Date: October 19, 2020
To: Members of the UAMS Graduate Council
From: Dr. Melanie MacNicol, Chair
Subject: Graduate Council Meeting Minutes – October 19, 2020
Members Present: Drs. Melanie MacNicol, Joshua Phelps, Patricia “Trish” Wright, Boris Zybaylov (Alicia Byrd), David Ussery, Gunnar Boysen, Andrew James, Antino Allen, William Fantegrossi, Jerry Ware, Lin-Xi Li, Margarete Kulik, Clare Brown
Members Absent: Drs. Frank Simmen and Mohammed Elfaramawi
Non-voting Members Present: Drs. Robert McGehee and Latrina Prince (Recorder)
Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting:
Dr. Melanie MacNicol began the meeting by asking for approval of the minutes from March 2020. The March 2020 Graduate Council minutes were approved.
Administrative Items:
Dr. Robert McGehee
Dr. McGehee provided an update on how COVID has affected the Graduate School: faculty, students, courses, dissertation defenses, etc. The spring semester may be the same with regard to mode of instruction for Graduate School courses; several courses are online with smaller classes meeting on campus. Approximately 30 master’s and PhD defenses have been facilitated via Zoom with no problems. Faculty attendance at these Zoom defenses seems to be higher than in-person defenses. Dr. McGehee asked GC members to convey to faculty in their area his appreciation for their support of Graduate students.
The summer research programs were canceled this past summer due to COVID. Dr. McGehee hopes to be able to resume the normal schedule for summer programs in 2021.
Three College of Public Health (COPH) PhD programs re-affiliated with the GRS this year: Health Systems and Services Research (HSSR, Dr. Clare Brown), Health Promotion and Prevention Research (HPPR, Dr. Margarete Kulik), and Epidemiology (EPI, Dr. Mohammed Elfaramawi). Representatives from each of these programs will now serve on Graduate Council and will join the current GC committees. Dr. Kulik will join the Program Assessment Committee, Dr. Brown will join the Curriculum Committee, and Dr. Elfaramawi will join the Faculty Committee.
REM asked all current GC members to extend their membership this year and serve one extra year. There were no objections to this request. The committees will remain the same for the 2020-2021 academic year.
An email was sent to the Faculty Committee today to review Graduate Faculty applications from the Clinton School. Dr. McGehee gave more details on the Graduate Schools ongoing collaborations with the Clinton School to further explain the requests for faculty appointments recently sent.
Approximately 45 COPH faculty who are now affiliated with the Graduate School through the HPPR, HSSR, and EPI programs received graduate faculty appointments over the summer. They also were added to the Graduate Faculty email distribution list.
Dr. McGehee commented on the recent Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) program reviews that occurred this year. The program review for Clinical Nutrition was conducted virtually via Zoom and everything went well. Dr. Josh Phelps was acknowledged for his role in making the review a success. There are no ADHE program reviews scheduled for next year.
The next topic of discussion was the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) program assessments. To meet the HLC requirement, all GRS programs will have to be reviewed annually to ensure program and student outcomes are being met. Program Director’s will work with faculty to complete the Program Assessment Template that was developed by the Program Assessment Committee. The first program assessment (evaluation) will be due on May 1, 2021. Dr. Josh Phelps has already completed the template for Clinical Nutrition. An example of the Program Assessment template was shared with GC. There will be an opportunity to assess use of the Program Assessment template after the first assessments are submitted and reviewed. Latrina will email the Program Assessment template to the GC and Program Directors.
Dr. McGehee then discussed collaborations with Dr. Jun Ying on a capstone course for the Clinical and Translational Science program. The course description, number of credit hours, mode of instruction, and other details were shared with the committee. A motion was made to approve the new course. The course was approved by the GC.
Dr. McGehee concluded by introducing new Graduate School staff: Mariel Garcia and Sylvia Stewart. Mariel Garcia is the new Director of Admissions and Sylvia Stewart is the International Student Advisor. Both are long-time UAMS employees. The Graduate School is excited to have them joining the team.
Latrina Prince
There have been several new and revised policies since the last GC meeting in March. Rather than spending a significant time reviewing all policy updates, Latrina will send a table with policy updates and links to the policies.
Report from the Graduate Student Association (GSA)
No report.
Old Business:
No report.
New Business:
Dr. McGehee introduced the new GRS staff: Mariel Garcia (Director of Admissions) and Sylvia Stewart (International Student Advisor).
Latrina reminded everyone that PPE packets are still available in the Graduate School. Dr. McGehee will pick-up some to keep in his office for faculty/students who need them.
Dr. Wright will send Graduate Faculty applications to be reviewed soon.
GUS
No report.
IPE
No report.
Committee Reports
Curriculum Committee
No report.
Faculty Committee
No report.
Program Assessment
No report.
Academic Senate
Dr. Andrew James gave a report on current activities. Academic Senate has been very busy with new policies and rebuilding committees. Employee retirement and parking are areas that have seen changes.
There was no additional information to discuss after the committee reports. The GC agreed to have meetings on the third Monday of the month at 1:00pm instead of 12p.
The meeting was adjourned by Dr. MacNicol.
Adjourned at 1:35 p.m.