GRADUATE COUNCIL MINUTES
September 27, 2022
Present: Wissam AbouAlaiwi, Marcelo Alvarado-Vargas, Arun Anatharam, Tomer Avidor-Reiss, Brian Ashburner, Larissa Barclay, Frank Calzonetti, Saurabh Chattopadhyay, Madeline Clark, Jim Ferris, Bashar Gammoh, David Giovannucci, Gary Insch, Ahmad Javaid, Andrea Kalinoski, Kristen Keith, John Laux, Patrick Lawrence, Linda Lewin, Mark Mason, Bindu Menon, Scott Molitor, Ling Na, Patrick Naranjo (GSA), Jeanine Refsnider-Streby, Patricia Relue, Jason Rose, Barbara Saltzman, Amit Tiwari [for Youssef Sari], Connie Schall, Joseph Schmidt, Rebecca Schneider, Zahoor Shah, Mark Mason, Snejana Slantcheva-Durst, Weiqing Sun, Jami Taylor, Jerry Van Hoy, Eileen Walsh.
Absent: Noella Haughton, Joseph Slater.
Excused: Kandace Williams.
Guests: Tim Mueser.
Call to Order, Roll Call, and Approval of Minutes
The meeting was called to order, the roll called and the Minutes of the April 19, 2022 meeting were approved.
Executive Reports
Report of the Executive Committee of the Graduate Council
On behalf of Graduate Council, Chair, Dr. Wissam AbouAlaiwi reported:
- GCEC Meeting, Sept. 20 – guest President Postel Discussed issues regarding graduate
education.
Graduate Student Health Insurance
Graduate students cannot be enrolled in university health plan since they are not considered employees. Administration is looking into a health insurance plan specific to graduate students and discussion with the company. The university will not renew the contract with the current provider concluding by the end of this academic year.
UToledo ranking in U.S. News and World Report
Improvements in a number of metrics by UToledo contributing to our recent ranking with regard to graduation and retention rates. There around 20 parameters and UT improved about 17 out of 20.
Research 1 University
Measured by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Universities classified as R1: Doctoral Universities have very high research activity. The Office of Institutional Research is compiling data for the university to apply for R1 status.
UToledo is situated on the line between R2 and R1. We have sufficient facilities, and are working to clean up data and looking at lower enrollment in non-stem areas.
Plans to increase graduate student enrollment
President indicated that it is everyone’s responsibility and he expressed interest in funding marketing of graduate program, especially in creating new online programs and graduate certificates.
Graduate Student representation on the Board of Trustees
President encouraged graduate students to apply because they are eligible. Graduate students need to be aware of this opportunity.
President Postel will visit Graduate Council on November 22nd and hopefully will receive updates. - Speakers/presentations at Graduate Council meetings
Provost Risa Dickson will be guest at next meeting, October 25th and we will compile questions for her to address. - Graduate Student Successes
The GCEC has received nominations for graduate student success stories from graduate advisors and graduate faculty. Nominations will continue during spring semester 2023 as well. There will be a special recognition for these graduate students and their mentors at an upcoming graduate council meeting on November 22nd when President Postel is attending. - Board of Trustees on September 14, 2022
Chair AbouAlaiwi will present the Graduate Council report to the BOT at its meeting tomorrow.
Discussion:
Dr. Amit Tiwari sought clarification whether graduate students are required to have university student health insurance.
Chair AbouAlaiwi replied that students are not required to have university health insurance as long as they have another insurance plan that is Affordable Care Act approved
Dr. Jim Ferris asked whether there was a focus for the President’s support for funding the marketing of graduate programs.
Chair AbouAlaiwi stated that the President did not mention any particular programs. He did mention that there is a separate central fund for marketing our programs and encouraged us to do better promoting online graduate programs and recruiting at conferences.
Dean Molitor added that he planned to speak on this topic in his report to GC. This topic will also be discussed in COGS monthly meeting with the associate deans. A recruitment fair was held on campus (all programs invited to one event) during spring semester 2022 that was not very well attended.
Instead, a Graduate Programs Week will be held in early November, where colleges will host their own recruitment events in-person and virtually over the course of a week with the idea of targeting UToledo students. Flyers and promotional materials will be shared with colleges and programs to best promote in their respective areas. Some programs may want to reach out to UToledo employees since they receive a tuition waiver and companies that receive tuition assistance. To support this effort, we have received some resources from MARCOM. We will be utilizing Slate for internal communications. Slate should help in terms of marketing with directed email to targeted populations and help us in terms of automated responses to those who click around our website and express interest.
Dr. Patty Relue suggested that arrangements be made through ParkUToledo so that people external to UToledo attending graduate fairs are not ticketed.
Dean Scott Molitor said that he would look into this.
Report of the Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs and Dean of the College of Graduate Studies
Dr. Scott Molitor, Interim Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and Acting Dean, College of Graduate Studies provided the following updates:
- Slate
Moving forward toward the goal of generating Offer Letters for spring 2023 and hope to finalize the workflow processes within the next couple of weeks. For Spring/Summer/Fall 2023 offers to extend an existing position, we are asking you to use current webform system. Contact me with any questions. Offer to students that will be admitted for Spring and Summer 2023, not Fall 2023, you can submit through Slate. Once workflow implemented, it should be a seamless process. After colleges sign off, it is forwarded to me automatically. - Chancellor’s Council on Graduate Studies (CCGS)
This group consists of representatives from all of the Ohio institutions that have graduate programs. This group approves graduate programs and sets policies. We were required to submit our annual report which traditionally comprised a list of programs that have undergone review and programs where admissions are suspended. A new section was added this year, requesting a list of our current pipeline programs where we allow students to take graduate coursework as undergraduates of which 9 credit hours may apply to the graduate degree program -- a combined Bachelor’s/Master’s. This does not refer to the PharmD program. There was a hang up at the State level with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), and we cannot create new pipeline programs until this is resolved.
CCGS is a very useful group with good discussion on questions and issues arising in graduate education. We have discussed processes to appeal admission decisions our take on international students applying from international programs that follow the British system that allow them to obtain a bachelor’s degree in three years. Dean Molitor submitted an inquiry recently regarding triple-level courses offered at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels. He was asked by a colleague where it says we cannot do this. Terri Hayes shared with me some history from Graduate Council that we do not allow this from Graduate Council. There is no prohibition at State or HLC, however, our peer institutions do not allow this practice either.
Dean Molitor suggested that he would work with Graduate Council to draft policies that formalize the practices and process, thus serving as a reference.
Discussion:
Dr. Tomer Avidor-Reiss sought clarification on number of dual counted hours in pipeline programs.
Dean Molitor replied that pipeline program is bachelors to master’s. However, some students who complete their master’s and move into the Ph.D. program (if those hours were required for the Ph.D.), I think you may be able to count that.
Dr. David Giovannucci sought clarification on the hold on creation of new pipeline programs because it seems counter intuitive to having more of our students continue on to graduate programs.
Dean Molitor replied that the issue was that HLC had concern over the proliferation of pipeline programs in the State of Ohio so they are having us put the brakes on.
Dr. Wissam AbouAlaiwi asked if the plans last year that international graduate students would be charged in-state tuition, that was removed from going forward, will that be looked at again for implementation?
Dean Molitor replied that Finance pulled that from boing to the BOT in June 2022. I do not know if we will have the ability to go forward this year. Academic colleges and enrollment management are particularly interested in doing this.
Dr. Patty Relue – at very least we should make that go away for those supported on TAs and research grants because you cannot charge out-of-state surcharge on a grant. It all kicks back to the budget and parsing out a state surcharge. It doesn’t make sense to treat funded students differently. From that standpoint, it is strictly a waiver without any revenue being collected. She added that she and other associate deans are glad to assist Dean Molitor in meeting with Finance if necessary.
Dean Molitor suggested that he could facilitate inviting someone from Finance to future GC meeting.
Bashar Gammoh pointed out this is an important tool to recruit more international and domestic out of state students and especially important to grow online programs for out-of-state students (over 50 mile radius) who find that we are over-priced.
Dean Molitor agreed but said that Finance may view the number of additional students that may be enrolled at an in-state rate would not make up for the loss in revenue that we would lose by not charging out-of-state tuition. However, going back to Dr. Relue’s comments about students that are receiving waivers or receiving grant funded stipend and in-state tuition, that is revenue we would have never seen in the first place. So that's it's a very difficult argument for Finance to say that dropping the out-of-state surcharge in that situation would cause a loss of revenue.
Bashar Gammoh added that we would not be losing revenue we would never have anyway. Need higher level involvement. To grow enrollment, out of state enrollment is not guaranteed. It is either in-state revenue or no revenue at all.
Dean Molitor added that Dave Meredith was leading this charge previously, so he has been an advocate. In his upcoming meeting with Dave Meredith, he will discuss that they meet with Matt Schroeder in Finance.
Chair AbouAlaiwi added that Dave Meredith has already been invited to attend the November 8, 2022 Graduate Council meeting. Perhaps he could be joined by a rep from Finance.
Report of the Vice President for Research
Dr. Frank Calzonetti reported:
- University Research Funded Opportunities deadlines
$50K Programs – October 17, 2022
Letter of Intent is due for review by a subcommittee of the Research Council, followed by an external review.
Interdisciplinary Program – October 17, 2022
Requires four faculty members working together on an interdisciplinary project.
Research Council did make a change to this program in that it was previously restricted to tenure and tenure-track faculty. Now the PI must be tenure/tenure-track faculty member. The other faculty members could be non-tenure track lines such as lecturers, research assistant professors or clinical professors. - Carnegie R2 to R1 evaluation
Ongoing work with Institutional Research in evaluating on R2 to R1 status is continuing. They are doing a good job collecting and projecting the information. We have met with the President. The reporting year is FY 23. Issues involve insufficient number of research and development expenditures in non-STEM areas, a low number of doctoral graduates in non-STEM disciplines, and number of non-faculty research staff. IR is making sure these metrics are adequately projected and available to Carnegie. - Association of Public and Land Grant Universities
UToledo is member of this organization which is comprised of over 250 universities, such as the University of Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, and Bowling Green State University. At the upcoming annual meeting in Denver, CO on November 6-8, 2022 with expected attendance of ~ 2000 people, UToledo is selected this year for our public impact research (water). This is good recognition for the University and may help with U.S. and World News rankings. - Staffing
We have been able to hire good people. Regarding customer support, we are feeling much better with respect to our staffing that we are not bleeding as much as we have compared to where we were earlier this calendar year. You can expect to hear more about that as well as some changes to clinical research support.
Report of the Graduate Student Association
Patrick Naranjo, President of the Graduate Student Association (GSA) reported:
- Next General Assembly Meeting - October 7, 2023, 5:00 pm, Webex
Will be presenting initiatives. - GSA Report to Board of Trustees at its meeting of September 28, 2022.
Information and Discussion Items
None.
Standing Committee Reports
Report of the Curriculum Committee
On behalf of the Curriculum Committee, Dr. Timothy Mueser, Chair, presented report, noting that numbered items 1 and 2 are information only, program inactivation proposals. Council approved unanimously.
The GC Curriculum Committee proposal review schedule as posted on Graduate Council website https://www.utoledo.edu/graduate/facultystaff/gradcouncil/graduate-council-curriculum-committee-proposal-review.html was shared with Council.
Report of the Membership Committee
None.
Old Business
None.
New Business
None.
Adjournment
There being no further business, the Council adjourned at 1:28 pm.