University of Nevada, Reno Graduate Council

Meeting Minutes, March 13, 2003

Members Present:

Stacy Burton, Chair and A&S, Humanities

James Winn, A&S, Fine Arts

Dana Edberg, Faculty Senate Representative

Brent Bowman, Business

Kathryn Obenchain, Education

Jeri Bigbee, HCS

Jeff Thompson, A&S Science

Peter Krumpe, Medicine

Richard Davies, A&S, Fine Arts

Banmali Rawat, Engineering

Scott Tyler, Mines

Members Absent:

Linda Brinkley, VP for Research and Dean of the Graduate School

Marsha Read, Associate Dean of the Graduate School

Jennifer Greer, Journalism

Rangesan Narayanan, Agriculture

Marilou Woolm, President, GSA

Michael Peters, recorder

Susan Henthorne, GSA Advisor

1. The Chair called the meeting to order at 1:30 and directed that the standing reports proceed with all motions deferred pending a quorum.

Standing Reports

2. GSA Report: Henthorne reported that the Food Pantry was up and running and providing canned food and food vouchers to graduate students in need.

3. C&C Report: Burton reported (via report from Jennifer Greer) that the C&C committee had reviewed a proposed MATH 767 course and had decided to change it to a 600-level course.

4. A quorum was attained at 1:38 and the Chair invited a motion to approve the previous meeting’s minutes. MOTION (Tyler/Winn): That the previous meeting’s minutes be approved with the change of correcting the spelling of the provost’s name. Motion passed unanimously.

5. Role of Graduate Council: Tyler distributed a draft of guidelines regarding the role of the Graduate Council. Discussion ensued. Issues discussed included advocating the Graduate Council as a proactive resource to assist graduate programs in conducting program reviews as opposed to sitting in judgment of reviews after they’ve been completed; making an effort to reconcile disparities in data as maintained by the Graduate School and graduate programs; acting as a focal point in responding to external review findings and recommendations; and being more instrumental in moving to close weak or failing programs and elevating and supporting successful ones. Tyler agreed to prepare another draft of the guidelines taking into account the Council’s discussions and invited members to forward additional comments or suggestions to him for inclusion in the second draft.

6. Graduate Catalog subcommittee: Bigbee distributed the subcommittee’s report recommending the Graduate School pursue the creation of an on-line of a graduate catalog. Issues discussed included ensuring there was a “catalog of record” so that students have a record of their program’s requirements at the time of their admission; finding the human resources to maintain and update the catalog; and the difficulties of standardizing format of presenting information for each graduate program. MOTION (Bigbee/Davies): That the Graduate School use the subcommittee’s report as an advisory document in developing a graduate catalog. Motion passed unanimously.

7. Faculty Senate: Edberg reported that the Senate had voted to accept the ad hoc committee’s recommendation rejecting certain aspects of the President’s proposed reorganization. Edberg added that this does not mean reorganization is “dead” but the recommendations will be reviewed by the President and Provost. She reported that there will not be an external review of the reorganization plan. Additionally, there will be special faculty senate meeting on May 1, 2003 regarding reorganization. Davies asked that the faculty senate request from the President’s office a report that had been previously available detailing sources of all external funding so the faculty senate could more accurately determine the specific funding sources for each academic unit/program.

9. There being no further business, the council adjourned at 3:00. The next meeting will be Thursday, April 10, 2003 at 1:30 in the Alan Bible room of the Getchell Library.