Date: April 6, 2021
To: Members of the UAMS Graduate Council
From: Dr. Melanie MacNicol, Chair
Subject: Graduate Council Meeting Minutes – March 16, 2021
Members Present: Drs. Melanie MacNicol, Joshua Phelps, Boris Zybaylov, David Ussery, Gunnar Boysen, Andrew James, Frank Simmen, Lin-Xi Li, Clare Brown, Patricia Wright (Martha Rojo)
Members Absent: Drs. Antino Allen, William Fantegrossi, Jerry Ware, Margarete Kulik, Mohammed Elfaramawi
Non-voting Members Present: Latrina Prince and Sylvia Stewart (Recorder)
Non-voting Members Absent: Dr. Robert McGehee and Ashley Pike
Approval of Minutes from the Previous Meeting:
Dr. Melanie MacNicol started the meeting by asking for approval of the November minutes. The November 16, 2020, Graduate Council minutes were approved.
Administrative Items:
Dr. Robert McGehee
In an email, Dr. McGehee shared from the Provost Office that the HLC site visit went well. We have received formal comments but the exit interviews were excellent. Dr. McGehee thanked everyone including the program directors, faculty, and students who helped with the visit and made it successful. He also recognized all those who were part of getting the program assessment together and acknowledged that the sessions went well. Dr. McGehee stated there was a huge amount of effort by every program to pull this off and wanted to say thank you to everyone.
Dr. McGehee stated that we are continuing virtual with everything through the end of the semester; classes, dissertation defenses, etc. We are still working under electronic submissions for graduation and dissertation/thesis defense documents for graduates (this may be something we retain post-COVID as it has made the process less angst generating). Dr. McGehee mentioned that there have been no decisions about summer or fall classes or events yet. Hopefully, we can be face-to-face by the fall semester. Dr. McGehee also mentioned that this summer there are going to be a few programs able to meet under appropriate COVID guidelines.
Dr. McGehee confirmed that Commencement is canceled; however, the Graduate School will have a virtual ceremony where family and friends can hood graduates. Dr. McGehee also shared that last year’s virtual commencement ceremony went well. He welcomes suggestions for improvement or new ideas, and asked the committee to share any other ideas with Drs. Prince or McGehee.
Dr. McGehee stated one of our programs is considering changing the doctoral committee meeting report that is required for Ph.D. candidates at least twice a year, but this can be discussed at the next meeting.
Finally, Dr. McGehee expressed how hard it was to believe that it has been one year since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. He shared a summarized quote from a friend saying “it was a first anniversary recognizing twenty years of work, effort, and angst,” to which he agreed. Dr. McGehee ended by thanking members of the Graduate Council for helping us get through the pandemic and adding a year to their service on the Graduate Council.
Latrina Prince
There have been a few changes to some of the policies that have been reviewed since the last meeting. A new policy on incomplete progress grade is currently being reviewed. They are trying to be consistent campus-wide on how incomplete grades are being recorded and reported. The current policy in the Graduate School is when a student receives an incomplete, students will then have until the next semester enrolled to make up the incomplete. If the grade is not replaced before the next semester, the student will receive an F for the class. UAMS is working on a campus-wide policy regarding incomplete grades.
Dr. Prince shared that Workday has been postponed for another year which includes HR, SAP, and GUS. The Human Resources part of Workday was supposed to roll out this summer, but has been changed to July 2022.
Dr. Prince reminded everyone that Commencement will be virtual this year since the in-person Commencement ceremony has been canceled. Dr. Prince also shared that the Virtual Commencement went well last year. The other events such as Research Induction and Career Day are still being decided on. The Spring Reception has also been canceled. The SURP program will be held this summer with a limit of 10 students. All the seminars will be virtual and the students will be allowed to attend the labs in person for a few hours during the week to work one on one with the mentor.
Report from the Graduate Student Association (GSA)
No Report.
Old Business:
No report.
New Business:
No report
GUS
Dr. Prince reported that all colleges will soon begin to schedule classes in GUS. The current process requires all colleges to send course scheduling spreadsheets to Latrina who then forwards them to Nadine in the registrar’s office. Someone from the GRS will now be trained to open and close classes in GUS and to change course instructors in GUS when needed. This process will be easier for scheduling classes in the future.
Dr. Prince shared that the Graduate School will also be putting academic advisors and committee members in GUS. A lot of the things that have been handled through the registrar’s office will be sent back to the Graduate School, so we will also have more control over how things are processed in GUS.
IPE
No report.
Committee Reports
Curriculum Committee
Dr. Prince shared that the Curriculum Committee reviewed and approved a couple of course changes for Biomedical Informatics. The specific change was to remove a pre-requisite on two of the courses. Dr. Prince emailed the requested changes to the curriculum committee with the new syllabus. The committee reviewed and voted by email to approve the changes. Dr. MacNichol asked for a motion to approve with the Curriculum Committee a vote to allow the curriculum changes for Biomedical Informatics. The members who were present voted to approve the curriculum changes.
Faculty Committee
Dr. Prince shared an update on all the new faculty members who received graduate faculty status since the last meeting. Dr. MacNichol asked for a motion to approve the new faculty members that have been approved by the Faculty Committee since the last meeting. The members who were present voted to approve these new faculty members.
Program Assessment
Dr. Prince reported that there is finally a program assessment template that has been finalized. In January, all of the programs used this template to submit their assessments to the Provost Office. Moving forward, all program assessments will be submitted once a year and housed in the Graduate School office. There will be a meeting with the Provost every two years to review the program assessments. A suggestion was made to allow the program assessments to become due after the academic year. Dr. Brown asked what was included in the program assessments. Dr. Prince explained to the Graduate Council the purpose of the program assessments: to assess student learning outcomes.
Dr. Prince reported that committee chairs were not chosen for the current GC subcommittees. Dr. McGehee selected Dr. Frank Simmen for the Curriculum Committee since we needed someone to meet with the HLC visitors. Dr. MacNicol asked the members if they wanted to choose committee chairs. Dr. Gunner Boysen agreed to Chair the Faculty Committee, Dr. Boris Zybaylov agreed to Chair the Program Assessment Committee, and Dr. Simmen agreed to continue as Chair of the Curriculum Committee. Dr. Prince will update the website with the new chair assignments for each sub-committee.
Academic Senate
Dr. Andrew James reported that the committee will be electing new representatives this year. During the pandemic, Dr. Andrew James and Dr. Gunner Boysen have served as Graduate School representatives. They have been representatives for three to four years now. Dr. James explained the process for soliciting nominations to elect representatives for the Graduate School. Dr. Boysen stated he has been the Graduate School’s representative under the Academic Senate for a long time and is happy to give up his seat to allow others to get experience and responsibilities.
Dr. MacNichol expressed that the Graduate Council enjoyed having Dr. Andrew James and Dr. Gunner Boysen serve as representatives for the Academic Senate. She asked Dr. Prince to send an email to the Graduate Council members asking if anyone would like to self-nominate to take these positions. Dr. MacNichol asked Dr. Andrew James when the nominations should happen. Dr. James explained the timeline for electing representatives. This year, the Academic Senate will select a new President-elect, secretary, and member at large. Dr. James stated if there is anyone interested in any of those positions to get in touch with him and he will get them connected with the right persons. There will be an email soliciting nominations for those officer positions as well as college-level positions.
There were no other items to discuss. The meeting was adjourned by Dr. MacNicol.
Adjourned at 1:35 p.m.