Meeting Minutes - February 14, 2008

1.The minutes of the December 13, 2007 meeting were reviewed and approved.

2. Announcements:
• Dean Keller thanked the Council members who attended the January 24th forum with President Mason.
• A Directors of Graduate Studies meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, February 26 at 3:30 p.m. in W401 PBB. The agenda will be out soon.
• The solicitation letter just arrived for nominations for the 2008 CGS/UMI Outstanding Dissertation Award. The two disciplinary areas for this year’s competition are the Social Sciences and Mathematical/Physical Sciences and Engineering. An announcement to the campus will go out soon.
• The deadline for this round of SIF applications is Friday, February 15; and letters have gone out soliciting applications for the Presidential, Dean’s Graduate and Summer Fellowships.

3. Tim Paschkewitz, Jennifer Lee and Alexandra Nica, co-chairs of the Jakobsen Conference, updated the Council on the conference planning to date. The Jakobsen Conference is scheduled for March 28-29, 2008. The committee is very pleased with the record number (129) of abstract submissions. Eighty-two faculty have agreed to be judges and the abstracts have been mailed out already, allowing the faculty three weeks for their review and ranking. Fourteen Fine Arts and Performing Arts submissions have also been received. Highlights of the conference will be presentations by D.C. Spriestersbach and the 2007 D.C. Spriestersbach Dissertation Prize winners at the conference kickoff on March 28, a professional development workshop by Susan Johnson on “landing your first faculty position” on the 29th, and the award presentations at a wine and cheese reception at the Levitt Center the evening of the 29th. Emeritus Associate Dean Jakobsen also will be honored at that event. The tentative schedule can be found on the Graduate Student Senate website at: http://www.uiowa.edu/~gss/

At the request of a Council member and with the consent of the entire body, agenda item #6 (renaming of the graduate degrees in French) was discussed next.

4. The request from the Department of French and Italian to change the name of their graduate degrees in “French” to “French and Francophone World Studies” was distributed to the Council members with the agenda. The Council was very supportive of adding “Francophone Studies” to the degree name; however, the inclusion of “World” in the name was questioned. Among other concerns, the question was asked whether faculty from other programs such as Anthropology or International Programs had been consulted and whether there were plans on offering joint appointments. Another Council member reported that goggling “Francophone Studies” versus “Francophone World Studies” resulted in 31,800 hits for Francophone Studies versus 3 hits for Francophone World Studies. This made him question whether the proposed name did indeed reflect what is happening nationally. The Council asked for clarification regarding the rationale of the new name as proposed.

5. The Graduate Student Senate Resolution in support of adding the degree major to graduate diplomas was distributed with the agenda for Graduate Council review. Following the December 13, 2007 Graduate Council meeting, this possibility was brought up for discussion at a Graduate Student Senate (GSS) meeting. The senators were very supportive of the idea, especially for students earning more than one master’s degree. The inclusion of the major would distinguish one master’s field of study from the other. The GSS representa-tives on the Council summarized the discussion and noted that the GSS Resolution supports adding the major on the diploma as an option, so any graduate student who did not choose it could opt out. Since this option is due to the flexibility of the proposed MAUI system which may not be implemented for several years, there were unanswered questions as to when this option might be available and whether diplomas awarded prior to its implementation could be reprinted with the degree major added. Although not an action item, the Graduate Council was in support of this Resolution.

6. The Council next reviewed the proposal to change the name of the Master of Public Health (MPH) subtract in Policy and Administration to a subtrack in Policy. A letter of support from Professor Barry Greene, DEO in Health Management and Policy, was also reviewed. Council member Jones addressed the difference in the student population who would be served by the MPH in Policy versus the Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree. Students interested in administration are best served with the MHA degree. Students interested in health policy need the additional course work in policy that the proposed MPH Policy subtrack will offer. The Council members noted the rigor of the subtrack with the addition of 13 cr hrs, but it was in line with other professional master’s degrees. After further brief discussion, it was moved and seconded to approve the renaming of the subtrack and new plan of study as proposed. The vote in favor of the motion was unanimous.

7. The meeting was opened up to discussion from the floor. Some departments had approached one of the Council members asking that he bring up for discussion the need for more fellowship flexibility. The Presidential and Dean’s Graduate Fellowships, which are intended to help recruit outstanding students to campus, provide 5 years of funding starting with the first year. Other first year students are usually funded with TA or RA appointments; however, not all new students are ready for a TA or RA appointment at the beginning of their graduate study. It would be optimal if there was a fellowship available for those students. Dean Berkowitz did address the flexibility allowed within the existing fellowship programs. However, since the intent of the Presidential and Dean’s Graduate fellowships is for recruit-ment, reducing the number of those fellowships in order to offer some 2 year fellowships didn’t seem feasible. Dean Keller suggested that departments be encouraged to put forth innovative SIF applications to address their unique needs.

The meeting adjourned at 9:20 a.m.