Meeting Minutes - February 1, 2007

 
1. The minutes of the January 18, 2007 meeting were reviewed and approved.

2. The following announcements were made:
• The Graduate College submitted a Department of Education McNair grant thanks to the efforts of Associate Dean Gardinier. It will dovetail with the SROP and IBA programs and increase the number of undergraduate students able to gain graduate research experience during the summer.
• The SIF letter soliciting applications for strategic initiative funds went out to programs last week. Block allocation memos went out yesterday and all fellowship solicitation letters will go out this week.
• COGS negotiations are nearing agreement. A final contract must be agreed upon by March 15 and will become effective July 1, 2007.
• The NRC Program Questionnaires are due today with the Faculty Questionnaires due February 15 in order to meet the eligibility criteria to be a rater, or they are due April 1 to be included in the assessment. Student Questionnaires have not been distributed yet and are not due until April 1.

3. Dean Keller provided some background information on an article published in the January 12, 2007 Chronicle of Higher Education about an index produced by Analytic Academics on faculty scholarly productivity. The index has gathered faculty scholarly output from nearly 7,300 programs across the country based on information found on the web and on publication and citation indices, and then it has ranked graduate programs based on that faculty productivity. The University of Iowa Graduate College had been approached to subscribe to the index at a cost of about $30,000 and for a number of reasons decided against subscribing. Iowa and other CIC graduate deans were also concerned with inaccuracies in faculty lists and in program titles and descriptions. Although faculty productivity is important, it is only one measure of the strength of a graduate program. However, Dean Keller did want to alert the Council members to the existence of the report.

4. Associate Dean Wurster made some introductory remarks on the proposal from the College of Nursing for a Doctorate in Nursing Practice degree. The degree has been driven by a change in the accreditation policy for advanced practice nursing programs. By 2015, no accreditation will be given at the master’s level. The College of Nursing wants to position its students as well as possible for the future, thus the DNP proposal was developed. Dean Wurster noted that other professional degrees (AUD and DPT) are housed in the Graduate College, thus it is not out of the ordinary to include the DNP under the Graduate College. Interim Associate Dean Hanson and Professor Clinton were invited to summarize the proposal and to respond to questions. They explained the need for the advanced training was due to a shift in nurse practitioner duties from an individual client to a group orientation. This change requires more of a systems-level approach to care. Course work has been added to address the systems approach which would add a full year, plus perhaps a summer, to the MSN in order to earn the DNP (total of 78 credits). Only a small percentage of all nurses are nurse practitioners, and they must already be licensed registered nurses. DNP degree graduates may become clinical faculty in the College of Nursing. Iowa is obligated to prepare nurses to meet the health care needs of the state and other Iowa nursing colleges can’t offer the DNP. The Graduate Council felt that it was a well developed proposal. A motion was made and seconded to approve the proposal as presented.  The vote to approve was unanimous.

5. A request from a student to work toward two PhD degrees was brought forward for consideration and action. Such requests are rare, perhaps one every 5 years. They have usually been for two complementary, not overlapping, programs, i.e., Speech Pathology/Audiology and Biostatistics. The current request is for a PhD in Religious Studies and in English. After reviewing the request, the Council felt they needed more information as to the student’s plan of study for English, a draft dissertation prospectus for each program, and a stronger letter from the DEO of Religious Studies. Associate Dean Wurster will relay this request to the student.

The meeting adjourned at 9:45 a.m.