Minutes of Graduate Council

January 26, 2005
3:30 p.m.
Cashion, Room 303

Ken Wilkins, Presiding

Members present at Waco campus:
Dwight Allman; Stacy Atchley; Bill Bellinger; Gary Carini; Betty Conaway; Fridriksson, Lianne; David Garrett; Baudelio Garza; Steve Green; Mike Greenwood; Kenneth Hafertepe; Deborah Johnston; Chris Kearney; Carlos Manzanares; Robert Marks; Carson Mencken; Ken Park; Robert Ray; Stuart Rosenbaum; David Schlueter; Greg Speegle; Ron Stance; Peter Van Walsum; Ken Wilkins

Others present at Waco campus:
Walter Bradley, Diane Brittain; Mary Nichols, Laine Scales; Sherry Sims; Chip Tate

Dallas Location:
Pauline Johnson

San Antonio Location:
Glenn Yap (Health Care Administration)

Dr. Deborah Johnston gave the invocation.

Dr. Wilkins introduced the new Council members for this semester. They included Dr. Chris Kearney (Biomedical Studies), Dr. Ken Parks (Physics), and Dr. Peter Van Walsum (Environmental Studies).

Dr. Walter Bradley from the Department of Engineering presented the proposed joint degree, the Master of Engineering/the Master of Business Administration. Dr. Bradley explained that when students graduate with the present Master of Engineering degree they still need business courses. Within the undergraduate degree plan, there is no time to take business classes. This will be a two year plan and some electives may be substituted. The total number of hours required for this joint degree will be 66. No new courses or new faculty lines will be needed to implement this degree. Dr. Van Walsum mentioned that at Dartmouth they had a similar degree and it was very successful. The stipends will come from Baylor, but hopefully more research grants will be available.

The Council approved the joint degree, the Master of Engineering/Master of Business Administration. After Dr. Lyon signs, then the proposal will be sent to the Provost. If the Provost approves and signs, then he will take the proposal to the President. If the President approves, then the proposed degree will go to the Regents.

Dr. Mary Nichols, chair of the Department of Political Science, and Dr. Dwight Allman, graduate program director of the Department of Political Science, presented the proposed Ph.D. degree in Political Science. There will be several options for emphasis within this proposed degree. Those options would include political theory, political philosophy, American politics or comparative politics. A minor in Religion and Politics is also available. The emphasis of this degree would be on teaching. The proposed degree has a detailed plan for helping graduate students learn how to teach.

No additional resources will be needed for this proposed degree. Currently there are some faculty lines vacant and it is hoped that those will be filled. Also, this degree will have many interdisciplinary aspects.

The Council approved the Ph.D. in Political Science. After Dr. Lyon signs, then the proposal will be sent to the Provost. If the Provost approves and signs, then he will take the proposal to the President. If the President approves, then the proposed degree will go to the Regents.

Dr. Laine Scales presented data comparing evaluations of Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) who are teachers of record to full time faculty. Dr. Scales indicated that overall our graduate students do very well when compared to our fulltime faculty. For seventy percent of the courses there is no difference between the GTAs teaching and the full time faculty according to student evaluations. The GraduateSchool encourages departments to work closely with the graduate students who teach so that they are learning correct methods and also have a strong mentoring relationship with the faculty. Dr. Scales is available for consultation for GTAs with lower performance.

For the fall 2005 semester, Dr. Scales reminded the Council members that the orientation which is sponsored by the Graduate School will be different from previous years. For 2005, the full day (August 17, 2005) orientation will be held prior to classes beginning and will have various ‘tracks' or program areas that a student can attend during the day-long event.

Also, Dr. Scales has arranged for Dr. Eleanor Stump, the Cherry Teaching Award Recipient who is at Baylor this semester, to lead small group discussions during this semester. There will be publicity so that graduate students will be made aware of these opportunities. The first one is February 23 at noon.

Scholars' Day will be February 4, 2005, and there will be presentations in the Bill Daniel Student Center, in Castellaw Building (Communication Studies Department), Rogers Building (Engineering Department) and in Morrison Hall (Philosophy Department). The full schedule can be found on the Graduate School web page. Invitations for the lunch were sent to each presenter. Reservations are needed for the luncheon.

Mr. Chip Tate gave an update on the recruitment efforts for the coming semesters. There are some prospective students that will be coming for Scholars' Day; various departments will host prospective students at other times during the semester.

The on-line application is going well according to Mr. Tate. Minor "glitches" have occurred and they have been corrected. Various council members had questions about why admissions documents were taking longer than they expected to appear in Nolij Web. Dr. Wilkins and Mr. Tate assured them that the admissions team is doing their best to make materials available as quickly as possible, but that the Graduate School would continue to look for ways to improve efficiency wherever possible.

Dr. Wilkins announced that the stipend and tuition awards have been sent to the academic departments and supplemental stipends, including Presidential Scholars awards, will be available again this year.

On the Graduate School web page, the Dissertation and Thesis Guidelines can be found along with a current calendar of important dates for graduate students.

The meeting adjourned at 4:50 p.m.