Minutes of Graduate Council

November 18, 2004
3:30 p.m.
Cashion, Room 303

Larry Lyon, Presiding

Members present at Waco campus:
Dwight Allman; Stacy Atchley; Tom Bratcher; Susan Bratton; Gary Brooks; Marion Castleberry; Robert Cloud; Betty Conaway; Diane Diaz (for Deborah Johnston); Baudelio Garza; Kenneth Hafertepe; Robert Kane; Manzanares, Carlos; Karen Mittendorf (for Gary Carini); David Music; Lynn Norwood (for David Garrett); Jerry Park (for Carson Mencken); Bob Patterson (for Bill Bellinger); Robert Ray; Stuart Rosenbaum; David Schlueter; Ron Stanke; Patricia Wallace; Richard Watts; Ken Wilkins

Others present at Waco campus:
Diane Brittain; Sandra Harman; Laine Scales; Chip Tate; Elizabeth Sands Wise, Ken Wilkins

Dallas Location:
Pauline Johnson

San Antonio Location:
Shonna Mulkey

Dr. Bob Patterson gave the invocation.

Dr. Lyon acknowledged that the 2006 requests for stipend and tuition funds have been received in the Graduate School. He is reviewing the requests and preparing to communicate his recommendations with the administration. He feels that the level of funding from 2005 will be continued and that hopefully some increases can be made. The funding for academic programs will have priority. He hopes to notify the departments/programs early in January, 2005, of their awards.

Dr. Tom Bratcher, Graduate Program Director of Statistics, explained to the Council that now that the Department of Statistical Science has been established, they want to change their degree from a Master of Arts to the more appropriate, Master of Science. This change is consistent with other statistics programs in other universities. Dr. Bratcher recommended that the Council approve the change; Dr. Susan Bratton seconded it. The Council approved the change to a Master of Science for the Statistics degree.

The November issue of The Baylor Magazine featured graduate education and Dr. Lyon had several copies that he distributed. He made the point that graduate education now "has a seat at the table" and has gained visibility and credibility within the University.

Dr. Ken Wilkins presented information about the travel awards that are available to graduate students. These travel awards are designed to help graduate students attend professional meetings where they will participate. A master's student may receive $150 and a doctoral student may receive $300. A graduate student is eligible for one award per fiscal year (1 June through 31 May of the following calendar year). During one fiscal year, the awards reached $27,000. Even with the monetary restraints the Graduate School and Dr. Lyon are committed to continuing this program. Information regarding the travel awards may be found at the following web address:

http://www.baylor.edu/graduate/index.php?id=2855

Dr. Wilkins also mentioned to the Council members that they might want to check the information regarding their program at Gradschools.com. It is important that there is correct information at that site about each graduate program.

The Graduate School would be glad to help be a clearing house for grant support for graduate students. Dr. Wilkins asked that if the members have specific ideas on how the Graduate School could help with this, that they should email him or Dr. Lyon.

Dr. Lyon introduced Dr. Laine Scales, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Professional Development, who is a new member of the Graduate School administration. Dr. Scales stated that currently her main job was to prioritize the special projects that she is planning. She asked the members to fill out both sides of the questionnaire that she had passed out which relates to a graduate student orientation. The Council members gave some specific ideas of items that could be included in the orientation (health insurance, thesis/dissertation guidelines, etc.)

Dr. Scales hopes that the orientation that the Graduate School and the Graduate Student Association would sponsor in the fall would present information that is needed by all graduate students and therefore free the departments from having to cover that same material in their departmental orientation. Any ideas regarding what would be a good topic to cover in the orientation should be sent to Dr. Scales. Dr. Scales hopes that the Graduate School and the departments can cooperate to make this a successful program.

The format of the orientation is under consideration and presented some different scenarios of how the day could be handled. She welcomes input from the members and their departments.

The class, GRD 6301-Teaching for Graduate Students will be taught in the spring, 2005, as Dr. Scales mentioned. Any doctoral student is eligible to take this class and the Graduate School pays for the tuition, but not any additional fees that are incurred. Any student who is interested should contact Diane Brittain (Diane_Brittain@Baylor.edu).

Dr. Lyon explained to the Council that the exit survey can be customized for each department and may be of assistance for the self-study assessment.

The newest member of the Graduate School staff, Elizabeth Sands Wise, Assistant to the Director of Recruitment and Academic Technology was introduced by Dr. Lyon. Because she works closely with Chip Tate, she has been a great help with the viewbook and new brochures.

Chip Tate gave each Council member a copy of the "just off the press" viewbook for Arts and Humanities. This project has now been completed and soon work will begin on the viewbook for the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Then next year the viewbook will be for the physical sciences will be started.

The newly revised on-line application is now "live" and working. Mr. Tate showed the new application via a PowerPoint presentation. One feature of the application is that it can be customized for each department to fit their needs. If there are changes that need to be made on the application the graduate program director should contact Chip Tate.

Scholars' Day will be February 4, 2005, and Mr. Tate reminded the members that there are limited recruiting funds available that can be used to bring prospective student to the campus. The members should contact Mr. Tate in a timely way to make a request for these funds. He also passed out a sample of a schedule of events for a recruiting weekend that could be used as a pattern for planning for the weekend preceding Scholars' Day.

The meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m.