GRADUATE COUNCIL MINUTES
April 19, 2022
Present: Wissam AbouAlaiwi, Defne Apul, Brian Ashburner, Larissa Barclay, Sharon Barnes, Jonathan Bossenbroek, Frank Calzonetti, Ritu Chakravarty for Saurabh Chattopadhyay, Wendy Cochrane, Heather Conti, Jim Ferris, Bashar Gammoh, David Giovannucci, Daniel Hammel, Bill Gunning (for Marthe Howard), Gary Insch, Andrea Kalinoski, John Laux, Abraham lee, Linda Lewin, Mike Mallin, Leslie Neyland-Brown, Karie Jo Peralta for Jerry Van Hoy, Jeanine Refsnider-Streby, Patricia Relue, Connie Schall, Beth Schlemper, Rebecca Schneider, Martha Sexton, Zahoor Shah, Ekaterina Shemyakova, Ruslan Slutsky, Dan Boden for Jami Taylor, Amy Thompson, Varun Vaidya, Kandace Williams.
Absent: Ali Imami, Kenneth Kilbert, Bindu Menon, Snejana Slantcheva-Durst, Rebecca Zietlow.
Excused: Mohamed Hefzy.
Guests: COGS - Teri Green, Yasmeen Hamdah, Tara Hanna.
Call to Order, Roll Call, and Approval of Minutes
The meeting was called to order, the roll called and the Minutes of January 25, 2022
were approved.
Executive Reports
Report of the Executive Committee of the Graduate Council
On behalf of Graduate Council, Chair, Dr. David Giovannucci reported:
This is second from last meeting. Last meeting will conduct elections of officers and will be held hybrid for those that cannot attend in person. Please designate someone to attend in your stead to vote.
- GCEC Meeting April 12
- Received updates.
- Set agenda for April 19, 2022 GC meeting.
- Chair’s report to the Board of Trustees April 13, 2022 meeting – a regular report. This will be Dr. Giovannucci’s last report to the BOT as GC Chair.
- Potential questions for President Postel’s visit with GCEC April 26th. We will codify and send to him so he is prepared. Issues/questions for the President may be sent Chair Giovannucci.
- Elections and new membership to Council for 2022-2023.
- Pipeline procedure document - Dean Thompson had distributed to GCEC standard operating procedure document for pipelines and sent to GC for your review and discussion today.
- Discussed with Dr. Andrea Kalinoski, Chair of our Bylaws and Constitution Committee, that she will bring up is in regard to Article II, Section 2 of GC Bylaws.
- We congratulated Dr. Thompson on her new position at Wright State University. Timeline is set but transition was not yet set. We are proud of her achievements and are sad to see her go.
Report of the Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs and Dean of the College of Graduate
Studies
Dr. Amy Thompson, Senior Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and Acting Dean, College
of Graduate Studies provided the following updates:
- Thompson’s departure
Will assume the role of Provost at Wright State University WSU on June 1, 2022 and last day on campus will be for May 6th commencement. Hopefully a replacement will be named soon so that I can help with training to see them well prepared to step in. I have thoroughly enjoyed one of the greatest enjoyments in my career after many years here. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with all of you. - Budget
Received another memo about the budget and we have been asked to go back and make a final cut to reach to reach our final target of $312K. We had made our target. Some good news, I received confirmation that we have been awarded $75K of reinvestment money specifically for marketing of graduate programs. I believe it needs to be used before the next fiscal year starts I have already met with MARCOM and started having conversations about how to best invest that to help our programs grow. Feel free to share ideas. I was committed to making sure there was money for graduate marketing. That remained in our budget, so assuming that it remains, which I think it should since we have met our target budget cut, there is $250K plus $75k earmarked for graduate marketing of programs, that is unprecedented funding. I remain optimistic that will help. Adam Lee has shown leadership in helping some of our programs. He is looking at buying search terms for programs, He is a resource for you, so please utilize him in partnership with your college communicators. - Staffing Update
One of my commitments was making sure that COGS was fully staffed and in a good position.
Both admissions positions are now filled. Adam Bohland’s position (former Director with UG/G who left UToledo in December 2021 for the University of Kentucky) is now filled. Dr. Thompson introduced Tara Hanna, who comes to us from Lourdes University. She has had a robust career in admissions and is seasoned with Slate. She will step right in and direct our admissions. She will be a point of contact for all of you.
Tara Hanna is pleased to join us and to work with her former colleague Henriette Njabon, who also came to UToledo from Lourdes University. Excited to get started.
Admissions Analyst II position that was vacant has been filled internally this week as well.
- Graduate Student Success Center
Very excited to announce that Yasmeen Hamdah is the full time coordinator along with two PhD. Students who are actively undergoing training (same training as success coaches) and working diligently to stand wonderful and innovative this center up.
To be very clear, the center is for both campuses and Yasmeen has been establishing relationships on both campuses and has been on the HSC for several events. Yasmeen will speak to their progress in a very short period of time already.
Yasmeen Hamdah reviewed the presentation she prepared (see attached full presentation)
- Creation of Mission and Vison
- Review of Team Members
I will be graduating with my masters next month
- What we do and how we assist
- Professional and Peer Coaching
- Social and Professional Programming
- Connecting Students to Campus Resources
- Starfish
Will be on retention software called Starfish. They can create appointments
with us. Starfish has option to refer resources and create them.
This is a center for both campuses and has been on HSC for several events.
We want to make sure there is a presence on HSC.
We will be included on retention software, Starfish. Students can use this system to make appointments with us – the link is included in my email signature. Students can be directed to services and those offices are notified.
- Requests for interacting with classrooms welcome
- Since February 28, 2022
- Coordinator attended 30 trainings (4 remaining)
- Graduate peer coaches attended 13 trainings (8 remaining)
- Mission, vision, and goals completed
- Marketing items in progress, logo created
- Coaching toolkit created
- Established relationships with over 10 campus partners
- Coordinator joined CARES Team
- Graduate Student Appreciation Week
Chair Giovannucci thanked Dean Thompson for these wonderful initiatives and welcomed Tara Hanna and Yasmeen Hamdah and looks forward to working with them.
Report of the Vice President for Research
Dr. Frank Calzonetti reported:
- Staffing Update
We lost our manager of human research protection program, Jeanette Eckerd, who took a position at OSU that we could not match. This is a concern as we are overdue for an FDA inspection. Mahesh Pillai, who has been with IRB for many years, has recently moved over to provide leadership with IACUC and IRB for a transition period to be responsive to FDA.
ALAC accreditation scheduled for this summer as well. We are working it through and we have open positions we are working to fill. - 2022 Creative and Scholarly Award Recipients
Please to report that the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs with University Libraries finished a process to identify faculty members over past three calendar years who have made significant contributions in creative and scholarly activities. These could be publications, law review articles, works of art, theatre productions. This is not grant activity – which is recognized every other year. This is once in a lifetime x award for these prestigious competitions. We have amazing quality faculty members. They will be recognized at a reception on May 10th that will include President Postel, Provost Bjorkman, department chairs, and college deans.
2022 Creative and Activity Award Recipients
Blair Grubb, Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
Collin Gilstrap, Assistant Professor of Finance
Deborah Orloff, Professor of Art
Hossein Soloudi, Associate Professor of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Jeff Broxmeyer, Associate Professor of Political Science
Kim Gratz, Department Chair and Professor of Psychology
Kimberly Mack, Associate Professor of Literature
Matthew Foss, Associate Professor of Theatre
Matthew Tull, Professor of Psychology
Paul Hong, Distinguished University Professor of Operations Management
Rafael Garcia-Mata, Associate Professor of Biology
Ritu Chakravarti, Assistant Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology
Tomer Avidor-Reiss, Professor of Biology
William Gunning III, Professor of Pathology
Allyson Day, Associate Professor of Disability Studies
Jennifer Joe, Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Engagement Librarian
Jon Elhai, Professor of Psychology
Dae-Wook Kang, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
Jason Rose, Associate Professor of Psychology
Mark Boswell, Professor of Anesthesiology
Emanuela Gionfriddo, Assistant Professor of Chemistry - Intel investment in Columbus, Ohio
Intel is making a major investment in Columbus, OH by offering opportunity for all Ohio higher education institutions to work with them. They have a competition out for grants due to Intel due May 31st for $5M for 3 years. There are limitations per the number of proposals per each institution. UToledo may submit single institution proposal, or lead in a multiple institution proposal. No limit on how many proposals you can be involved with led by other institutions.
Essentially, we have 2 opportunities to lead proposals and we have sent out a limited submission notification to receive in our office by April 27th to prepare for the May 31st competition. This is a great opportunity and we want to engage with a strong proposal.
Discussion:
Chair Giovannucci sought clarification whether it is call for submissions is geared
toward education.
Dr. Calzonetti responded that there are five key areas/tracks and is heavily geared toward education and workforce. They do have a key topic area around research and instrumentation. However, it is clear Intel is interested in having a strong workforce for their investment in Columbus.
Report of the Graduate Student Association
Chair Giovannucci stated that Ali Imami, President of the Graduate Student Association
(GSA) was unable to attend due to a schedule conflict. He did want to mention that
the Midwest Graduate Research Symposium took place virtually on Saturday, April 16th and that it was a success. I attended part of it as did many of you. Dean Thompson
gave opening remarks. We have talented graduate students at UToledo and around the
region. We look forward to having MGRS in person in the future.
Information and Discussion Items
University Strategic Planning update – Dr. Jonathan Bossenbroek and Dr. David Giovannucci
Dr. Bossenbroek serves as the Graduate Council representative and Dr. David Giovannucci serves as the Research Council representative on the University Strategic Planning Committee.
Dr. Bossenbroek reported that the main thrust of the committee was to create three sub-committees:
- Mission, Vision and Values
- People
- Performance and Partnerships
While each group has been meeting separately, there has been some cross-pollination between the groups. I have been on the mission, vision, and values. The draft reports from the groups have been presented to the President and likely to the BOT to get some higher level feedback before moving to a broader audience.
A workshop is scheduled tomorrow with to categorize goals and objectives as short term (in the next 12 months) versus longer term, more strategic goals. Want to create short term goals and objectives and longer term strategic goals. The other two committees have come up a number of goals with long bulleted lists of strategies ranging from, promoting into diverse communities, retention and recruitment, to building partnerships, with a lot of details about how to do those.
Our next task is to break down what is short-term and make sure they fit it with mission and vision. A lot are fairly obvious such as financial stability, You know, whether we make a push to try and be an R1 institution, Looking at the matrix, we are on bubble with some important steps to get over that bubble.
Chair Giovannucci added the process started in December 2021/January 2022 and has received a lot of feedback through town halls as well as content experts who have been brough in to give input. He serves on the people subcommittee where discussion involves graduate students and graduate education and many initiatives have been started by Dean Thompson in COGS as well as things we have discussed here in GC, like, expanding DIEB and whether GRE/GMAT should be made optional and whether TOEFL is needed. There has been robust discussion on recruiting more graduate students and improving the graduate student experience and facilitating degree completion. The strategic pieces/metrics are being worked out. There is a May deadline to get feedback from the President and Provost. Voices of graduate faculty and graduate students are being heard by the committees. As the strategic plan move toward being codified, there will be a chance for input and refinement.
Chair Giovannucci stated that Graduate Council looks forward to further updates.
Pipeline Programs SOP- Elissa Falcone, Director of Academic Affairs, Provost’s Office
Chair Giovannucci explained that the attached 3-page document “How to propose a pipeline program” from the Provost’s Office clarifies a process.
Dean Thompson explained that the document is being reviewed for discussion and input. She stated that she thinks there is more opportunity to grow graduate enrollment by increasing pipelines, currently only at (19). We should have more. This is an opportunity for undergraduates to take graduate credits at the undergraduate rate and count toward a graduate degree. Already approved through CCGS as long as there is a minimum of 30 graduate credit hours for the masters, of which 9 credits can overlap, if approved and developed as part of that pipeline. We have a number in the College of Business and Innovation. It requires a yearly report to the State tracking enrollment.
There has been conversation on master’s programs than have greater than 30 credit hours, for example, the Master of Public Health has 42 credits, it could be overlap up to 12 credit
hours. This draft document has gone to Faculty Senate and was approved with no concerns or comments. When she became Dean, she noticed there were a lot of inconsistencies of how these established. Some may have gone through FS or GC only, but needs to go through both bodies. The procedure connects them with the overlapping credits. This is identified in the Program Modification form in CIM and triggers through an amin process to GC. We wanted to make it easy for programs to know how to do this and create a better internal process when you have two existing programs and need to connect them. Completing the Program Modification form in CIM requesting this at undergraduate level triggers an administrative process to GC. We want to make sure that programs are aware how to do this and to encourage more pipeline programs for the benefit of students.
Discussion:
Q: Are undergraduate students doing graduate level during the 9 overlapping hours?
Dean Thompson: Yes and they are registering for it at graduate level and they are benefitting from taking the graduate credit at the undergraduate price. It is basically a semester at the undergraduate rate.
Q: Is it a ‘must’ requirement that the 9 of graduate credits double count?
Dean Thompson: Yes, this is a state requirement. This has to be an approved pipeline where the program is recognizing the 9 overlapping graduate credit hours.
Q: If a graduate program starts at the 6000 level, but requires 5000 pre-reqs, the pre-reqs would not double-count, correct?
Dean Thompson: I have not seen that prescriptive guidance anywhere. We have spent several meetings at CCGS. Half of deans are not supportive of this. Some don’t like the double count, some want more.
Q: The real difficulty with pipelines is usually at the undergraduate level a student cold have two majors and a minor or two. Unless you are careful about those graduate classes and how they will count at the undergraduate level, you could get into situation where the student does not have space to use those graduate level classes in their undergraduate degree. While this is clearly a graduate issue, it has been our experience that the nuts and bolts have to be worked out very carefully at the undergraduate level.Dean Thompson: That is why the program modification form is key in making sure that there is an agreement at the undergraduate and graduate levels in what they are willing to count.
Q: How would this work in CIM if we had a graduate program that could have seven different feeder programs into it? Would each of those undergraduate programs have to put this in place and how does the graduate program put it in place for those seven different undergraduate programs?
Dean Thompson: These are issues that need to be figured out in CIM. I am not at that granular level and Elissa is aware and we need to build those. This is a good thing in getting students to stay here to do their graduate degrees while giving them some accessibility and affordability. Dr. Patty Relue and I met with BGSU to try to build some external pathways from other institutions. We want to keep students here and get them interested in graduate education.
Q: We are trying to develop slowly a very complicated mix of these programs that allow students from a number of undergraduate majors to funnel into a number of different graduate programs. Perhaps the student should meet with the graduate advisor after admitted to the program to develop the 9 graduate credit hours and share with the undergraduate advisor to look at how it fits in with the student’s undergraduate degree.
Dean Thompson: The goal is to get these kinds of things cleaned up.
Q: Is this applicable to Nursing and Physical Therapy programs?
Dean Thompson: It is for undergraduate/graduate programs that it works for. You may have issues with accreditation.
Q Are we tracking and measuring if achieving goals?
Dean Thompson: We have 19 pipeline programs. When I came on board, I had not seen tracking of that but we can certainly look at that.
Q: Has there been any discussion of sharing/double-counting credits between masters to doctoral?
Dean Thompson: There are state guidelines about sharing between masters and doctoral. That is another conversation, a whole guideline document.
Should you have any questions or suggestions, please email me and Elissa Falcone together so that we can address. Don’t want to leave loose ends and get it put up on our website before I leave.
Graduate Council Bylaws, revision of Article II, Section 2
Discuss removal of “On an annual basis, GC will define Main Campus and Health Science
Campus prior to elections.”
Chair Giovannucci pointed out that the Graduate Council Bylaws have not been updated in many years and the GCEC discussed whether we still need this. This was included in the Bylaws as a result of restructuring of colleges and at one time and was designated to be on HSC when Dr. Gold was here. Since then, HHS has been on Main Campus and few faculty remain on HSC. Where this has come into issue and to a vote each year is the College of Health and Human Services (HHS) which has shifted somewhat since the merger. HHS has been designated as Main Campus (MC) for the past two years.
Dr. Connie Schall shared that from a research perspective the research indirect rate is based on campus. For example, the indirect cost recovery rate for faculty in Pharmacy points to Health Science Campus (HSC) even if labs are on the Main Campus. The Office of Research concerned considers its MC. Not sure if that plays into decisions but Pharmacy is designated on HSC in terms of representation on GCEC.
Dr. Kandace Williams noted out that because this primarily pertains to GCEC representatives being classified as MC or HSC, none of current HHS faculty reps on Graduate are or were from HSC. She suggests designating HHS as Main Campus since ~98% reside on Main Campus.
Dr. John Laux, Associate Dean of HHS added that the administrative units are on Main Campus with one program on the Health Science Campus and that HHS is the third largest enrolled college that resides on MC.
Dr. Andrea Kalinoski, GCEC member and Chair of Bylaws and Constitution upon hearing that this college is Main Campus, asked Council if it wanted to move it to Main Campus, thus no vote necessary and consequently no longer necessary to be defined on an annual basis, requiring an updated to the Bylaws.
Dr. Laux encouraged removal of that stipulation.
Dr. Wendy Cochrane, an HHS faculty member, they have been on MC, although administration had shifted a couple of times, the faculty have primarily resided on MC.
[MOTION: Remove from Bylaws the annual vote on identity of college of HHS and from this point forward be considered Main Campus. Approved unanimously.]
Standing Committee Reports
Report of the Curriculum Committee
None.
Report of the Membership Committee
None.
Old Business
None.
New Business
None.
Adjournment
There being no further business, the Council adjourned at 1:51 pm.