Meeting Minutes - September 13, 2007

1. The minutes of the August 30, 2007 meeting were reviewed and approved.

2. Dean Keller made the following announcements:
• The Graduate College is hosting its annual Open House for Prospective Students on Thursday, October 18 in the Main Lounge of the Iowa Memorial Union. More information can be found on the Graduate College website at http://www.grad.uiowa.edu/EventsDeadlines/OpenHouse/index.asp.
• Dean Keller distributed an article that appeared in the August/September 2007 issue of the CGS Communicator titled “Getting it Right: Graduate Schools Respond to the Millennial Challenge”. The article which was written by Deb Stewart, CGS President, focuses on the millennial student and on some of the challenges U.S. and Canadian graduate schools will need to meet.
• He noted that discussions on best practices and what we can expect in graduate education on campus will be brought to the Council as agenda items at future meetings.

3. According to the current readmission policy in the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College (Section 1. I), students who are admitted to and enroll in the Graduate College, but who then fail to register for a period of 36 months or more, must apply for readmission.. This has been considered a lenient policy for decades, but Associate Dean Wurster is seeing students coming back after an absence from their graduate program for 2 years or more with increasing regularity. Comparing the readmission policies at other CIC institutions, it was learned that most require readmission after an absence of a year. Our graduate policy is even out of sync with Iowa’s undergraduate policy which states that undergraduate students who have been absent for 12 months or more must apply for re-entry. Dean Wurster distributed a draft of proposed language to change the readmission policy to require reapplication if a student’s enrollment is interrupted so that s/he is not enrolled for three consecutive academic sessions, including the summer session. The proposed language further stated that the regular admission application form must be used, exclusive of letters of recommendation and the Personal Statement section. Dean Wurster assured the Council that letters of petition for unusual circumstances would be considered. Following further discussion, some rewording was recommended to indicate that a department/program may request additional supporting materials with the reapplication. Dean Wurster will bring revised wording to a future Graduate Council meeting for review and action. If the revised policy is approved by the Graduate Council, it will need the approval of the Graduate Faculty before becoming effective.

The meeting adjourned at 9:00 a.m. to the Gilmore/Pappajohn Business Building courtyard for the 2007-08 Graduate Council photo.