Meeting Minutes - December 13, 2007

1. The minutes of the November 8, 2007 meeting were reviewed and approved.

2. Announcements:
• Dean Keller notified the Council members that the fall round of SIF applications have been reviewed and departments are being notified.
• The Deans and a small group of Council members met on November 29 with President Mason to update her on the mission of the Graduate College. They were encouraged by her support of graduate education and her recognition of its importance to a research I institution.
• The Provost and the Board of Regents have approved the name change of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology to the Department of Communication Science and Disorders. The Graduate Council’s input was not solicited since no change in the names of the graduate programs was requested.
• Deans Keller, Wurster and Berkowitz attended the Council of Graduate Schools meeting December 5-8 in Seattle. All attended the luncheon to honor the CGS/UMI outstanding dissertation winners. Michael Chasar, the University of Iowa’s nominee and CGS winner in the Humanities, was recognized and spoke. Dean Keller also attended a session on the National Research Council Survey of Research Doctorate Programs. The ranking report due to come out in February has been delayed until the end of spring/early summer due to the enormity of data to be analyzed.
• A reception to honor the winners of the Graduate College Outstanding Mentor Awards was held on November 28 at the Museum of Art. The nomination criteria followed the disciplinary rotations of the D.C. Spriestersbach competition; so this year, nominees were from the Biological/Life Sciences and the Humanities/Fine Arts. The Graduate College was very impressed with the strength and number of all the nominations and decided to select two winners in the Humanities as well as to give two special recognition awards. Winners were Karen Farris (Pharmacy), Mary Lou Emery (English) and Judith Liskin-Gasparro (Spanish & Portuguese, Second Language Acquisition). Special Recognition Awards went to John Peters (Communication Studies) and Myron Welch (Music).
• A Graduate Faculty Meeting was held on November 27 in 140 Schaeffer Hall. The proposals needing graduate faculty action were for changes to the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College as it pertains to the readmission policy for graduate students who have let their registration lapse and to the voting policy for action items presented to the graduate faculty allowing the option of an electronic vote. Both items came to the graduate faculty with the full support of the Graduate Council and after brief discussion both were approved. More information can be found on the Graduate Faculty website at: http://www.grad.uiowa.edu/FacultyStaff/Meetings/GradFacMtg112707.pdf
• The remodeling of the Graduate College offices in the basement of Gilmore Hall is complete. The Graduate Council will meet in the new Callen Conference Room (Room 5) beginning with the February 14 meeting.
• Ben Galluzzo informed the Council that the Graduate Student Senate is writing a resolution in support of degree majors being added to diplomas. Dean Wurster credited the increased flexibility that comes with the new MAUI Student Records system which will allow this change. Before going further with proposing the change to the Registrar’s Office, Dean Wurster was anxious to get the support of the students; thus, the importance of the resolution.

3. Associate Dean Gardinier updated the Council on recent activities of the newly reorganized Postdoctoral Scholars Advisory Committee. The University of Iowa has been recognized as providing an excellent environment for postdocs as reported in The Scientist – the #1 research university for postdocs in North America (2007). Still improvements are needed to ensure uniform opportunities and benefits across campus. Members of the advisory committee include faculty from the Colleges of Engineering (Greg Carmichael), Liberal Arts and Sciences (Amnon Kohen), Medicine (Gail Bishop), and Pharmacy (Mike Duffel), and the Director of WISE (Chris Brus). In addition, two postdoctoral trainees, Drs. Lisa Baye (Biological Sciences) and Erik Rader (Molecular Physiology & Biophysics), are serving on the committee. One additional postdoctoral researcher may be added. The charge of the advisory committee is to review the current environment and identify areas for improvement and recommend actions to effect these improvements. Dean Gardinier plans to have the committee meet with the ombudsperson, survey the postdoc population, and review postdoctoral offices administered by our peer institutions. They will consider implementation of the AAMC compact, annual career development plans, a postdoc handbook, and a campus-wide professional development series. Our postdoctoral scholars should receive ongoing feedback and mentoring, and it is important to raise the visibility of our postdoctoral researchers across campus, to facilitate effective networking opportunities for them, and to institutionalize some best practices.

4. Associate Dean Wurster sought further discussion on the Graduate College policy requiring that one member of the doctoral final exam committee must be a member of the graduate faculty from outside the major department. This requirement has become very difficult to police as it has become more common for faculty to have 0% appointments in multiple departments. Under the current policy, a 0% appointment in the major department would disqualify the faculty member from being considered an outside member. A previous concern was that some committees without an outside member would become a “rubber stamp” of the dissertation. A form was developed for departments to list all faculty member appointments. However, the Graduate College is bringing the issue back to the Council because some departments still are gaming the system. Although the College believes in the concept of an outside committee member, it questions whether the College is the place to enforce it. Associate Dean Wurster presented information on the outside committee member requirements at other institutions in the CIC. Seven CIC institutions require an outside member (including Iowa), and 5 do not. In a related issue, he noted that the majority of the CIC institutions require that the committee be made up of only four members, not five. The Graduate College desires that students have the best committee possible and that the committee appointment process has integrity. Several options were discussed. One was to allow each department to decide on their requirement and enforce it. Another was to continue the Graduate College requirement but define the outside status by primary appointment only. In both cases, the Graduate College would still appoint the committee. Dean Wurster asked the Council members to send him their recommendations on the issue via email.

The meeting adjourned at 9:45 a.m.