College of Graduate Studies

Graduate Council Minutes

February 21, 2023

Present:   Wissam AbouAlaiwi, Marcelo Alvarado-Vargas, Brian Ashburner, Tomer Avidor-Reiss, Sharon Barnes, Larissa Barclay, Saurabh Chattopadhyay, Madeline Clark, Jim Ferris, Bashar Gammoh, David Giovannucci, Noella Haughton, Gary Insch, Andrea Kalinoski, John Laux, Patrick Lawrence, Linda Lewin, Bindu Menon, Scott Molitor, Ling Na, Patrick Naranjo (GSA), Jeanine Refsnider, Patricia Relue, Barbara Saltzman, Youssef Sari, Joseph Schmidt, Zahoor Shah, Snejana Slantcheva-Durst, Weiqing Sun, Jerry Van Hoy, Eileen Walsh Kandace Williams.

Absent:    Kristen Keith, Joseph Slater, Jami Taylor, Rebecca Zietlow.

Excused:  Arun Anarantham, Frank Calzonetti, Ahmad Javaid, Connie Schall.

Guests:    Claire Dau and Sherri Kaspar – ParkUToledo, Timothy Mueser.

 

Call to Order, Roll Call, and Approval of Minutes
The meeting was called to order and roll called.

Executive Reports
Report of the Executive Committee of the Graduate Council
On behalf of Graduate Council, Chair, Dr. Wissam AbouAlaiwi reported:

• GCEC Meeting - February 14, 2023
  Set the agenda for today’s GC meeting. We will be welcoming Clare Dau and Sherri Kaspar from Park UToledo to hear concerns from graduate        faculty and community related to parking.
• Graduate Council report to Board of Trustees – February 8, 2023
  Submitted report to BOT on February 8^th that was presented by Vice Chair, Dr. Patrick Lawrence.
• GC Meeting Schedule – spring semester 2023
  Last three meetings, April 4, April 18 and May 2 will likely be held in person. 
  -   April 4
      Recognition of graduate students. GCEC has prepared recognition form with nomination guidelines. The link will be shared with you.     
      Nominations are due by March 23^rd. 
  -   April 18
       President Postel and COGS and recognition of winners of 3MT competition. 
  -   May 4
       Introduce new GC members and Elections for Officers 2023-2024.
• Search Committee for Provost
  Prepared memo to President seeking graduate faculty reps on this search committee.

Report of the Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs and Dean of the College of Graduate Studies
Dr. Scott Molitor, Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Acting Dean, College of Graduate Studies provided the following updates:

• Congratulations to Wissam AbouAlaiwi on receiving a new NIH grant.
• Summer 2023 Course Schedule
  As described at the recent Faculty Senate meeting of February 14^th, the last set of courses have been restored based on requests from the colleges. A similar process will occur for Fall 2023 and Spring 2024, but without a pull back of courses as was initially done for Summer 2023. Sections may be removed as needed. Registration opens March 15, 2023.
• Graduate Council Bylaws
  Review led by Constitution and Bylaws Committee Chair, Dr. Andrea Kalinoski. Her leadership is appreciated in this effort. Revisions will be brought to GC on March 21^st for review and vote the following month, in parallel to the Provost’s Office review for the Board of Trustees. It includes a preamble to insert the new name and what was the Dean role of COGS into the Bylaws and Constitution when it is updated by BOT.
  Dr. Kalinoski added that the Membership Committee will have the opportunity to review as well.
• Mentor Training
  Previous discussions of potentially requiring mentor training for anyone who receive Graduate Faculty Membership status to supervise thesis and dissertation research for graduate students has been pulled back for a number of reasons. Mentor training is important for graduate students that work directly for a faculty member in a laboratory setting. However, many graduate faculty supervise thesis and dissertation research of graduate students without direct interaction in a laboratory setting. Other situations that may require mentor training outside of graduate faculty are supervision of post docs or supervision of graduate students serving as teaching assistants, which does not require graduate faculty membership status. Appropriate language will be included in the GC Bylaws and in coordination with the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, a policy can be created to cover these situations and would apply to all faculty. RSP can create a policy to cover these situations, and would apply to all faculty.
• Annual Meeting of the Graduate Faculty
  As stipulated in the Constitution of the Graduate Faculty, an annual meeting of all graduate faculty should occur providing plans for upcoming year. It makes more sense to conduct this in the Fall rather than Spring. With approval of GCEC we will hold this in Fall 2023.
• Commencement – Spring 2023
  We are asking the Provost and President to approve a request to have a Friday evening graduate student ceremony on Friday, May 5. There would be two undergraduate ceremonies on Saturday, May 6 .

Report of the Vice President for Research
No report as Dr. Frank Calzonetti was unable to attend due to hosting a campus visitor.

Report of the Graduate Student Association
Patrick Naranjo, President of the Graduate Student Association (GSA) reported:

• Midwest Graduate Research Symposium – Saturday, April 15, 2023
  Will held virtually this year, the same as the past two years. We look forward to hosting this in person next year. Details forthcoming from GSA Vice President, Maha Zeidan.
• Tabling in coordination with colleges
• Intramural Sports Tournament - March 18, 2023
  To be held at Student Recreation Center will feature an indoor soccer tournament. Student Government and faculty are invited to participate too.
• Chair AbouAlaiwi added that he is seeking to form a faculty team and extends the invitation to the Graduate Council to join.

 Information and Discussion Items
Concession between The University of Toledo and ParkUToledo, and Parking Rules and Regulations - Claire Dau, Communications Manager, ParkUToledo
Claire Dau and Sherri Kaspar shared PowerPoint presentation to share information touching on the
Concession agreement, Rules and Regulations and the Appeals Process.

• Agreement
  ParkUToledo is a non-profit, third party affiliate of The University of Toledo. The 35-year Concession Agreement between ParkUToledo and The University of Toledo began in October of 2021. The University of Toledo retains control of parking rates and policy while ParkUToledo operates and maintains the parking system and will hand it back to the University at the end of its term.
• Parking
  Your must have either a parking permit or a daily permit. Your license plate serves as your permit and you may have up to 4 vehicles listed on your permit, however, they cannot be on campus within three hours of each other between 5 pm and 7 am. After 5:00 pm, students are permitted to park in employee areas. Parking enforcement hours are: Monday-Friday 7 am -10 pm, and Saturday and Sunday 9 am – 5 pm. If you change vehicles, update the plate information in your parking portal. Only park in spots designated for your specific permit. Each parking area has signs indicating which permits are valid. Refer to paint colors (lines) as secondary reference:
  -   Yellow lines are reserved for employees.
  -   White lines are reserved for students.
  -   Green lines are reserved for patients
  -   Family, friends and additional visitors can park in most areas by using the ParkMobile App. Exceptions are spaces that are:  Reserved,
       Disabled Meters, Patients (those supersede as indicated) and no Overnight parking.
• Patient Parking
  You need to tell us which day you will be a patient via webform. This is not necessary in emergency situations. If you do receive citation, use appeal process or email us. Do not need to indicate reason for the emergency.
• Ohio changed is license plating on vehicles as there is no longer a license in front. Vehicles must have plate visible, so no backing in.
• Appeals Process
  Appealing a parking citation indicates the vehicle was parked in accordance with ParkUToledo parking procedures and the citation was incorrectly issued.
  -   Appeals Submission must be submitted within 10 calendar days of the issuance date (located on top right of citation notice). The right to
       appeal is forfeited after 10 days.
  -   Appeals submitted and considered invalid will still be assessed a $10 late fee if citation is not paid within 10 days of the issuance date.
  -   Notice of the decision regarding your appeal will be sent by email.

Discussion:
Dr. Avidor-Reiss inquired about parking in stances of using the emergency room at UTMC.

Sherri Kaspar replied that for scheduled medical visits, use webform on ParkUToledo website that only includes date, not the reason. This is not required for emergency room situation. You can let us know afterward.

Dr. Avidor-Reiss noted that the process is quite inconvenient.

Sherri Kaspar replied that unfortunately, rules and regulations are put in place because of abuse of permits.

Dr. Avidor-Reiss also mentioned that he hears from students that ParkUToledo issues a lot of tickets which seems predatory. What are the numbers compared to other universities?

Sherri Kaspar responded that that this can be benchmarked. In 2022, 35,000 tickets were issued overall, not to specific subgroups across both campuses. This is similar and standard to when I was on the UToledo side.  We do look for violators, but not predatory.

Dr. Avidor-Reiss also noted that students have indicated that the appeals process is cumbersome and takes several communications.

Sherri Kaspar stated that if the student can upload their reason and show they were in compliance with our rules, then the ticket goes away. If you would like to email me separately about specific situations, I will look at it.

Dr. Noella Haughton inquired about parking at UTMC as a patient or the Main Campus Pharmacy, when one does not have a parking permit because they live adjacent to campus.

Claire Dau noted that the Main Campus pharmacy has green lined spaces for which you can park to go in and pick up medications. We do not ticket those spaces unless the pharmacy call us indicating that they have not customer but the spots are full. For Main Campus Medical Center and Counseling also in same building, you may also park in those green lined spaces. If you have parking permit, we recommend you use webform, name, Rocket number and date, same process for the Health Science Campus.

Dean Molitor inquired sough clarity regarding dates of permits. We had an issue this past December 2022 with students who continued to work in research labs over the holiday, whose Fall permits ran out did not have the chance or opportunity to purchase their Spring permits, and they were ticketed in the intervening time. Is there a process to notify students?

Sherri Kaspar replied that fall permits expired December 20, 2022 and we did not enforce permits for that week after the semester ended up to the 20^th as agreed with UToledo for move in and move out. Spring permits went into effect on December 23^rd. The new semester permit covers that in between semester period. We send notification to all permit holders two weeks before it expires, and we utilize UT News and social media.

Chair AbouAlaiwi inquired whether permits may be purchased for an entire year and whether the rate is the same as per semester.

Claire Dau replied that this is first year that we provided the option for a fall and spring permit to see if students were interested in longer permits. The rate is the same, there is no cost savings. Currently, we do not have any anything that includes summer since the student population drops off quite a bit. There is an option to buy monthly permits since UToledo offers several summer sessions vs one whole semester.  Difficult to manage by session so monthly permits developed. As you know, student status can change between semesters as they move on or off campus or do not attend for a particular semester. We can look into a yearly permit if there is interest.

Dr. Lewin mentioned instances where students are being recruited, it appears that they come into a designated building and receive a QR code for parking, however, in the meantime, parking enforcement is ticketing. This does not provide a welcoming introduction to the university.

Sherri Kaspar stated that ParkUToledo can assist with adding parking verbiage to your invitation. We have put in buffers:  If they get a permit within av hour, the ticket goes away and are never notified. The hour starts when scanned. And with parking meters, if paid within 15 minutes, the ticket does not get processed.  Claire will work you to provide the maps with the locations identified with the parking area and a walking route. Additionally, we have added signage to all entrances. We have also added signage at all campus entrances and are in the process of putting QR codes on light posts. Student to sit in on a single class.

Dr. Lewin inquired about an additional scenario when inviting a potential student to sit in on a class but may not be aware that they have to submit that students license plate number in order to allow for them to park.

Sherri Kaspar replied that if they were invited to the class, that is where we can work with you to put on the invitation.

Claire Dau added there is also the option to utilize the departmental portal where you obtain the individual’s license plate and state and enter into it and the department pays for it.

Dr. Lewin added that we should have a more friendly environment in terms of charging people to park if they are considering attending the University of Toledo.

Sherri Kaspar replied that ParkUToledo is open to ideas. For example, Admissions has designated spaces in area 13. Admissions is getting them permits to be allowed to be on campus. This is a paid parking campus so we are trying to make that known whether by permit or meter.

Dr. Kandace Williams stated that all graduate students on the Health Science Campus are 12 month students. Medical students pay a reduced rate of $399 for one year. Can  12-month graduate students receive the same rate for one year?

Sherri Kaspar replied that parking had just met with the Deans on the HSC this morning and talked about option of a one year permit for graduate students on the HSC. There are no discounts for medical students. They pay the same rate as every other student $133 per semester and for the year is $399. We did work with them to get a one year permit with the same expiration dates regardless of what year they are in. So instead of having four different expiration dates on their yearly permit, we made it the same. Will always be June 30^th for them going forward. For the graduate students on the HSC, there are some logistics that we need to work out because in our system we cannot see a difference between a nursing student and a history student, but we can see if they live on campus, off campus or are a medical student.

Dr. Giovannucci thanked Sherry and Claire for meeting with the HSC Deans. Students doing clinical rotations, may only be here one month but it may span across two different months. Currently, they buy two monthly permits. How can we accommodate?

Sherri Kaspar replied that ParkUToledo currently uses the NewPark system but will be switching to a new system in a year. NewPark only allows for a one month permit. However, a new system may allow for a rolling 30 days rather than a calendar month.

Chair AbouAlaiwi inquired whether Can a QR code can be shared in communications from faculty and staff to visitors.

Claire Dau responded, yes, we can send you different QR codes will direct to the parking portal site and prompt the user to open or use the apps store and to see what zone they are in.

Dr. Shah expressed the desire to be more welcoming to new undergraduate students by not ticketing them on their first day or possibly waiving their first ticket. We do not want them to leave. It takes time to understand parking rules.

Sherri Kaspar replied that ParkUToledo is heavily involved and presenting at Rocket Launch and Rocket Transition for incoming students. If they cannot attend, they receive information. We can attend orientations or share information. We do tabling as well. That is part of the concession agreement the university made with legal. When I was on the UToledo side there was a first time warning. With the concession agreement, they wrote that out of the agreement where they did not want the first time warning being applied. That is what is in the 2900 pages of our concession agreement is that there is not a first time warning system as there was previously. The university did include the grace period of move in and move out prior to school starting and school ending.  We call these global days and it is on our website https://www.parkutoledo.com/citations/.

Dr. Shah stated that to be honest that even after my 13^th year at UToledo, if I have to go to Main Campus I still to struggle to find the precise building and have to use a map. We can understand that new students coming in struggle finding buildings where their classes are held. As an institution we should give some flexibility to new students, particularly undergraduate freshmen.

Dr. Relue thanked Sherry and Claire for the presentation. She asked whether the concession agreement is set in stone or whether it can be re-negotiated periodically to modify things that are not working.

Sherri Kaspar responded that just like any agreement, it can always be brought back to the table. If there's something that is not working then both sides need to come to the table to find a solution.  Every agreement is always negotiable after the fact and is not set in stone.

Dr. Relue asked whether ParkUToledo is non-profit, meaning that once fixed costs are covered, the remainder goes to the University, correct? And, in regard to the concession agreement, that as long as ParkUToledo is made whole, would ParkUToledo have concern about concessions made to the agreement?

Sherri Kaspar responded, yes, that is correct and that here are always moving parts and that the agreement is the foundation. We already have a first amendment to the agreement with three things the University they want us to look at. In addition to operating expenses, ParkUToledo paid $52 million to the university as an upfront payment, so that needs to be paid back to the bondholders who put that money up for the University.

There are safeguards and very specific language memorialized in the agreement on when and how that money can be released.

Dr. Avidor-Reiss sought clarification on the meaning of a Concession Agreement.

Sherri Kaspar explained that is an agreement and it can be changed. We came into this and to pay that $52million that was brought to the university as well as the $10 million dollars that the bondholders issue to us, this concession agreement was given to the bondholders to say, yes, we believe in the terms that were laid as the foundation for this to work and they provided the money to be able to do this deal. The agreement can be negotiated again, but the University would have to come to us to ask that the concession agreement be changed and needs be agreed upon by both the University and ParkUToledo, covering the loan to the bondholders.

Dr. Avidor-Reiss Tomer inquired which UToledo official(s) negotiated the agreement whom the faculty could make recommendations.

Sherri Kaspar replied that ultimately Matt Schroder signed off on the agreement.

Chair AbouAlaiwi noted that he hears from students that ParkUToledo is aggressive in giving parking citations and asked that they please take into consideration graduate students who are very tight budgets and can barely buy parking permit in addition to fees, health insurance, food, the rent. When parking was managed by UToledo, students were forgiven first parking error and were less strict during the first week of classes. We would be greatly appreciate more flexibility. We appreciate your time.

Sherri Kaspar responded that with flexibility that needs to come from the University as part of the concession agreement that no first time warnings are to be given.  Please know that we try to work with everyone as much as we can.  If a graduate student cannot afford a ticket, they should not park where they are not supposed to.  We are not looking to ticket to people who are parked legally but those that are not following the rules. Tickets are optional as long as you do not park where you are not supposed to.

Dr. Relue made a final request, for ParkUToledo and/or Finance to share parking  data with a faculty committee to do an analysis of parking revenue and assessment of waiving the first ticket that students received or not ticketing until 3^rd day or first week of semester. This is important, particularly in terms of new students coming to campus and being treated well and giving them a little bit of leeway.

Sherri Kaspar responded that ParkUToledo shares all of its financial data with Mike Dennis who reports up to Matt Schroeder. We are audited each year.

Chair AbouAlaiwi pointed out that Graduate Council can express its concerns with President Postel when he attends the April 18, 2023 Graduate Council meeting.

Dr. Jeanine Refsnider-Streby shared the following link from the Toledo Blade relating to UToledo parking (Toledo Blade: "UT collected $448,861 in parking tickets in FY 2020 and $504,390 in 2021
https://www.toledoblade.com/local/education/2022/02/27/parking-at-ut-excessively-enforced-say-parents-and-students/stories/20220226019).

Standing Committee Reports
Report of the Curriculum Committee
On behalf of the Curriculum Committee, Dr. Timothy Mueser, Chair, presented the committee’s report.  There is an extensive amount of curriculum coming in with today’s reporting representing about half of new submissions. There is one new program proposal forthcoming in Pharmacy and we will request a program representative to attend GC. Of note are several new pipeline program offerings and the Nursing modifications will require a program modification. Course modifications in Nursing were required for credentialing with the Ohio Board of Nursing and the American Association of the Colleges of Nursing. Program modifications are required indicating which programs the changes belong to.

Dean Molitor clarified that new courses were not being added to the pipeline programs – it is specifying the graduate courses that count toward the undergraduate degree. The idea behind the pipeline is that students apply up to 9 hours of graduate credit towards their undergraduate degree, and then also apply that same 9 hours as they proceed on into the graduate program.  Undergraduates would take 5/6000 level courses only, not 7/8000-level. He will provide pipeline process information at the next GC meeting.

Report of the Membership Committee
None.

Old Business
None.

New Business
Dr. Relue suggested constituting a committee of reps from both Graduate Council and Faculty Senate to do an analysis of parking data in order to provide suggestions to the concession agreement the next time it is revisited/negotiated.

Chair AbouAlaiwi Wissam stated this will be discussed at the Executive Committee and Graduate Council meetings.

Adjournment
There being no further business, the Council adjourned at 2:03 pm.