BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY
MINUTES OF THE October 20, 2008 MEETING OF THE GRADUATE COUNCIL
PLACE:
Couper Administration Building, Room 148
PRESIDING:
Nancy E. Stamp, Vice Provost and Dean of the
Graduate School
MEMBERS:
David Campbell, Michael Conlon, James Fang, Mark
Fowler, Christof Grewer, Robert Guay, William Haver,
William Heller, Sarah Lam, Wendy Martinek, Weiyi
Meng, Andrew Merriwether, Susan Pollock, MariaTeresa Romero, Olga Shvetsova, Pamela Stewart
Fahs, Marilyn Tallerico, Lindsay Tremain, Diane
Wiener, Denise Yull, Jessie Kapasula, David Gutman
EX OFFICIO
MEMBERS:
Dara Silberstein, Stephen Gilje, Lindsay Tremain
GUESTS:
Jennifer Jensen, Rebecca Howard
EXCUSED:
ABSENT:
David Campbell, Christof Grewer, Susan Currie
Jacques Beaumont, Tom McDonough, Nan Zhou
I. CALL TO ORDER:
Vice Provost and Dean Nancy Stamp called the meeting to order at 3:00 pm.
II. MINUTES:
The minutes of the September 15, 2008 were approved as written.
III. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Academic Standards Committee
Academic Standards Committee met on October 16th, 2008. The following two issues
were discussed: 1) Setting standards for our teaching assistants. There are national
concerns about improving preparation and training of teaching assistants. The
committee agreed that the goal for the academic year should be to develop a template
that suggests the standards for preparation and training of teaching assistants. This will
be a year long process as the committee continues to discuss this topic and takes into
consideration feedback from Graduate Council. 2) Development of the 3-year bachelor
degree for European Union applicants. The Bologna Process refers to the meeting of
the European Union nations trying to come together so students can move across
Europe from one institution to another and take courses and have their degree credits
count. The European Union is moving to a 3-year baccalaureate, 2-year masters, and 3year doctorate. Students coming to the U.S. with a 3-year bachelor’s degree was of
some concern to some USA Universities. So, the National Council of Graduate Schools
conducted a survey to find out how graduate schools across the country are handling
applicants with the 3-year baccalaureate degree. The data show that nationally there
does not seem to be a problem with this concept. Departments handle this on an
individual basis by looking at each transcript to see if it makes sense to take that student
into their program. Departments track each student to see how well they are doing.
Advisory Committee for Scholarship and Research
Associate Vice President Stephen Gilje announced that the first meeting will be held on
October 30th. The committee will be discussing the review of the Provost’s
interdisciplinary program for conferences.
Budget Advisory Committee
This committee will be meeting in the near future to decide on graduate travel awards.
Curriculum Committee
The Curriculum Committee met on October 13th. They discussed the Professional
Science Management (PSM) Certificate proposal and approved it. The Professional
Science Management Certificate is part of a response to a Sloan Foundation Grant that
Binghamton received from SUNY-system. The NRC, the Council of Graduate Schools,
the NSF, and the America Competes Act all support the PSM concept of the science
management field. A motion was made to approve this certificate and all were in favor.
The second item on the agenda was Master in Student Affairs course proposals. This
new program has not been approved by the State Education Department yet. These
course proposals are being offered now so that the Student Affairs Program will be
“course ready” when the program is approved. There was some concern over how the
course descriptions of the proposals were written. Sharon Holmes, the director of
Student Affairs, will be asked for more descriptions of the course proposals.
The final item that the committee discussed was the LOI for a graduate program in
writing studies. It was agreed to approve the LOI for Graduate Council’s review.
Rebecca Howard, Director of the Writing Program, and Jennifer Jensen, Associate Dean
of Harpur College, gave an overview of the LOI. Professor Conlon expressed his
support of the program and his approval of moving forward with the LOI. Associate
Dean Jensen explained how this program would fit with the undergraduate writing
initiative conducted by Harpur College. Professor Howard explained that the discipline
in thinking of writing and rhetoric as a scholarly discipline is relatively new. It is only in
the last 50 years that this has begun to emerge as something other than a sub-specialty
in English. There was a question about the costs for the writing program. Dean Stamp
responded that Dean Nieman was at the Curriculum Committee Meeting and expressed
the importance of the program and how it would give Binghamton a strong graduate
program where there is a national need. So it made sense to proceed with the LOI, but
we can only go as fast as we have the money for it, so it depends when the resources
are available. The idea is to submit the LOI to SUNY now so we are first to get approval
for such a program. A question was raised regarding TA lines for the undergraduate
writing initiative. Associate Dean Jensen stated that there would be stipends for
Teaching Assistants, just like other programs on campus, and some money to hire
instructors for the writing courses. Dean Stamp explained that there will be a shifting of
resources within the university’s undergraduate writing initiative for TA lines.
There was a motion to remove the LOI from “tabled” status and submit it to SUNYsystem. The motion was passed to move the LOI on to SUNY for its approval. All
approved the motion.
NEW BUSINESS
Dean Stamp gave an update on the law school proposal. Last year, the University
submitted a LOI to SUNY-system, which was approved, and campus approved a formal
proposal. There are extra steps involved with the law school. At this point, the
university is waiting for approval to amend its master plan, as well as SUNY’s approval
of the external reviewers, a list of well-respected Deans of Law Schools across the
country.
IV. ADJOURNMENT:
The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 on a motion by Professor Conlon and seconded by
Professor Olga.
_____________________________
Minutes recorded by Cheryl McGowan,
Secretary to the Vice Provost and Dean
of the Graduate School