Graduate Council
November 16, 2007

Meeting Minutes

I. Opening Remarks and Lunch
Dr. Larry Lyon called to order the regular meeting of the Graduate Council at 12:00 p.m. on November 16, 2007, in the White-Beckham Room of the Bill Daniel Student Center.

II. Attendance
Graduate Council Members Present: Lee Bewley, Rodney Bowden, Anne-Marie Bowery, Tom Bratcher, Mary Brucker, Marion Castleberry, Robyn Driskell, Steve Dworkin, Douglas Ferdon, Charles Garner, David Garrett, Baudelio Garza, Skip Gill, Kenneth Hafertepe, Barry Hankins, Chris Kearney, David Music, Randall O'Brien, Robert Ray, Maxwell Shauck, Ronald Stanke, Amanda Sturgill, David Sturgill, Michael Thompson, Joseph White, Walter Wilcox.

Substitutes and Visitors Present: Craig Clarkson, David Clinton, Lydia Cooper, Chris Hansen, Leslie Jones, Mike Parrish, Tiffany Turner, Sasha Usenko, Laurie Wilson, Colin Witt.

Graduate School Deans Present: Denny Kramer, Larry Lyon, Laine Scales, Ken Wilkins.

Unable to Attend: Dwight Allman, Bryan Brooks, Gary Carini, Nick Coppola, Gary Elkins, Ann Grediagin, Christopher Marsh, Josef Moore, Mary Nichols, Bill Pitts, David Schlueter, Paul Stoneman.

III. Presentation of Outstanding Graduate Teaching Awards
Dr. Laine Scales announced the winners of the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Awards for fall. A short introduction was given for each student before Larry Lyon presented her with a plaque. Each student was also awarded $200. The award recipients were Lydia Cooper (English), Leslie Jones (Mathematics), and Tiffany Turner (Chemistry and Biochemistry).

IV. The State of the Graduate School
Larry Lyon delivered the State of the Graduate School speech highlighting improvements in GRE scores, application processing time, travel awards, pedagogy, new programs, and residential community for graduate students. Future challenges were mentioned including funding a larger graduate enrollment, offering more competitive packages, and assessing graduate programs.

V. Break-Out Groups
Grad Council members were divided into four groups in order to discuss the use of program profiles for assessment purposes. Two groups discussed Master's programs and two discussed Doctoral programs.

VI. Business Session
Two proposals for new degrees were presented to the Graduate Council:

ISY PhD – Tim Kayworth gave an overview of the proposal: Dorothy Leidner is the proposal initiator and developed the workings of this program to produce high-quality doctoral students. The program conforms to the goals of Vision 2012. Baylor's ISY program is currently in the top thirty in research productivity. The new PhD program would give Baylor higher visibility in the academic community. Two paying students per year are expected. The next steps are to: 1) develop a marketing plan to get the word out, 2) to develop relationships with other PhD programs and 3) discover how technology is changing the disciplines.

Q: Can you give us some idea about some of the other PhD level classes in the curriculum?
Kayworth: Our field is so cross-functional; within ISY we currently have four or five existing PhD programs serving as support areas – Education, Psychology, Religion, Philosophy™. ISY is not about wires and running faster, but more about how technology relates to different groups and societies.

Q: How many students?
Kayworth: First year – 2 paying students and 2 students funded by Baylor. Second year – the 1st year students will take classes with the 2nd year students.

Q: Do you think that existing people in the field already might have an interest in applying?
Kayworth: In our field, most go into teaching/research, but not industry.

Q: Could the classes you're teaching also be used by other departments?
Kayworth: Yes, by all means. Seminars will have a maximum size.

Further discussion after Dr. Kayworth left the room –

Q: Didn't Dr. O'Brien say that there was a limited source of resources?
Ken Wilkins: Yes, but the money is available to fund it; because it was an approved MSP.
Lyon: The program will be funded, added to the grad school budget, as long as they meet the metrics.

VOTE: unanimous, all in favor.

* * * * * * *

Doctoral Degree program for the Institute for Ecological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences (TIE3S) – Joseph White spoke about this interdisciplinary program: We realized four or five years ago that the sciences are changing and students need to be educated as cross-discipline thinkers. There are environmental issues, and chemistry and geology are primary, but other disciplines are important too. Our program would be the first to try to accomplish this cross-disciplinary depth in a student. We were approved to fund three students over the next ten years.

Q: Have you considered the placement of your students down the road?
White: It depends on the department, but there are jobs out there specifically for these types of students.

Q: Any statistics courses involved?
White: Yes. High expectations set™advanced statistics.

Q: Will you be accepting any students directly from Bachelor's programs? White: Yes, a few exceptional ones, but most will be required to have a Master's degree and research experience.
White: Teaching Assistants will be distributed across the different departments. Growth in the program is dependent on externally funded students.

Q: How long will the degree take?
White: Four to five years for a doctoral student.

VOTE: unanimous, all in favor.

VII. Report Backs
Suggestions from Master's Table #2:
a. Add in the number of applicants; easy to measure applicant quality, pass rate/credentials.
b. Add the number of TORs; also add tutoring rates.
c. Measure external funding, internal funding, development/donor, internal savings (in-kind contributions and community service).

Suggestions from Master's Table #1:
a. Make sure measures don't favor doctoral programs.
b. Job placement after graduation may be a significant measure – Was the graduate placed within six months? Did the graduate get in the kind of program he wanted?
c. Not sure that graduation rate is a good measure – we don't always know what we're getting.
d. Interview graduates' employers for satisfaction rating.

Suggestions from Doctoral Table #3:
a. We may need to distinguish between sciences and humanities.
b. The best comparison may be between other colleges, same departments, rather than against other departments within Baylor.
c. The number of student publications and the number of presentations and abstracts should be considered.
d. We agreed that the GRE is one metric.
e. The number of TORs and lab TAs and student consultants should be considered.
f. Track-record and improvement should be considered.

Notes (Lyon): We have now developed an instrument to measure lab TAs. The evaluation decile would be based on the results of this instrument. Track record is important. What we really want to see is metrics going up no matter how they compare nationally or locally.

Suggestions from Doctoral Table #4:
a. Grad students are providing a valuable service. Those teaching a course should be added (amount of tuition dollars generated) to total department stipend cost per student.
b. Remove mixed (master's) data.
c. Consider amount of time in program.
d. The exit survey is biased – we need an outcome measure which is pro presentation.

VIII. Closing
Larry Lyon adjourned the meeting at 4:00 p.m.

Minutes submitted by: Anna Henderson
Minutes approved by: Larry Lyon