BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY
MINUTES OF THE October 30, 2006 MEETING OF THE GRADUATE COUNCIL
PLACE:
Couper Administration Building, Room 148
PRESIDING:
Nancy E. Stamp, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School
MEMBERS:
Ben Brewster, David Campbell, Jim Constable, Susan Currie, Theresa Grabo,
Maria-Theresia Holub, Murali Jagannathan, Maneesha Lal, Weiyi Meng,
Susan Pollock, Karen Salvage, Eugene Stevens, Marilyn Tallerico,
Steve Tammariello, Diane Wiener, Tom Wilson
EX OFFICIO
MEMBERS:
Susan Currie, Gerald Sonnenfeld, Lindsay Tremain
EXCUSED:
John Bridge, Stephen Gilje
ABSENT:
Ed Kokkelenberg, Tom McDonough, Steven Schwartz
GUESTS:
Cheryl Foster, Pamela Mischen, Fran Goldman
I. CALL TO ORDER:
Vice Provost and Dean Nancy Stamp called the meeting to order at 3:03 p.m.
II. MINUTES:
The minutes of the September 18, 2006 meeting were approved with a correction of a typo under
the Grievance Committee section.
III. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Academic Standards Committee
The committee is reviewing the By-Laws to change the Graduate Council representation to reflect
the change in the Division of SEHD to the School of Education and the College of Community &
Public Affairs without increasing the size of Council by too much.
Dean Stamp distributed copies of letters that would be sent to students approaching or have
exceeded the University’s five-year limit. There was discussion that perhaps there should be
more reasons of why a student should complete their degree instead of listing the economical
reasons. It was also suggested that the date for a student to file a written plan be changed to
October instead of September 1.
Advisory Committee for Scholarship and Research
The committee will be meeting this week to review the proposals for the Provost’s
Interdisciplinary Symposia and making their recommendations.
Budget Advisory Committee
The Budget Advisory Committee met and discussed a number of issues that were summarized in
a handout that Dean Stamp explained.
The tuition scholarship fund--a fund of which SUNY provides less than half and the campus
provides the rest. The Graduate School manages this budget. The demand is steadily
increasing, and there are not enough funds to cover all the requests. Some
departments/programs make offers to ineligible students and are late in doing the paperwork
which has resulted in the Graduate School having to scramble to cover the cost. The Graduate
School can no longer bail departments out. They will have to cover the costs themselves or the
costs will be deducted from the next year’s allocation from the Graduate School.
The stipend fund--about 70% comes from SUNY and the campus provides the rest. But there is
still a shortfall, given that the goal is for stipends being at the 75th percentile of the national
stipend survey. Some of our doctoral programs are not yet at the 75th percentile for 2007-08,
none of the master’s programs are at the 75th percentile and the annual rate of increase in
stipends nationally is 3-5% (or roughly $500 per year per TA/GA line).
The 4-year doctoral policy about eligibility of doctoral students for Graduate School support was
discussed. The Budget Advisory committee felt that all programs should comply with the 4-year
policy starting in 2007-08. It was discussed that the Graduate School provide some leeway—a
slight extension of the transition period into 2007-08 to the programs that didn’t already have the
4-year policy--for special individual student cases.
The committee discussed the student fee policy for funded CC and ABD students. The Graduate
School is discussing with the Student Accounts Office whether they would be willing to extend the
agreement; that is extend the “1 credit fee for up to 9 credits of thesis/dissertation credits for
funded CC and ABD students” agreement.
Curriculum Committee
1. Combined Degree Program in Asian and Asian-American Studies BA & Masters in Public
Administration. Professor Pamela Mischen and Fran Goldman attended to answer any
questions. Approved- 14 yes, 2 abstentions
2. Combined Degree Program in Theater BA & Masters in Public Administration –
Approved- 14 yes, 2 abstentions
3. PLSC 621: Seminar in Selected Topics in Public Opinion and Political Behavior-Approved
4. PLSC 622: Seminar in Selected Topics in Legislative Politics-Approved
5. PLSC 623: Seminar in Selected Topics in Judicial Politics-Approved
6. PLSC 624: Seminar in Selected Topics in Executive Politics-Approved
7. PLSC 625: Seminar in Selected Topics in State and Local Government-Approved
8. PLSC 626: Seminar in Selected Topics in Parties & Interests-Approved
9. PLSC 627: Seminar in Selected Topics in Institutions and Democratic PerformanceApproved
10. PLSC 641: Seminar in Comparative Politics-Approved
11. PLSC 661: Seminar in Selected Topics in Foreign Policy-Approved
12. EDUC 559/MASS 547: The Fundamentals of Limited English Proficiency Education to be
changed to Fundamentals of Second/Foreign Language Education-Approved
13. EECE 527: Information Theory-Approved
14. EECE 562: Fundamentals of Steganography-Approved
15. EECE 642: Adaptive Signal Processing-Approved
16. EECE 657: Network Security-Approved
17. Geology Dept’s request to change name of thesis research track from MA to MS
Approved
18. MSW request for revision of policy for advanced placement of selected BSW applicants
Approved
Grievance Committee
The committee is continuing to review department grievance procedures and developing a
template of grievance procedures.
Strategic Planning Committee
The committee met and discussed what action items they would focus on in regards to the
Strategic Plan documents.
IV. ADJOURNMENT:
The meeting was adjourned at 4:29 p.m. on a motion by Professor Lal and seconded by
Professor Tammariello.
_____________________________
Minutes recorded by Alta Hooker,
Secretary to the Vice Provost and Dean
of the Graduate School