College of Graduate Studies

Graduate Council Minutes

April 2, 2024 

Present:    Brian Ashburner, Sharon Barnes, Larissa Barclay, Qian Chen, Mao Dao, Jennifer DeVries, Jim Ferris, Timothy Fisher,
                   Bashar Gammoh, David Giovannucci, Dan Hammel, Noela Haughton, Ahmad Javaid, Andrea Kalinoski, Kristen Keith, John
                   Laux, Patrick Lawrence, Ling Na, Nagalakshmi Nadiminty, Megan Petra, Patricia Relue, Barbara Saltzman, Youssef Sari, Connie
                   Schall, Joseph Schmidt, Rebecca Schneider, Zahoor Shah, Hossein Sojoudi, Kuo-hui Su, Jami Taylor, Varun Vaiyda, Jerry Van
                   Hoy, Eileen Walsh, Kandace Williams. 

Absent:     Marcelo Alvardo-Vargas, Larissa Barclay, Andrea Kalinoski, Bindu Menon, Maha Zeidan. 

Excused:  

Guests:     Tara Hana -COGS

                   Outstanding Graduate Students Recognized: Maryam Avateffazeli, Nicholas Botha, Kanjin Kingsley, Scott Lambright,
                   Emma Elizabeth Sabu Kattuman, Hemaa Sree Kumar,  Yan Liu, Arsalan Sepheri, Shawkat Shakil, Madison Waldvogel,
                   Graduate Advisors: James Burkett, Barry Jackisch, Sailaja Paruchuri, Mohammad Pourshams.

 

Call to Order, Roll Call, and Approval of Minutes 
The meeting was called to order and roll called.  The Minutes of January 23, 2024 meeting were approved. 

The agenda was reordered for the Report of the Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs to be the first Executive Report. 

Executive Reports  
Report of the Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs 
Dr. Dan Hammel, Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs provided the following updates: 

• We recently a message to all graduate students graduating in the spring 2024. Due to being down a staff member presently, we are unable to do thesis and dissertation format reviews. This will not prevent students from graduating providing submissions to OhioLink are submitted by the deadlines. We have done format checking in the past and will continue in future. In the interim, we are asking for a good faith effort from students and their advisors to format properly. 

• With regard to accessibility, the goal is to  make sure the text  is machine readable. Diagrams and images can present challenges, and instructions on providing alternative text are on the website.   

• Spring 2024 graduation deadlines and instructions for graduate students 
  https://www.utoledo.edu/graduate/success-center/etd.html. 

• Questions may be addressed to:  ETDSvcs@utoledo.edu. 

Report of the Executive Committee of the Graduate Council 
On behalf of Graduate Council, Chair, Dr. Patrick Lawrence reported: 

• GC Executive Committee met on March 26th and discussed: 
  • Draft Resolution – Discussion of proposed resolution on college funding support for graduate students.  Will bring forth under New Business on today’s GC agenda.  
    
    
  • Scheduling presentations for agenda items as part of the remaining meetings of the 2024-2025 Graduate Council. 
    • April 2, 2024 – Recognition of Outstanding Graduate Students 
    • April 16, 2024 - University Assessment Committee 
      and Annual Report from GSA 
      
      
  • Monthly meeting with Provost Scott Molitor
    GC Chair Lawrence and Vice Chair Saltzman had a regular monthly meeting with Provost Scott Molitor. We talked about the budget planning process and potential impacts on graduate students. He was informed that a proposed resolution on college funding support for graduate students would be discussed today at GC.

    He provided Dr. Molitor gave to FS, updates of steps within program prior, (list end of January) he indicated timeline for UG.  He   
    will send similar directives. There is a dashboard –shared a preview at FS. Idea is to make available, a mechanism within this     
    review process.  Info from Deans. Timeline to respond to inquiry will be end of September or perhaps pushed back in fall.
    Decisions on those 15 would not be done until fall 2024 with implications for 2025-2026. There are 10 UG and 15 grad on
    exploratory list.  

Report of the Vice President for Research
Interim Vice President for Research, Dr. Connie Schall, provided the following report with updates from the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

• Research Mixer April 19, 2024 
  4-6 pm, Phoenicia Restaurant, Student Union, Main Campus
  Focus on staff who assist with application submission, reports and other associated administrative tasks to strengthen networking connections for these individuals. Light food and beverages served. 
  
• Budget Completion and Proposal Endorsement
  Initiate proposal in InfoEd (replaces the Proposal Intake Form) to request assistance from the Office of Research and Sponsored programs on budget development and document preparation as early as possible. 
  Complete the budget and route for endorsement at least 
  • • 10 business days prior to proposal submission deadline for proposals without subrecipients
    • 15 business days prior to the submission deadline for proposals with subrecipients
      Important Notes
      • Turn off pop up blockers – instructions provided 
      • If directed to a previously reviewed proposal, clear our browser cache

Questions may be addressed to: infoed@utoledo.edu. 

Report of the Graduate Student Association 
Maha Zeidan, President of the Graduate Student Association (GSA) had a schedule conflict not permitting attendance.  Annual report of GSA will be given during the April 16, 2024, GC meeting.  

Information and Discussion Items  
Recognition of Outstanding Graduate Students - Spring 2024 
The call for nominations for outstanding graduate students in the fall saw a large number of nominations that were split between two cohorts, one in fall 2023 and one in spring 2024. Students graduating in Fall 2023 were prioritized and invited to be recognized by the GC at its December 12, 2023, meeting.  
 
Chair Lawrence was pleased to welcome the spring 2024 cohort and their graduate advisors who were able to attend today’s GC meeting.  They were congratulated and will receive a certificate of recognition. Additionally, this list will be included with the GC Report to the Board of Trustees. Graduate Council looks forward to continuing this tradition next year.  

 

Standing Committee Reports
Report of the Curriculum Committee 
Dr. Mai Dao, GCCC member presented the committee’s report.  

The proposals listed below were reviewed by the members of the GCCC with recommendations to approve. [The proposals were approved unanimously.] 

 The proposals listed below were approved by the members of the GCCC. 

 
Report of the Membership Committee 
On behalf of the Membership Committee, Dr. Svetlana Beltyukova, Chair, presented a summary report for Graduate Faculty Membership for Spring I 2024 for applications received between November 22, 2023 through January 29, 2024.  

 

Of the 28 applications, there was only one pending application which appears to be missing signatures, which may be a PDF issue. 

Reminder:  External Applicants from Academia 
Generally approved with Adjunct membership status. However, the committee received a couple of applications where Special membership was requested. The Membership Committee expressed value in seeing more justification and explanation if there is a specific concern or reason to Special membership, for example, if needed to chair a committee.  

A replacement member will be needed beginning summer semester as the current member from the College of Arts and Letters is retiring end of this semester. We would appreciate having a new representative in place connect with that person to explain the process.  

Chair Lawrence replied that the GC Executive Committee would reach out to identify a replacement as the work of this committee is critical.  

Old Business 
Call for Nominations, Graduate Council Executive Committee AY24-25 
Chair Lawrence stated that colleges are in the process of electing new representatives to Graduate Council for academic year 2024-2025. New Council members are invited to the April 30, 2024 GC meeting when election of executive committee for the new academic year occurs. Those interested in serving can reach out to someone for nomination, self-nominate, or nominate someone with their approval in advance. 

New Business 
Discussion of proposed resolution on college funding support for graduate students 
GC will consider a resolution on college funding support for graduate students over the next couple of meetings. We think it is important with our role in shared governance, particularly as the budget process is ongoing and not yet finalized regarding college-budget-funded graduate and teaching assistants, and because the budget was unresolved last year prior to the end of the term of Graduate Council. It is not known whether the colleges are facing budget cuts. Interim Provost, Dr. Scott Molitor, did report at Faculty Senate on March 26th that the administration was working with finance and at this point, at least a year week ago, focusing primarily on looking for budget reductions from non-academic units across the University. That would include administrative support and everything  at the University before having to look at potential reductions in academic budget allocation for academic affairs and the colleges. Academic affairs has taken a significant amount of budget cuts over the last few years. The Provost and Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs have been informed that GC will be considering a resolution.  

We acknowledge that there are graduate programs and graduate students who are self-funded and there are many successful graduate programs in which that model has worked, and in many cases graduate programs are exploring that as an opportunity to bring in new graduate students. And we all recognize that we have a number of graduate programs and students who are funded from external research support and other mechanisms such as employers or governments. The focus here is on graduate programs that have historically been supported from College of Graduate Studies that would provide allocations to the colleges directly into graduate programs of stipend and/or tuition waiver support for newly admitted and continuing students.

In the last few years IBB budgets have been managed by colleges and they have seen extensive budget cuts as high as 10% that resulted in rapid and unexpected pull back of support reducing funding available to support newly admitted graduate students to a number of graduate programs across various colleges. As a result, many programs saw a significant reduction in the number of newly admitted students. In some cases, deans and colleges had to make very difficult budget decisions on those allocations. Some returning students saw a reduction or reallocation of funding with colleges trying to find other ways to provide support.  

The proposed draft resolution is presented today for Graduate Council to acknowledge its concern on this matter as part of the mission of the University, the strategic plan, and many other teaching research and student success at this institution, is in many cases, from a large number of gradual programs that have traditional been dependent on what referred to as college-funded support for stipends and tuition waivers. College deans are having to make very difficult decisions in terms of their budget cuts last year greatly reduced the availability of that funding. The proposed resolution is coming to GC from the Executive Committee for open discussion, clarification or friendly amendments. Over the next two weeks, please review and think about the impacts as you discuss with graduate faculty and programs that you represent. The resolution will be brought to Council under Old Business for vote at its April 16, 2024, meeting to determine whether there is support to move forward for vote. 

Discussion: 
Dr. Patty Relue echoed that the last round of budget cuts saw its graduate budget decimated. She sought clarification whether the proposed resolution is suggesting that beyond funds provided by the individual academic colleges, that some of the budget stays in the College of Graduate Studies? The concern is there are budgets in both the colleges and COGS, the colleges will quickly utilize both as they have to make cuts. There should be a nest egg that is untouchable to continue to fund graduate programs. It is a risk even now as we do not know the fiscal year 2025 budget. Lack of implementation of IBB while working in IBB is challenging.

Chair Lawrence replied that there would be two pools of money. With IBB, we are in an environment where colleges have base budgeting and stipend waivers have been built in. The deans face tough decisions regarding replacing staff and faculty vs. continuing supporting new graduate assistants. Deans are doing best they can to support academic programs and graduate students, but they are fiscally limited. We are looking at broader view of the institution. If our mission in strategic plan focuses on a number of initiatives in which funded graduate students traditionally funded graduate students are key resource, we need to think of institution-wide strategic reinvestment plan, especially when enrollment and budget is stabilized, can we look at a pool of money to support grad programs where colleges find it difficult to do so.  

Dr. Sharon Barnes expressed gratitude to the GCEC for doing this work.   

Dr. Jami Taylor questioned whether we should be encouraging the administration to look at things like tuition scholarships, which if not mistaken, were eliminated a few years ago, instead of the very costly stipend and tuition waiver model?  

Chair Lawrence responded that we didn't kind of get into the nuts and bolts of what a long term strategic reinvestment plan. For institutional budget support for graduate program above the college budget For institutional budget support for graduate program above the college budget.

That could be built into that plan is looking at. Those opportunities where tuition waiver scholarships are tuition scholarships could be reintroduced back in as a way to help support graduate students and programs. Offers of funded admission to new graduate students with, with the waiver being the financial incentive so to speak. Yes, that could be part of that discussion. I just like, we didn't want to get 2 in the weeds on. What a long term strategic Reinvestment plan would look like. Our thoughts were to share, articulate and put on record as a strategy. 

Dr. Connie Schall suggested whether it would be beneficial to include a reduction of out-of-state surcharge for graduate students.  

Chair Lawrence agreed that it is another tool mechanism. And it depends how much detail we want to put in the resolution. The COGS has made some effort in allocating more money, so that that incentive could be broadened as well. 

Chair Lawrence responded that he would recirculate to Graduate Council following this meeting and he encouraged Council to feel free to discuss or send him comments/amendments.

The updated draft will be brough to Graduate Council on April 16th for formal vote of approval. In the spirit of shared governance, we need to speak as a body on this issue. We owe it to the graduate faculty we represent to go on the record, while understanding the reasoning behind it, suggesting possible alternatives and entering into a dialogue with the administration on budget planning. If passed, Dr. Lawrence will share with Dr. Hammel, Acting Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs and Interim Provost, Dr. Scott Molitor. As part of Chair Lawrence’s report to the BOT in April, there will be mention that Graduate Council is working on a resolution to present to the administration.  

Dr. Kandace Williams requested transparency of current budget for graduate students. COMLS has 90% of our students do not receive tuition waivers or stipends even though they are in clinical programs. We may not be able to continue our one and only Ph.D. research program next year because there are no incoming students. Can we know how many are funded for Main Campus graduate programs by college? Most may be teaching assistants, which of course, HSC does not have undergraduate programs that would require TA support. Before approving, it would be nice to know the budget and the number of students receiving funding via stipend and tuition waivers.  

Chair Lawrence replied that prior to IBB model, GA/TA funding was held in COGS budget, which allocated funds after requesting a budget allocation from the academic colleges to support new and continuing students. He was not aware of any overarching discussions for transparency in terms of COGS indicating your reporting of how it was broken out. It was basically negotiated between COGS and the colleges and their programs. We would not be aware of each college’s budget and how they are making those allocations. It is still early in the budget process and it would be helpful to know how much in terms of possible budget cuts the colleges can anticipate that might impact their allocations for FY 25. 

Dr. Williams reiterated that COMLS has not received GA/TA support, but that it receive a 10% budget cut.  

Chair Lawrence reminded Dr. Williams that about a year ago, the GC had started to survey and collect data to get a sense from the deans at that time what impact this was going to have. However, many of those decisions on that budget, including the graduate allocations, were not decided by the end of April and some of those decisions roll right into to May, which is very late in the budget process. That information gather was incomplete. From discussions with graduate faculty, we know that several colleges saw a reduction in funding. A number of graduate programs receive $0. Because of the size of the budget cuts, there was a significant reduction of college funding. It is a fair question and something to think about in terms of getting some better information. The bigger issue is we know there is a problem by the comments that you have made. We are aware that has had an impact and it looks like it is going to continue. We do not know exactly what the fallout from fiscal year 2025 will be. The path that Dr. Williams mentioned of graduate programs not having new cohorts, over time, is going to have a significant impact on the ability to deliver those program. Traditionally, college-funded graduate students contribute to graduate programs, research and teaching support and other initiatives. I can see how much we can gather on that, but, in the meantime, the principle concern we have overall is that we are seeing an impact and we are concerned about the sustainability of many of our graduate programs.  

Adjournment 
There being no further business, the Council adjourned at 1:41 pm.