Meeting Minutes - May 3, 2007

1. The minutes of the April 19, 2007 meeting were reviewed and approved.

2. The following announcements were made:
• A reception in honor of Associate Dean Barkan’s service to the University has been scheduled for May 10 in the Old Capitol Museum. All Council members are invited.
• Spring Graduate Commencement will be held at 3:00 p.m., Saturday, May 12, 2007 in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
• Dean Keller announced that the Physician Assistant Studies’ MPA degree will now be administered by the Carver College of Medicine. The program worked with the Graduate College, the Provost Office and the College of Medicine in making this transition. MPA students have always been graded using the College of Medicine grading scale. The MPA is a non-thesis degree and none of the students from the program have gone on to pursue further graduate studies. Johnathan Gajdos noted that the program had an active representative in GSS. He will talk with medical school colleagues to make sure MPA students are represented in the Grad and Professional Student Senate.

3. The request from a former PhD graduate from the University of Iowa for approval to pursue a second PhD degree was reviewed. His first PhD degree was awarded in 2002 in Applied Mathematical and Computational Sciences and he wishes now to pursue a PhD in Educational Measurement and Statistics in the College of Education. A strong support letter from the program and the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Graduate Programs in the College of Education accompanied the student's request. After brief discussion, a motion was made to approve the request. The motion was seconded and the vote in favor of the motion was unanimous.

4. Dean Keller distributed summary data indicating how the Graduate College met the University of Iowa 2005-2010 Strategic Plan target indicators as reported to the Board of Regents.
• Target #11: Number of graduate students winning national fellowships or awards. Indicator – 30 new awards in next five years. Response - That was surpassed both in FY06 with 39 new awards and in FY07 with 41.
• Target #12: Time to PhD degree. Indicator – decrease the average from 6.7 years to 6.4 years. Response - Time to degree has been reported over a 5 year period which is slow to show change. All PhD graduates for 2001-06 continued with the average TTD of 6.7, and median of 6.0. However on an annual basis the average decreased from 6.9 in 2001-02 to 6.7 in 2005-06 and the median likewise decreased from 6.1 to 5.9.
 • Target #16: Graduate assistant salary and tuition scholarship levels. Indicator – Increase to top third of peer group. Response – FY06, TA salaries at Iowa are 6 out of 11; RA salaries are 7 out of 11.
• Target #17: Graduate fellowships and scholarships. Indicator – Redeploy block allocation to support the recruitment of higher quality graduate students. Response – FY 07 is the second year of the 3 year process.
The Council suggested that using completion data with time to degree for an entering class would be a better way to look at trends than using time to degree only for those who have graduated. The Graduate College has collected completion data with time to degree for entering classes of 1996, 1997 and 1998. More completion data will be available via the NRC study which has targeted an 8 year completion time from entry.

5. Dean Keller distributed a review of Graduate Council activities for the academic year 2006-07. The review listed all the graduate programs approved by Graduate Council during the year as well as policy changes discussed and/or approved. Various collegiate projects related to graduate education were also reviewed during the year including the NRC Assessment of Doctorate Programs which is nearly complete. Dean Keller reported that 70-72% of our faculty responded to NRC’s Faculty Survey and over 50% of the students in the 5 pilot programs have responded to date. Students have until the end of June to submit their survey if they choose to participate. Dean Wurster updated the faculty on one policy item, discussion of “outside” member of examining committees, for which discussion had been suspended. He stated that a more detailed form to request an outside member is being created and that faculty will be asked to list any secondary appointments they have in addition to their primary appointment. Dean Keller solicited suggestions from the Council members of issues they would like the Council to work on next year.

6. Dean Keller thanked retiring Council members for their service and presented them with a Graduate College denim shirt. Retiring members are Professors Fellows, Menninger, and Swan, and Graduate Students Gajdos and Vigmostad. New members to the Council next year will be: Yi Li (Applied Mathematical & Computational Sciences), Ching-Long Lin (Mechanical & Industrial Engineering), Usha Mallik (Physics & Astronomy). Kim Lamon and Aaron Sachs will return as graduate student reps with new graduate student members, Michael Ridge and Ben Galluzzo. (Addendum: Robert Fellows has been re-elected to a second term to represent the College of Medicine.)


The meeting adjourned at 9:10 a.m.