Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators Meeting Minutes
March 25, 2014
3:30-5:00 pm
Mendenhall 244
Present: Avenarius, Christine; Bagley, Becky; Bishop, John; Bunch, Sheila; Cook, Alethia; Cox, Kathy;
Curtis, Scott; Dingfelder, Michael; Donica, Denise; Eagle, Scott; Hines, Ian; Gemperline, Paul; Jones,
Terry; Keiper, Brett; Kelley, Tim; Kisling, Eric; Kulas, Anthony; Lamson, Angela; Mahar, Matt; Monroe,
Richard; Morehead, Andrew; Ringler, Marjorie; Scott, Elaine; Sears, Sam; Skalko, Thomas; Sua, Lou;
Swanson, Carl; Tabrizi, Nasseh; Thompson, Bob; Van Dross, Rukiyah; and Tina Williams.
Guests: McConnell, Tom and Belinda Patterson
1. Call to order
3:30 pm
2. Approval of minutes from 1/21/14
 Add Marie Pokorny to attendees
 Minutes approved as amended
3. Graduate School website redesign – Sarah Batchelor
 New website launches tomorrow
 Viewable in mobile phones and tablets
 Email feedback about website to Sarah Batchelor
 Send in nominations for students and alumni to be featured on the profile section
 An events calendar was added
 All graduate school forms have been placed on the faculty and staff page
 Graduate school has made a note to delete all obsolete pages possible, and to
encourage each graduate program to review and do the same
 Suggestion to add a search tool (improve search for academic programs)
o Metatags
4. Career Services – Sarah Lage
 New career counselor (January 2014) is working on programs for graduate students
 Emails are being sent to graduate students regarding services and upcoming events
 Currently Developing an action plan for the next year
o Meeting with the Dean of the Graduate School every 2 weeks
 In the process of developing career service programs targeted at graduate students
5. Fall Orientation updates – Belinda Patterson
 Date of orientation is Friday August 22nd
 Online component is still operational
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As in the past bus transit services will be reserved and lunch will be provided at Joyner
Plaza
There will be an afternoon student resources fair
Program directors are able to view their colleges Blackboard course and the Graduate
School Blackboard course by logging in
o updating content this month– courses available on Blackboard June 1
6. Vireo – William Joseph Thomas
 Students are now uploading non-exclusive distribution license and the signature page
 Considering a switch from ProQuest to Vireo for mentor verification purposes
 Advisor to check off that student is uploading correct publishing version and to keep
committee members in the communication loop
 Software is free (vireo.ecu.edu)
 Agreements are sent directly to the institutional repository (both license agreements
are located on the same page)
 All student detail information is transferred over from Proquest database
 Hope to go live with vireo in a preliminary test mode after the spring semester
7. Point of information, two policies
New withdrawal policy will begin next fall, Graduate School Appeals Policy being revised and
considered by GC
8. Update, thesis/dissertation oversight committee
 Qualtrics survey is up for graduate program directors to take
 52 questions – 10 minutes
 Option for thesis but not always used, please answer yes to question in that situation
 Program directors (not concentration directors) should complete survey
 Survey distributed electronically March 19th
9. Admission decisions: GRE, GPA, and the importance of other factors
 Requested future topic
 Programs make decisions based on multiple factors, including but not limited to GPA
and GRE
 Discussion on thresholds and requests for exception admits
10. Feedback from SACS, areas of concern - postponed
11. Announcements
a. ETD workshops
b. RCAW 2014
12. Meeting adjourned 5:00 pm
Recorder, Amy Tripp