Graduate Council Meeting
Monday, November 19, 2007
10 AM Pintlar Room
CALL TO ORDER-DETERMINATION OF A QUORUM
Figueira
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Figueira
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Minutes of Spring 2007 Meeting approved by motion of Kumar
Ganesan; seconded by Amy Kuenzi.
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In the future, the Meeting Minutes will be sent to the members via
e-mail with a ballot to approve or disapprove.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
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Figueira
Agenda approved; no additions.
Members attending indicated in bold:
Doug Abbott
Paul Conrad
Joe Figueira
Kumar Ganesan
Henry Gonshak
David Hobbs
Todd Hoffman
Pete Knudsen - Guest
Amy Kuenzi
Curtis Link
Henrietta Shirk
Terry Spear
Chip Todd
Larry Twidwell – sub: Courtney Young
Michele Van Dyne
Neil Wahl
Diane Wolfgram
ACTION ITEMS
1)
ENGR 5160 Technical Writing and Publishing Seminar approval as a Pass/Fail course.
This course will be taught by Marisa Pedulla January 24-27 (Thursday and Friday evening, all day
Saturday and Sunday). It provides a practical guide for improving all technical writing, with a special
emphasis on preparing documents for publication in peer reviewed journals. This course fills the
Graduate Writing Seminar requirement as does ENGR 5150 Graduate Writing Seminar (Jack McGuire’s old
course). ENGR 5150 is pass/fail. The proposal is to bring ENGR 5160 into alignment.
Proposal: Change ENGR 5160 to Pass/Fail to reflect Graduate Writing Seminar grading procedure.
Discussion: No discussion
Figueira will send a recommendation to the CRC to approve Pass/Fail grading for ENGR 5160 Technical
Writing and Publishing and copy the North Campus Deans.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
1)
GRE as requirement for Graduate School Admission
Figueira
The Board of Regents unanimously accepted the revision to Policy 301.3, concerning Admissions
Requirements for Graduate Students. The policy is the following general, permissive statement:
All graduate programs in the Montana University System shall establish admission and selection
standards that are appropriate to the program of study.
Previously the BOR required all Graduate Students to take the GRE as a condition of admission. We now
need to determine the role of the GRE in our admission process.
The 2007 Fall Tech Student GRE average was reported as Verbal: 459; Quantitative: 593; Analytical
Writing: 4. The Council was asked if Tech’s requirements should be changed or broadened. Most of the
Departments reported that the scores are looked at but do not seem to indicate the success of a
graduate student. More weight is given to recommendations. For online students with work experience,
the GRE is probably not a relevant diagnostic. The Council agreed that the decision to continue the GRE
requirement should be left to the individual Departments.
Figueira stated that the Graduate School will remove the requirement from the next Catalog. The
Departments must decide what the GRE requirements, if any, will be for their area and report back to the
Graduate School with time allowed for the decisions to be reviewed by all Departments before the
Catalog for 2008-09 is finalized. This process will be conducted via e-mail.
2)
Changing PE Requirements and Montana Tech Opportunities Wolfgram/Knudsen
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3)
PhD Program
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3)
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4)
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Dunstan
108 students are enrolled including 7 Non Degree; 4 - 5 Yr MS; 17 International; 19 IH
Online; and 13 MPEM.
Online students constitute 30% of current enrollment, making this our fastest growing
delivery method. These statistics give support to developing more online courses; the
interest and need is apparent.
Strategic Plan
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Abbott
The last Tech Program Review indicated that Geosciences needs a PhD program under Tech’s
name. While the current administration remains at U of M, Tech will not be granted a stand
alone doctoral program. However, within a year or so the outlook may be more favorable.
Abbott would like meet with Tech’s previous PhD Steering Committee to familiarize himself
with past history and begin planning for the future advancement of a PhD program.
Graduate School Enrollment Information for Fall 2007
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5)
Engineering students who begin their education in 2011 and apply for their PE in 2015 must
have completed 150 hours in their discipline. This is typically a Bachelor’s degree plus 30
credits (120 + 30). Schools differ in their credit requirement for an engineering degree and
Montana Tech students may only need an additional 14 credits (136 + 14).
Graduate certificate programs could fill this requirement, which would be considered a Level
I BOR change. If students complete 15 hours under this program, they would be half-way
to a Master’s degree and could continue on by completing the application process. A postbaccalaureate certificate could also be developed if necessary.
Online courses are ideal for working professionals and some of the MPEM curriculum could
be adjusted to fit the recommended requirements. Although the requirements will not be
changed for several years, Tech should start to prepare now. Non-degree seeking students
are often looking for online courses for various reasons and would also take advantage of
these offerings.
A suggestion was made that the Engineering Department Heads look at current courses and
begin the process of developing the curriculum for the proposed graduate certificates by
Fall 2008. The Graduate School will organize a meeting to discuss these opportunities with
interested Departments.
Figueira
Major goals were discussed as were the campus-wide ranking of goals in terms of importance
– 1,4,2,3,5,6.
Figueira will be looking for more input from the Research Advisory Committee and the
Graduate Council as this process evolves.
The goal dates need to be adjusted and Abbott was asked to take this issue to the
Chancellor.
It is important to provide annual progress reports to the Chancellor regarding each goal.
The source of income must also be included for each goal.
Abbott reported that the Governor’s Office is extremely interested in an inter MUS
collaboration on energy issues and that this should be included in Tech’s Strategic Plan.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Figueira
The American Indian Graduate Program renewal proposal has been sent to the Sloan Foundation. We
are working with University of Montana to continue this generous scholarship for Native American
students and will report the outcome in the near future. Six students have been engaged by the
program to date.
Minutes submitted by Cindy Dunstan