Date: August 19, 2022
To: Members of the UAMS Graduate Council
From: Dr. Antiño Allen, Chair
Subject: Graduate Council Meeting Minutes – August 15, 2022
Members Present: Drs. Antino Allen, Lin-Xi Li, Patricia Cowan, Clare Brown, David Ussery, Lisa Jansen, Melanie MacNicol, and Isabelle Miousse
Members Absent: Drs. William Fantegrossi, Melda Onal, Frank Simmen, and Andrew James
Non-voting Members Present: Drs. Robert McGehee, Latrina Prince, and Allyson Douglass (Recorder),: Jewel Banik (GSA President)
Approval of Minutes from the Previous Meeting:
Dr. Melanie MacNicol started the meeting by asking for approval of the October 2021 minutes. The October Graduate Council minutes were approved.
Administrative Items:
Dr. Robert McGehee
Dr. McGehee welcomed everyone back for the 2022-2023 year and the new members to Graduate Council as well. He shared that in the upcoming months we would be transitioning to in-person meetings again as things permitted, hopefully before the end of the year.
He shared that it was time for Dr. Melanie MacNicol to step down as Chair so voting for a new Chair would need to happen before the meeting adjourned.
Dr. McGehee shared that the deadline for Annual Assessments was coming up and that Program Directors should have received an email from Dr. Prince regarding this. If anyone had questions, they could reach out to her about that and she will work with them on this year’s assessments.
Dr. McGehee shared that this year’s ADHE Assessment Review was for Regulatory Sciences Certificate Program, and that he and Dr. Prince would be working with the program for that review. He shared that the College of Nursing, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy have all gone through the assessment virtually the past two years and they went really well, and we anticipate that these years will be the same.
Dr. McGehee shared that we will continue to vote for faculty and curriculum approval via email as that has worked well in the past.
He also thanked Ashley Pike for serving as the Graduate Student Association President for the last two years and her involvement with it since COVID and thanked the new GSA officers for their involvement during Graduate School’s New Student Orientation held this Fall.
Dr. McGehee reminded everyone that this year’s Research Induction Ceremony would be held on Monday, September 12th, beginning at 3pm in the Fred. W. Smith Auditorium, 12th floor of the Spine Institute and that everyone was invited. A small reception would be held after the ceremony.
Since three of the outside speakers that Dr. McGehee had reached out to are hesitant to attend, and some of the universities that would typically bring students cannot commit to attending, Career Day for Biomedical Sciences is turning into Career Day Seminars this year. They will be centered around career development. The first speaker is one of the Graduate School Alumni and is coming to speak from the FDA. The seminars will be approximately an hour long with the speaker talking for 30 minutes and then taking career questions for the next 30 minutes. We will have 20th anniversary t-shirts made and the seminar series will have three speakers in the Fall and three in the Spring and will be held in-person. Stay tuned for more details.
Dr. Latrina Prince
Dr. Prince shared that she would send an update regarding the new policies that were put in place over the summer.
She also reminded everyone of the vaccine requirements and about the 30-day period for students to satisfy them or be withdrawn from their courses. She shared what the university is doing regarding working with students on this.
Report from the Graduate Student Association (GSA)
Jewel Banik is the President for this year.
Jewel shared a slide that introduced all of the new officers of the GSA this year. He shared that they will have their first meeting in September, and will host it either on the 3rd Thursday or Friday of each month. As an incentive to have students attend, the Graduate School has purchased new Graduate School shirts and students who attend the meeting can pick up a shirt after they attend the meeting at the Graduate School Office.
During their first meeting they want to get ideas from the students regarding events and programs that they might be interested in for the year and try to get some dates set for these.
They have also been helping the new students settle in that have arrived.
They will also be working on a mentor program for new students and currents students to be paired up while they are studying here.
Old Business:
No report.
New Business:
Voting for the new Chair of Graduate School was held. Dr. Antiño Allen was nominated to be chair by Drs. Clare Brown and David Ussery. It was approved by the Graduate Council members with no opposition.
Dr. Allen shared about Student Research Day, which will be held on March 7th, 2023. The idea is that students will be on campus for research and those who can’t travel will be able to participate. Dr. Allen will be sharing more information about this in upcoming meetings.
Committee Reports Curriculum Committee No new business.
Faculty Committee No new business. Program Assessment No new business.
Academic Senate
Academic Senate has added information about upcoming meetings, events, and their previous events and meetings on their website now. All information can be found at academicsenate.uams.edu.
Dr. Linxi Li is our current Academic Senate rep and we need an additional one. Drs. Ussery and Brown are already a part of Academic Senate so someone else from the Graduate Council will need to serve. This will be discussed at a later meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.