|
University Archives of Virginia Tech |
Virginia Tech
Governance Minutes ArchiveSeptember 15, 1993
MINUTES VPI&SU COMMISSION ON GRADUATE STUDIES AND POLICIES 15 SEPTEMBER, 1993 3:30 P.M. 206 SANDY HALL Present: Drs. Boyle, Eaton, Eustis, Eyre, LaBerge, Merola, Mitchiner, O'Brien, Richard Oderwald (as substitute for Dean Stauffer), Olin, Orcutt, Peters, Smith, Ms. Joyce Bohr (Rep. for Staff Senate as well as substitute for Richard Wokutch), Mr. Ken Kahn, Mr. Tim Schell, Mr. Dan Waddill Absent with notification: Burger, Stauffer, Wokutch Absent: Boles, Brooker-Gross, Haney, Jeanes, Nolan, Stout, Torgersen Visitors: John Aughenbaugh - Student Affairs Coordinator from the Vice President for Student Affairs Office Susan Trulove - Spectrum Representative Marvin Foushee - Registrar's Office Representative 1. ANNOUNCEMENTS- Dr. Reginald Mitchiner introduced himself to the CGS&P membership as the elected chairman for the 1993-94 academic year. He then asked that each member introduce themselves and state their affiliation. Dr. John Eaton referred to a handout that was circulated regarding enrollment comparisons. He pointed out there are 1077 new masters students and 191 new doctoral students on campus. He also stated that our total enrollment is down about 70 students and our doctoral enrollment is down by 60 students. Black student enrollment has increased. There have been 230 parking permits issued to GTAs. Some concerns have been expressed by GAs with similar duties to the GTAs and these concerns will probably be examined by the Graduate Student Assembly. Dr. Mitchiner stated that the Course and Program Criteria Committee will have it's first meeting next Wednesday, September 22 at 3:30 in 117 Randolph Hall. INFORMATIONAL HANDOUTS - Committee Assignments; 1993-94 Membership listing; and a Enrollment Comparisons listing. 2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA - Approved as distributed. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF 21 APRIL 1993 - The minutes were approved as distributed 4. STATE OF THE COMMISSION REPORT - Dr. Mitchiner stated that the chairman from last year, Dr. Michael Sporakowski, had emphasized the need for the new chairman to review the "State of the Commission" to identify where the commission stands on issues at the beginning of the year and to recount the experiences of the previous year. Dr. Mitchiner reviewed the charge of the commission. The CGS&P is one of the commissions that reports directly to the University Council. The chairman of this commission will sit on the University Council and take the minutes of this commission, as well as resolutions that have been prepared by the CGS&P, to become part of the policy structure of this University. The charge of this commission as it appears in the University Council Constitution reads as follows: "The charge is to study, formulate and recommend to University Council policies and procedures concerning on and off-campus graduate academic matters. Areas for consideration include: admissions, academic progress, degree requirements, commencement, registration and scheduling, curriculum, courses, advising and instruction, teaching and research, financial assistance (including assistantships, scholarships, fellowships and tuition), library resources and other matters affecting the graduate student academic environment." In order to accomplish this mission the commission organized around a number of committees. COURSE AND PROGRAM CRITERIA COMMITTEE - this committee has, as one of it's major responsibilities, the review of new and revised courses and degree programs. The criteria to be considered in the review process include compliance to established guidelines and procedures, potential overlap and conflict with other courses and programs, academic quality and relevance, and resources needed and available supporting courses and programs. This committee is also responsible for other issues relating to graduate education as deemed necessary by this committee, the chair of the CGS&P, and as advised by the Dean of the Graduate School, ie. departmental name changes, professional and graduate degree credit management and revision of course proposal guidelines. In the 1992-93 year, that committee, in addition to dealing with a number of courses, dealt with a resolution that has gone on to UC relating to the approval process of courses and programs. Also, that committee, with CUS and the Registrar's Office, dealt with the guidelines relating to course proposals. There are six items that the committee brought forward to this year. Four of them relate to course proposals, one item relates to the name change for the Agricultural Engineering Department, the other item relates to the joint graduate program between the Civil Engineering and Forestry Products departments. This committee will be chaired by Professor Michael O'Brien from the College of Architecture. All elected faculty representatives will be members on this committee. GRADUATE STUDENT RELATIONS - the charge for this committee is to serve as a recognized channel by which graduate students at large can gain access to the administration. This committee receives white papers from the Graduate Student Assembly and examines, in detail, proposals which may directly concern graduate students (such as health care, registration, continuous registration and others). Last year this committee considered the parking situation relating to graduate students. The assistantship offer letters that are sent to prospective graduate students were also examined. This committee recommended to this commission that we go on record favoring some form of parking differentiation for graduate students. The establishment of special parking for GTAs has also been implemented. This year it is hoped that the committee will access how effectively this GTA parking process is going forward and what kinds of things should be brought before the commission for change. The standard assistantship offer letter sample was developed by the committee and the use of this sample was recommended throughout the University. Along with this sample letter was a recommendation was that there be a follow-up mounted with respect to the departments to determine the extent to which this offer letter is being utilized. An additional item to be included in this follow-up is, when there are negative responses from prospective students, a determination of the reasons for those negative responses. GRADUATE APPEALS - last year the committee evolved a policy/procedure relating to graduate appeals. That procedure went through the approval process and is now in place. DEGREE REQUIREMENTS, STANDARDS, CRITERIA AND ACADEMIC POLICIES - this committee's charge is to provide a review of on-going degree requirements and evaluate the standards and criteria by which the graduate programs are limited. That committee, last year, looked at the revision of policy related to late drops as the result of receiving a proposed resolution from the President of the Faculty Senate. The items that remain for review are: strengthening the Ph.D. examining committee and procedures (influencing or providing for graduate school or outside membership on the final examining committee and matters relating to that); recently implemented Policy Memorandum 126 and what kinds of things this commission needs to do to re-address the issues from that memorandum. Steve Boyle from Veterinary Medicine served as chairman of that committee and continues to do so for this year. GRADUATE RESEARCH POLICIES AND PROGRAMS - the committee produced a report that has been superseded. The committee charge is to evaluate existing graduate research programs and recommend policies governing the fiscal needs of these programs that aide in the development of overall graduate research policies. Dr. Eaton stated that he has made changes to the overall report and hopes to have it ready for the next meeting. SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE (AD HOC) - That committee, last year, reviewed the Cunningham Award procedures and Instructional Fee Scholarships as well as dealt with the increase in funding level available for minority graduate students. There is a need for two new ad hoc committees. Ad hoc Nominations Committee for Chairman Elect Bob Smith - Chairman Dave Orcutt Peter Eyre Ad hoc Catalog Committee John Eaton Dean Stauffer Jim Burger Joyce Bohr The chair of the Catalog Committee will be decided at a future date. 5. GRADUATE STUDENT ASSEMBLY REPORT - Tim Schell stated that the GSA officers met this summer and formulated an agenda for the year. He briefly stated these agenda items: (1) educational issues on the value of graduate education, (2) publicity of programs, (3) faculty/graduate student relationships, (3) international/domestic student relationships, (4) handbook with helpful hints for graduate students, (5) on-line computer system that will allow graduate students access and identify other students with similar interests. Ken Kahn and Tim Schell will be meeting Saturday 9/18 in Charlottesville with counterparts from around the state to look at ways to promote graduate education throughout the state. On September 21, 1993 will be a voter registration drive from 9:00-3:00. On September 23, 1993 will be the first general meeting of all delegates. October 6, 1993 will be the date of the Graduate Fair. 6. DEAN LEONARD PETERS ADDRESS TO THE COMMISSION - Dean Peters stated that he joined Virginia Tech on August 1, 1993 to begin his tenure as Vice Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School. He stated that he had been reading a book called "Remembering the University of Chicago" written by Edward Shields and in the foreword Mr. Shields talks about the value of graduate education at his institution. Dr. Peters quoted, "The faculty would not have been nearly as good if the students whom they taught were not as good as they were. By good, I do not mean uniformly brilliant and original, what I mean is their capacity for hard and persistent work....... The students were more demanding towards their teachers than compared to other places that he had been associated with. When the students are more demanding intellectually, teachers are more responsive intellectually to the expectations of the students." Dr. Peters stated that he felt that this was a viewpoint that we all share but that it helps to have it reinforced by people from other institutions. One thing that was very evident, relative to the quality of graduate students at Virginia Tech, when he was interviewing for this position, was the state of affairs of graduate student stipends. He (Dr. Peters) realized that one of the things that needed to be addressed quickly was the issue of competitive stipend levels. Tuition, summer tuition, stipend issues were all items that needed to be addressed. John Eaton and Martha Johnson spent a lot of time during this past summer gathering information regarding stipend offerings from other institutions and answering the questions: What do other institutions do in regard to summer tuition? Could we quantify the discrepancy between where Virginia Tech is and where we think we should be? In order to get this data, we surveyed 27 institutions. The results were as follows: 15 provide full tuition assistance, a large majority required students to pay tuition in the summer (however, the students that were supported were accommodated again with a tuition scholarship or waiver). We also selected the 60th percentile as a goal for graduate student support. In order for Virginia Tech's graduate students to achieve the 60th percentile each student would need an increase of support of $3,800.00. The appropriations request for the biennium budget proposes a three year strategy to bring the stipend level up to the 60th percentile. In year one, there is a request $2.175 million would be included in the approximately $4,000,000.00 that currently are available for tuition support. We would use those funds to provide tuition scholarships for all GTAs and GAs. There are currently 1,215 GTAs and GAs. The first advantage of putting this request in as tuition scholarships in the first year is that these funds are not taxable. The second advantage is that research assistants who are supported on sponsored activities have to be treated in the same way - the advantage of this is that when proposals are prepared, which include graduate research assistants, tuition will be included as well as the stipend. The tuition scholarship item will fall into the category where indirect costs are not charged. The second year of the biennium we are proposing a $1.215 million to put a $1,000.00 stipend supplement on each particular GTA and GA and in the first year of the following biennium there would be another $1,000.00 stipend supplement. At the same time, we have proposed that graduate student increases be tied, percentage wise, to faculty salary increases. Dr. Peters also stated that he felt that it is time to think about the strategy of having a formal locked in stipend scale. He thinks it provides some advantages to the departments, however, in some departments it has limited their competitiveness. One of the things he thinks would be valuable for this commission to consider is how do we want to move ahead with stipend scales and it is important that these studies be closed linked with the Commission on Research. We want to make sure that tensions are not created by giving departments more flexibility. Dr. Peters stated that he has some concerns that if we don't make stipend adjustments, our research programs and graduate programs are going to suffer in the long term. He noted that he has begun departmental visits spending time to discuss research and graduate education problems such as tuition issues, stipend scales and competitive stipends and how it has effected their programs. His goal is to visit all departments by the end of the year. In closing, Dr. Peters stated that one of the things that attracted him to Virginia Tech was the good environment for doing interdisciplinary research. He also asked the commission to consider how should interdisciplinary graduate education should be approached; do we do interdisciplinary graduate education as well as interdisciplinary research. Are there interdisciplinary graduate education initiatives that should follow on from the research that is occurring? What are the mechanics of beginning such programs? After a brief question and answer period, Dr. Mitchiner thanked Dr. Peters for his information and thoughts and continued on with the next agenda item. 7. UNIVERSITY LIBRARY REPORT - Joanne Eustis asked the membership whether they would want only a report on previous minutes of the University Library Committee meetings or whether they would be interested in relevant issues involving the library. It was decided that she provide the minutes as well as substance information from the library. Her report will be a carryover item for the next meeting. 8. ADJOURNMENT - 4:48 p.m. Respectfully submitted, John L. Eaton Secretary
VT History | Digital Library and Archives | Special Collections | University Archives
Send questions or comments to:
Tamara Kennelly, University Archivist
University Libraries
Virginia Tech
P.O. Box 90001
Blacksburg, VA, 24062-9001URL: http://spec.lib.vt.edu/minutes/cgs/1993/September+15++1993.html
Last modified on: Tuesday, 25-Sep-2001 13:57:20 EDT