honesty belongs in the Graduate Bulletin. It does appear in The
Source.