University of Nevada, Reno Graduate Council

Meeting Minutes, February 28, 2006

Members Present:

Matt Leone, HCS and acting Chair

Marsha Read, Associate Graduate Dean

Aaron Santesso for Michael Branch, CLA-Humanities

Nicholas Tsoulfanidis for Victor Vasquez, Engineering

Donica Mensing, Journalism

James Sundali, Business

Tracy Veach, Medicine

John Nelson, COS

Ron Phaneuf, Faculty Senate

Ed Johnson, GSA President

Michael Peters, Recorder

Members Absent

Kathryn Obenchain, Chair and College of Education

Mark Brenner, Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School

Glenn Miller, Agriculture

Susan Henthorne, GSA Advisor

Duane Karna, CLA – Fine Arts

Stacy Gordon, College of Liberal Arts, Social Sciences

Guests

Jennifer O’Neil

1. The Chair called the meeting to order at 2:30 and invited the council to review the previous meeting’s minutes. MOTION: (Nelson/Veach) To approve the January 2006 meeting minutes. Motion passed unanimously.

New Business

2. Appointments of Graduate Council Liaisons for upcoming external program reviews. The Chair solicited volunteers to serve as liaisons and accepted the following for each of the subsequent programs:

Anthropology – Veach

Basque Studies – Santesso

Chemistry – Vasquez

Mathematics – Karna

Philosophy – Leone

Physics – Sundali

Standing Reports

3. Associate Dean’s Report: Read reported that at the latest Courses and Curriculum policy meeting the members were briefed on a useful new function of the Campus Advanced Information System (CAIS) which allows instructors to email all students in a class which can be useful in keeping students updated about their progress in the class or other important class information. Read also reported that Dr. Brenner’s GRE workshop would be repeated in March and April to update faculty on changes to the GRE. Changes include returning to a fixed testing schedule, changes in scoring scales, the verbal section concentrating more on reading comprehension to target critical thinking skills, and the quantitative section focusing less on geometry and more on algebraic functions. Finally, information about the Graduate School’s Dissertation Year Fellowship and Excellence/Diversity fellowships will be forthcoming.

4. Provost John Frederick arrived and received the program review reports from Veach on the Sociology program (see handout) and Henthorne (as reported by Read – see handout) on the Intensive English Language Center (IELC). The council and provost discussed the findings reported by the liaison members.

5. Faculty Senate Liaison: Phaneuf reported the Senate was reviewed their role in the evaluation of new program proposals with the idea of trying to streamline the process. Also, the proposed changes to the by-laws were now completed and offered to the faculty for a vote, ballots available on the Senate webpage. Many of the changes involved deleting language that simply duplicated the Code and aligning language to be in compliance with the Code.

6. Graduate Student Association: Johnson reported that Graduate Student Appreciation Week would be held April 17 – 21, 2006 and GSA was still looking for faculty to serve as judges for the poster/presentations competition. Also, that new GSA elections would take place by the end of March.

7. Courses and Curriculum: Read reported on the consent agenda (attached) approved by the subcommittee and recommended approving the agenda. MOTION: (Read/ Tsoulfanidis) Approve the C&C consent agenda as submitted. Motion passed unanimously.

8. There being no additional business, the council adjourned at 4:00. The next meeting will be held on March 28, 2006 at 2:30 in the JTSU Ingersoll Senate Chamber.