Meeting Minutes - April 24, 2008

1. The minutes of the April 10, 2008 meeting were reviewed and approved.

2. Announcements
• A Directors of Graduate Studies Meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 30, 2008 from 3:00-4:15 in S401 PBB.
• A Graduate Faculty Meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, May 8, 2008 from 3:30-5:00 p.m. in the Senate Chamber of the Old Capitol. The agenda can be found on the Graduate College website at http://www.grad.uiowa.edu/FacultyStaff/GradFacAgenda050808.asp. All four agenda items are going to the Graduate Faculty for their consideration with the full support of the Graduate Council. Council members are encouraged to attend if possible to aid in the discussion.
• A joint Graduate Council/Research Council Meeting has been scheduled. (Addendum: Date and time of this meeting has been changed from May 20 (11:30-1:30) to May 13 (12:00-2:00 p.m.). The meeting will be held in S401 PBB.)
• Graduate Commencement will be Saturday, May 17 at 3:00 p.m. at Carver Hawkeye Arena.
• Associate Dean Wurster notified the Council that their vote via electronic ballot was unanimous in support of the proposed revisions to the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College concerning the membership of examining committees (section IX. P.) The proposed wording will next go to the Graduate Faculty for their consideration and action.

3. Associate Dean Gardinier distributed outcome data on the number of Dean’s Graduate Fellowships offered and accepted for fall 2008. Of the 73 nominations that were received, the Graduate College offered 60 fellowships. Forty (67%) of those offers were accepted, 28 to PhD students and 12 to Master’s students. Of those 40 students, 17 are Hispanic/Latino, 16 African American, 3 Native American, 2 Asian, and 2 Caucasian. If next year’s budget will allow, it was recommended that the College avoid decreasing the number of offers next year but build on this year’s success. Among the 20 fellowship offers that were declined, students elected to attend prestigious institutions for both professional and personal reasons.

Associate Dean Berkowitz then distributed outcome data on the number of Presidential Fellowships offered and accepted for fall 2008. The Presidential Fellowships provide funding for the 1st, 4th, and final year of study. The 4th year originally was an RA year, with the intent that the student work on his/her dissertation. That worked in the sciences but not always in the humanities when the student may be asked to do RA work for one of the faculty. The language was changed for clarification. Last year, the Graduate College received 137 nominations; this year the numbers were down by about 23% with 106 nominations received. Departments were limited to 6 nominations. Based on the acceptance average of 37%, 74 offers were extended to students applying to 37 departments/programs. Twenty (27%) of those offers were accepted. The primary reasons for students to go elsewhere were the prestige of the other institution or a better fit for the student. Students who declined indicated that our offer package was very competitive. The Graduate College has funds to offer partial support to two Presidential nominees per department to visit campus. A Council member asked whether the other CIC universities have similar programs and number of fellowships. Iowa is the smallest school in the Big 10 so probably has fewer fellowship programs. Iowa was described by one Council member as an institution that doesn’t recruit but informs. Council members suggested that the Graduate College (a) have conversations with departments who aren’t successful in attracting Presidential fellows to find out what might help, (b) make sure departments know what the package is; and (c) look at departments that are successful to find out what they are doing right when recruiting top students to their program.

Associate Dean Berkowitz next informed the Council that of the 34 nominations received for the T. Anne Cleary International Dissertation Research Fellowships, 31 were awarded. The committee was impressed with the quality of the applicants and $97,700 was distributed to these fellowships. Of the 57 nominations for the Ballard Seashore Dissertation Year Fellowships, 30 were awarded, 15 to students in the Humanities and 15 to students in the Social Sciences. Each award is for $18,000 for the academic year, plus $4,000 for the summer, plus tuition/fees and health insurance contribution. The intent of the Ballard Seashore is to receive the award during the student’s final year. The Graduate College is tracking completion rates to make sure these fellowships are accomplishing their goals.

Dean Keller announced that 21 Iowa Arts/Iowa Performance Fellowships were awarded to students in Art, Comparative Literature, Creative Writing, Dance, Nonfiction Writing, Theatre Arts, and Music. And finally, of the 185 applications for a Graduate College Summer fellowship, 135 offers were made, 110 of which were accepted. Students must be post-comp and registered for 0-2 sh during the summer. Students are only eligible to apply once.

4. Dean Keller distributed a copy of the February 2008 call for proposals for the Strategic Initiative Fund. Of the 29 proposals received by the February 15, 2008 deadline, 23 were funded for a total of $492,289. An additional $615,161 was allocated from the November 15, 2007 call for proposals, for a total of ~$1.1M toward the competitive SIF program. Another $1.5M was allocated to non-competitive strategic initiatives for such things as grant matches, diversity scholarships, or bridge funds to support students whose faculty are in between grants. In the future, the Graduate College hopes to decrease the amount allocated to the non-competitive portion in order to move more funds into the competitive SIF program. Dean Keller noted that the block allocation was reallocated (a) to meet mandated central administration reallocations, (b) to the SIF program and (c) to increasing the number of fellowships with more competitive stipends. Dean Keller announced that a memo will go out to all departments by the end of the week to notify them that there will be no June 2008 call for SIF proposals as the entire budget for the competitive SIF fund for FY09 has been expended.

The meeting adjourned at 9:40 a.m.