Members Present: Drs. Lin-Xi Li, Patricia Cowan, Clare Brown, David Ussery, Lisa Jansen, Melanie MacNicol, Isabelle Miousse, Melda Onal, Frank Simmen, Andrew James, Gregory Robinson, and Brooke Montgomery.
Members Absent: Drs. Mohammed Orloff, and Nirmala Parajuli.
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. Antiño Allen started the meeting with by asking for the approval of the August 2022 minutes. The August Graduate Council minutes were approved.
Administrative Items:
Dr. Robert McGehee
Dr. McGehee introduced everyone again since we had almost full attendance at this month’s meeting and some new faces joining us, along with some returning faces.
Dr. McGehee shared that this year’s Research Induction Ceremony was held on Monday, September 12th, in Fred. W. Smith Auditorium, 12th floor of the Spine Institute and had good attendance and went incredibly well. Faculty, students, and family attended, and we had 27 students that ended up being coated. The reception afterwards was great and lasted until almost 5:00pm and we ended up having 75 people join on Zoom.
Career Day this year will look a bit different with it being a Career Development series starting in October. The speakers will be Dr. Adrian Land from Proctor and Gamble (October), Dr. Shraddha Thakkar, GPIBS program alumni, from the FDA (November), and Dr. Brock Sichc who is the Cancer lead at NASA (December). More details are to come for the talks and t-shirts are being made for the event. The speakers will fly in, give their talk, have lunch with some students, dinner with some students and possibly faculty, and then fly out the next morning. These talks will be held during lunch time and grab and go lunches will be available for the first 40 attendees.
Dr. McGehee asked for any other faculty to let him know if they have speakers and such that might be good to come to UAMS and share, or if they are already coming to speak at a class or in a program, to let him know.
Dr. Andrew James had questions regarding the Arrest Policy that has been put in place for students. Dr. Prince will follow up during the next Policy meeting and will report back.
Dr. Prince and Dr. McGehee shared information regarding the internal GC committees. Now that new members have joined, internal committees were formed and each member joined a committee. Each committee then selected a chair.
Committee Reports
Curriculum Committee
Curriculum Committee for 2022-2023 is:
Frank Simmen
Melda Onal (chair)
Clare Brown
Lisa Jansen
Lin-Xi Li
Nirmala Parajuli
Faculty Committee
Faculty Committee for 2022-2023 is:
Gregory Robinson
Melanie MacNicol
Brooke Montgomery
David Ussery (chair)
Andrew James
Isabelle Miousse
Mohammed Orloff
Program Assessment
The purpose of this committee was to develop a program assessment plan template for the Graduate School. Now that the template is developed and in use, this committee is no longer needed and will be removed from the agenda and website.
Academic Senate
Dr. Li shared what was involved with Academic Senate and Dr. Claire Brown shared why we need to have two faculty member representation in the Senate. Dr. Melanie MacNicol self-nominated to be the second representative for the Graduate School. Drs. Lin-Xi Li and Melanie MacNicol are the Academic Senate reps for 2022-2024.
Dr. Li gave an update on what was discussed at the last Academic Senate meeting.
Other Business
There was a question regarding Dr. McGehee’s retirement and future plans for a search committee. Dr. McGehee mentioned that there were no updates and more information regarding this would be coming soon.
The sharing of courses between the UAMS Graduate School and UARK Graduate School was discussed. Dr. McGehee gave an update on the status of course sharing between the two campuses.
There was no other business to discuss; therefore, the meeting was adjourned.
The meeting adjourned at 2:20 p.m.