Date: May 10, 2021
To: Members of the UAMS Graduate Council
From: Dr. Melanie MacNicol, Chair
Subject: Graduate Council Meeting Minutes – April 19, 2021
Members Present: Drs. Boris Zybaylov, Joshua Phelps, Antino Allen, Melanie MacNicol, Lin-Xi Li, Gunnar Boysen, Margarete Kulik, Clare Brown, Frank Simmen, Andrew James, Patricia Wright
Members Absent: Drs. William Fantegrossi, Jerry Ware, David Ussery, and Mohammed Elfaramawi Non-voting Members Present: Drs. Robert McGehee, Latrina Prince, and Sylvia Stewart (Recorder) Non-voting Members Absent: Ashley Pike (GSA President)
Approval of Minutes from the Previous Meeting:
Dr. Melanie MacNicol started the meeting by asking for approval of the March minutes. The March 16, 2021, Graduate Council minutes were approved.
Administrative Items:
Dr. Robert McGehee
Dr. McGehee began the meeting by expressing that he is excited about the faculty and new courses to review. Dr. McGehee announced that the Convocation/Commencement will be Thursday afternoon, May 13th at 4:30
p.m. He shared that he will send more emails as we approach the Convocation/Commencement date. He also announced that we want to encourage as many faculty members and students as possible to attend. Dr. McGehee shared since there were no new suggestions for new ideas, he will probably host the commencement from his office and replicate what was done last year. Dr. McGehee will personally take the graduate participants a bottle of champagne and have a virtual toast at the end. Dr. McGehee announced that if any students who graduated anytime from last summer through the end of this summer, encourage them to participate as well. Dr. McGehee shared that although this will be a formal event, it will be up to the students on how they participate. Dr. McGehee announced if the students want to dress in the full cap and gown, be hooded by their mentor, and express their appreciation, this was acceptable.
Dr. McGehee announced that he is hopeful that we will return to some form of normalcy this fall. In anticipation of this, Dr. McGehee announced rooms have been reserved and dates have been set for the Graduate School’s big three fall events. The Research Induction Ceremony and Fall Reception will be Monday, September 13th at 3:00 p.m., held on the first floor of the IDW building. Dr. MacGehee announced that we will have our annual Career Day this year. Career Day will be an all-day event on Thursday, October 14th, and held
on the 10th floor of the Stephen Spine Center. Dr. McGehee announced although last year would have been our 20th anniversary, this year will be the 20th Career Day anniversary since last year’s event was canceled. He shared that we will try to invite as many alumni in various positions to speak. Dr. McGehee announced that the Holiday Reception will be Thursday afternoon, December 9th. Dr. McGehee announced that all three events are Class Blackouts; all-day October 14th and from 3:00-5:00 p.m., September 13th and December 9th. Dr. McGehee announced that classes cannot be held and exams cannot be given during these Class Blackout dates.
Dr. McGehee asked Dr. Kulik about COPH’s plans for fall in regards to holding face-to-face classes. Dr. Kulik shared that there were still ongoing discussions on whether classes will be face-to-face. Dr. Kulik shared that there has been some discussion about holding classes in a hybrid way, have classes in person, and having the classes accessible for the student who wants to join by zoom.
Dr. McGehee shared that two meetings ago the UA Board of Trustees voted to have all UA systems schools return to face-to-face classes this fall if possible. Dr. McGehee announced how impressed he has been with the things the Provost has done throughout the pandemic. Considering the institution-wide mandate, she has left the individual management of the colleges up to the Deans, which has worked well for the Graduate School. We are strongly encouraging incoming students to get the COVID vaccine with hopes that at the minimum we will be under less stringent rules in terms of how to meet. Dr. McGehee stated that although uncertain, he heard things such as 3 feet instead of 6 feet, wearing masks, etc. Dr. McGehee stated unless something unforeseen happens we should be able to have a very large number of face-to-face classes again this fall.
Dr. McGehee shared that he attended several virtual nursing doctoral dissertations around this time last year and suggested that we figure out how to make all dissertations in the future accessible virtually even if they are live events. Dr. McGehee shared he felt safe stating that the attendance has at least doubled since we have been doing a virtual dissertation and participation has been good.
In closing, Dr. McGeehee shared that the Graduate School programs have always been and still are accredited through the HLC and the North Central Association. Whatever we did for ADHE was always adequate in terms of the Graduate School, however, this is no longer the case. We had to make all sorts of changes and worked on this for about two and a half years which came to a head last fall when every program did the full self- assessment. COPH has been doing the self-assessments. Dr. McGehee shared how everyone stepped up with developing self-assessment plans and that they got documented and sent to the Provost. Dr. McGehee shared that according to Dr. Sterba we still have not received our written results from the HLC site visit that was done back in February, however, the exit interview went well. Dr. McGeehee shared that two of the big things that affected the Graduate School were the self-assessment plans and the syllabi. Dr. McGehee acknowledged that the Program Directors and Course Directors stepped up over the last year. Dr. McGehee acknowledged how everyone stepped up in doing their part during the HLC site visit in regards to the self-assessments plans.
Dr. McGehee shared that we have to follow up every year with the self-assessments. These self-assessment plans will make the 5-7 year assessments that we do for ADHE a lot easier. The assessment plans for each
program are far more extensive than what ADHE requires. This will mitigate the efforts that we have to duplicate for ADHE and that particular year’s self-assessment. Dr. Zybaylov asks what were the next deadlines for self-assessment. Dr.McGehee shared that the self-assessment is done usually once per year.
Dr. Prince shared that Dr. Sterba mentioned that one of the big things HLC will look at is the actual data from the self-assessments that we just recently developed at the next visit. Dr. McGehee shared that the self- assessment is done annually and that we will have data from this and each of the programs had data from the last couple of years. This will just be an extension of what we are doing now. Every other year we report to the Provost with the data. Dr. McGehee stated by the time the next HLC accreditation comes up we will be able to show them, we won’t have to do any additional work and we will just let them see the data that we have. Dr.
McGehee shared that we will be reminding the Program Directors annually since the self-assessments are now part of our culture. Dr. McGehee stated this can be tied to the strategic measures of the Vision 2029 project. Dr. McGehee shared that one of the things that he learned particularly with GPIBS, there was nothing in the self- assessment plan that we weren’t already doing. We just weren’t doing it formally and not on paper. We were doing all of the things like meeting with students, doing surveys, and following up, however not in a formalized fashion.
Latrina Prince
Dr. Prince shared that there were some issues with Microsoft Outlook and the Graduate distribution list that we are currently working on. This week we lost access to our Graduate School email archives and we are trying to work with IT to get that resolve. We are being transitioned to the new Microsoft 365 for email and SharePoint services. As a result of this transition, students may not be getting the messages from the Graduate School. Dr. Prince asked if we send an email to the Graduate Students and Graduate Faculty to please share the email with the students. Dr. Prince shared that the Graduate Faculty members seem to be getting the email but not the Graduate Students. Dr. Prince shared that Dr. McGehee discovered this issue a few weeks ago. Dr. McGehee shared that he was sending emails to students back in January; however, the students were not receiving them. Dr. McGehee shared that we don’t have control over the list. Some of the existing full-time students have fallen off the Graduate School distribution list. Dr. McGehee shared that the email issue is still not fully resolved. Dr. McGehee received an email from IT to try and test the email however his email is completely messed up due to Microsoft Office 365 transition. IT will wait until Dr. McGehee’s issue with his email is resolved before they try the test again.
Report from the Graduate Student Association (GSA)
No Report.
Old Business:
No report.
New Business:
No report GUS
No report IPE
No report.
Committee Reports
Curriculum Committee
Dr. Simmen shared that Dr. Prince emailed four courses that were voted on but did not know what the results were. Dr. Prince shared that the courses were approved. There were two for Biomedical Informatics and two for the Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) program. Dr. Prince received three votes for approval for each course out of five members. Dr. Simmen asked for a motion to approve the four courses. The members who were present voted to approve these four courses.
Dr. McGehee expressed his appreciation and acknowledged Dr. Brown’s assistance with the courses for the CTS program.
Faculty Committee
Dr. Boysen shared that two faculty members have been approved since the last meeting. Dr. Prince shared the following names of the new graduate faculty members approved since the last meeting: Yong-Chen William Lu(COM Pathology), Jun Ying(CHP Biostatistics), Ruofei Du (CHP Biostatistics), and Diana Escalonavargas (COM Pediatrics). Dr. Boysen asked for a motion to approve the new graduate faculty members. The members who were present voted to approve these new faculty members.
Program Assessment
Dr. Zybaylov announced that there was no action taken from the Program Assessment Committee. Dr. Zybaylov shared that considering the time, there is not much to do. Dr. Zybaylov shared that a few of the responsibilities of the Assessment Committee is communicating with the Program Directors and that he would like to review the self-assessments that are already in place. Dr. McGehee shared that the self-assessments are available. Dr. Zybalova stated that there was no other business.
Academic Senate
Dr. Boysen announced that the Academic Senate election will be approaching soon and encouraged all faculty members to participate in the election. Dr. Boysen shared that the House of Delegates decided to review the Constitution of UAMS to redefine each member’s role. Right now there is a committee in the Academic Senate trying to look through the Constitution. Dr. Boysen shared that the biggest change is to do anything officially has to be voted, although not practical because not all faculty members show up. Dr. Boysen shared that there is a discussion that possibly in the future only elected faculty may be Senate members. Another discussion is that Academic Senate will maintain a direct line to the Provost, the Chancellor, or the Board of Trustees. Right now the chain of command is kind of not described in the Constitution.
Dr. Prince shared that there was an email that went out for two volunteers to serve as representatives for the Graduate School on the Academic Senate. There was one volunteer, Dr. Li, however, there is still a need for one more volunteer. Dr. James and Dr. Boysen reminded everyone that they were rotating off of the Academic Senate. Dr. James stated that we can vote later if new people join the Graduate Council in the fall or wait until the Graduate Council is reconstituted since the Senate does not meet over the summer. Dr. McGehee shared that we try to have at least one volunteer come from the Graduate Council. Since Lin-Xi has agreed to serve we can get one at large and find someone from the faculty who would like to participate. Dr. McGehee announced that it would be fine if someone from the Graduate Council wants to volunteer. Dr. McGehee stated that he thought it was a good idea to find a junior faculty member who would like to volunteer to start getting some experience and interacting with faculty from other colleges. Dr. MacNicol suggested leaving the discussion open to find another volunteer to represent the Graduate School on the Academic Senate until the fall.
Dr. MacNicol asked if there were any other items to discuss. There were no other agenda or other items to discuss, so the meeting was adjourned.
Adjourned at 1:38 p.m.