College of Graduate Studies

Graduate Council Meeting Minutes

September 17, 2024

Present:    Marcelo Alvarado-Vargas, Saad Andalib (GSA), Brian Ashburner, Tomer Avidor-Reiss, Dan Boden, Qian Chen,
                   Jennifer DeVries, Jim Ferris, Bashar Gammoh Rafael Garcia-Mata, Dan Hammel, Noela Haughton, Ed Janak, Ahmad Javaid,
                   Andrea Kalinoski, John Laux, Patrick Lawrence, Ed Lingan (for Kristen Keith), Ling Na, Nagalakshmi Nadiminty, Megan Petra,
                   Patricia Relue, Barbara Saltzman, Youssef Sari, Angela Scardina, Beth Schlemper, Connie Schall, Zahoor Shah,
                   Snejana Slantcheva-Durst, Hossein Sojoudi??, Kuo-hui Su, Varun Vaiyda, Jerry Van Hoy, Eileen Walsh, Kandace Williams,
                   Jianlong Zhu.

Absent:     David Giovannucci, Marcella Kehus, Qiuying Zhao.

Excused:   Mai Dao.

Guests:     Svetlana Beltyukova, Scott Molitor, COGS -Tara Hanna, Teri Green, Yasmeen Hamdah.

 

Call to Order, Roll Call, and Approval of Minutes
The meeting was called to order and roll called. The Minutes of September 3, 2024, meeting were approved.

Executive Reports
Report of the Executive Committee of the Graduate Council
On behalf of Graduate Council, Chair, Dr. Barbara Saltzman welcomed Council and provided the following report:

• Speakers for Fall 2024 are in the process of being invited and confirmed:
  -   September 17
       Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Scott Molitor will be joining the Council meeting today at
       1:00 pm. We only received one question for Provost Molitor ahead of time, however, he indicated that would be happy to take
       questions that arise.
  -   October 29
       Interim President, Matt Schroeder, will attend the October 29, 2024, meeting with GCEC soliciting questions from GC ahead of
       that meeting,
   Dates tbd for invited speakers:
   -  Alana Malik has confirmed speaking on Assessment
   -  Wade Lee, University Libraries
   -  Bre Simkin, Institutional Recruitment
   -  Speaker(s), Artificial Intelligence
  
  
• Policies
  Several policies will be up for review, with the most important one to our body being the graduate grading policy. A noteworthy mention is the removal of the PR grade as an option. The understanding behind this is that there should be a defined contract/expectation for a semester’s work set ahead of time on theses, projects and dissertations, such that the PR grade is unnecessary. PR grades can be problematic particularly when faculty leave the institution and then there is no one to go back and change them to final grades. The timing was such that the policy was being worked on over the summer when the GC was not in session. We will have the opportunity to provide feedback when it goes out for public comment shortly. Dr. Dan Boden will bring up one of our ad hoc committees later in reference to this.

• Graduate Recruitment Committee
  Led by Dr. Barbara Kopp-Miller and Dr. Dan Hammel, this committee had its kickoff and will be working on reviewing university graduate marketing processes, creating communication and collaboration processes to support programs, identifying Slate content experts in each college, identifying road shows for programs to be represented at, as well as making recommendations for additional advancements and changes aligned with graduate recruitment. The committee is assessing the interface of programs with the public via the website. If you identify any breaks in the functioning of websites with respect to connecting the public to our available programs, please bring those to the committee’s attention.
  
  
• Board of Trustees Meeting - September 25, 2024
  Chair Saltzman will report on the Graduate Council’s activities at this meeting.

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

• Graduate Recruitment Committee
  This committee is looking at the many different recruitment processes of our graduate programs and identifying the successes. Starting from the beginning stages of assessing the experience of potential student’s process of utilizing UToledo’s website, from contact to application.
  Hammel clarified that this committee is independent of the prioritization process.
  
  
• Annual Meeting of the Graduate Faculty – date tbd early Spring 2025 (please include the actual date now that we know it).
  
  
• Graduate Open House – date tbd early Spring 2025
  This event is intended for UToledo undergraduate students interested in our graduate offerings, including pipeline programs. A similar event, held in January 2024 in Carlson Library, was quite successful and well-received. Attendees will have their graduate application fee waived after applying within a few weeks following the event.
  
  
• Graduate Student Programming
  College of Graduate Studies Newsletter September 2024 was distributed to graduate students on September 10^th and was also shared with graduate program directors and associate deans for their reference. Some programming featured:
  -  Info Sessions: Three Minute Thesis (3MT®)
      Wednesday., September 11, 2024, 5:30 p.m. & Fri., September 13, 2024, 12 p.m., Microsoft Teams
  -  Grant Writing 101 Workshop (offered in coordination with the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs)
      Wednesday., September 18, 2024,  12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m., Collier Building Room 1035
  -  Electronic Thesis & Dissertation
      Virtual Labs -Weekly, Microsoft Teams
  -  Graduate Writing Workshop
      Understanding the Process & Debunking Myths (offered in coordination with the Writing Center)
      Monday, September 23: 12 – 1:30 p.m., Carlson Library 1005
  
  
• Enrollment Fall 2024
  Hammel provided a brief report on our census of enrollment for graduate students.

Report of the Vice President for Research
Dr. Connie Schall, Interim Vice President for Research reported the following:

• Research Mixers 2024-2025
  The link to Research Mixers with more information and downloads to your calendar is https://www.utoledo.edu/research/rsp/calendar/#events/tag/research%20mixer
  -  Monday, October 7, 2024, 10 am, HSC, CCE Theater 1200
      Evaluations Using AI
      Scott Pappada, Associate Professor & Director of Research for Anesthesiology, discusses how he is using AI for Evaluations
  -  Thursday, November 14, 2024, 2:00 pm, MC, Student Union, Phoenicia Restaurant
      Ohio Humanities - Dr. Melvin Barnes, Jr., Program Officer
  -  Monday, January 27, 2025, 11 am, HSC, CCE Theater 1200 UToledo Foundation
      Foundation staff discusses collaboration
  -  Thursday, February 6, 2025, 4 pm, MC, Student Union, Phoenicia Restaurant
      Visually Striking Research - Dr. Eric Zeigler, Associate Professor of Art
  -  Tuesday, April 8, 2025, 9:30 am, MC, Carlson Library, Main Event Space 1005
      Faculty Fulbright Scholar - Fulbright faculty alumni panel
  
  
• Research Protocol Preparation and Training
  Study teams are encouraged to reach out to the HRPP office with any questions they have about the application. One-on-one meetings are encouraged. Principal Investigators should review applications for clarity, consistency, and accuracy prior to signing off.

• IRB training page:  https://www.utoledo.edu/research/rsp/irb/IRB-Training.html

• IACUC training page:  https://www.utoledo.edu/research/rsp/RC/animal/

• IBC training page:  https://www.utoledo.edu/research/rsp/RC/biosafety/

Report of the Graduate Student Association
Saad Andalib, Vice President of the Graduate Student Association (GSA) reported:

• General Assembly Meeting - Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 6:30 p.m. via WebEx
  We will be selecting our college representatives for 2024-2025. This semester, we will hold an in-person General Assembly meeting on Wednesday, October 16, 2024.
• 16^th Annual Midwest Graduate Research Symposium
  Scheduled in-person on Saturday, April 12, 2025. The GSA is beginning to assemble a committee to begin planning.
• Homecoming Parade
  GSA will participate in the 2024 Homecoming Parade

Information and Discussion Items
Discussion with Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs —
Dr. Scott Molitor
Dr. Molitor congratulated Council member, Dr. Dan Boden, on his new position as board member of Sylvania Schools, and thanked him for his service. In addition to responding to the question posed by the Graduate Council, Dr. Molitor stated he would discuss other initiatives and answer questions.

Q:   What is the current process for graduate program prioritization and what actions are anticipated for the list of graduate
      programs identified for further exploration for continuance/modification/sunset last spring? 

•   Program Prioritization
    Provost Molitor explained that when Matt Schroeder assumed the role as Interim President, he thought it important to identify
    programs to emphasize and invest in to potentially grow. He will work with the Board of Trustees to identify some sources of
    funding.  This complicated the focus on trying to get input on programs that would potentially sunset, coupled with the need for
    a process to identify and receive input on programs that we would potentially want to invest in.

      This could be further complicated by the fact that these programs could be in areas that we do not yet offer. Of course, it is
      dependent on findings relative to student demand, job market, financial analyses, course offerings and such.

      It became apparent that we needed a more holistic review of not just the programs on these lists, but a review of all of our
      offerings to figure out where they fit in the overall grand scheme in determining whether this is something that potentially would
      be a target for investment? The idea was that Provost Molitor would enlist the colleges to essentially provide a review of each of
      their programs a quantitative measure, whether it be a ranking or a priority on their individual programs, with a third party or
      objective review. This would be followed by funneling to a university committee, which would in turn review and provide
      recommendations to the Provost.  Dr. Molitor mentioned having spoken with Faculty Senate leadership (Dr. Jerry Van Hoy and
      Dr.Tomer Avidor-Reiss) who also serves on Graduate Council, about a week prior. This idea was not popular. Accordingly, Provost
      Molitor indicated that he was rethinking whether to return to the strategy of coming up with a process to review the programs that
      are on the list and sunsetting, as well as determining an alternative way for colleges to suggest programs for investment, existing
      or new. The Provost’s intent is to have a draft of that process for faculty and administration, deans, associate deans, and chairs
      input by the end of September to determine how to move forward on a process. One criterion is that the process be used on
      a regular basis to review our offerings, and not for one-time use.

      Regarding the need and the demand to offer those programs, regardless of the process, the metrics will involve the PowerBI
      dashboard that was developed by Institutional Research that includes metrics like our own internal enrollment and degree
      completions. It also includes external metrics such as our overall completion rates in regional schools.

      Trends indicate where enrollment completions are heading, not only at UToledo but in institutions in our region. Also provided is
      employment demand.  Additional information can be provided that is more qualitative than quantitative such as how research,
      scholarship and productivity in specific areas factors in. We must consider how to factor in the relationship between the
      undergraduate programs and the core curriculum offerings. Looking at low enrolled courses, getting away from devoting faculty
      workload towards courses with low enrollment is a priority for this review process as well.  After receiving feedback, Provost Molitor
      indicated he would welcome the Graduate Council's thoughts on the need for a wider review versus a narrower focus. Following,he
      would communicate with the deans the President. Provost Molitor invited questions and comments.

     Discussion:
     Dr. Rafael Garcia-Mata questioned whether the number of students was the main driver of identifying the programs for further
     review.

     Provost Molitor responded that low enrolled programs will undergo a review process to determine if changes are required. The
     driver does not have immediate cost savings. The only way to save costs on any program is if there were part-time instructors or
     visiting instructors devoted to these programs. Tenured or tenure-track faculty are primarily involved in the delivery of graduate
     programs. The savings are in terms of what we can do to reallocate workload to divert faculty time and workload away from
     teaching courses that have low enrollment to doing other things, whether it be teaching courses that have higher enrollment or
     more attention to research, scholarship and service as needed.

     That is the immediate focus. Long-term, there would potentially be savings as we have attrition of faculty. If you are not offering
     those programs there is not a need to replace a faculty member in that particular area. That provides the opportunity to reallocate
     those resources to areas where we do want to invest and grow.

     Chair Saltzman asked whether the moving of faculty time, whether toward teaching or research, would be decided by department
     chairs, college deans and the faculty or elsewhere?

     Provost Molitor replied that the workload is at the department level, so those conversations would be happening with certainly with
     the chairs and presumably it would include the deans as well. He did not anticipate the Provost level getting involved in the minute
     details of reallocating resources.

     Dr. Garcia-Mata stressed the importance of having a wide range of programs to attract different population of students, adding
     that some programs are worth having despite low enrollment.

     Provost Molitor indicated that it is worthwhile identifying specific reasons for maintaining some programs even though they may
     have low enrollment. For example, a low-enrolled graduate program that is required to support teaching and undergraduater
     programs or research efforts, particularly those that are externally funded or in situations where the students’ tuition is being
     provided is covered through external funding. While there are reasons to maintain low-enrolled programs, justification needs to be
     provided, the rationale to maintain these programs and ideally the plan to increase enrollment. And some of the challenges we
     have in terms of resources are promotion, advertisement and marketing of these programs.

     We also must keep in mind that what is sustainable with limited bandwidth, not only in terms of the personnel we have who are
     devoted to marketing, communications, and enrollment management, but also, you can end up competing with yourself if
     students are overwhelmed or confused. Limited resources and bandwidth are considerations associated with program offerings. In
     a sense, we do have to be somewhat selective.

•  Provost Division Organization Chart
   As has been shared in other forums such as Faculty Senate and the Academic Leadership Team Meeting, Dr. Molitor shared the
   Provost division organizational chart, briefly discussing the rationale for some changes that occurred over Summer 2024.
   Beginning  with some organizational changes proposed last spring we looked at bringing in Student Affairs. Dr. Sammy Spann still     leads that group and has several direct reports which reports directly to the Provost.

     Changes continued into the summer by bringing the Community Engagement and Strategic Partnerships Office as well as the
     and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into the Provost Office. Valerie Simmons Walston and Malika Bell continue to
     represent their respective areas. We were looking at undergraduate student success and we made a lot of strides in terms of
     overall graduation retention rates of students over the years. In fact, this year our retention rate has increased 1.4 % from the
     previous year.

     However, we are still handling challenges in terms of retention and graduate rates from students from underserved and
     underrepresented populations, Black and brown students, and Pell grant-eligible students. Accordingly, we are rethinking our
     support processes for students to make sure that they continue to be engaged and have the tools that they need to succeed.

     Incoming President Schroeder also made it clear that he wanted to emphasize our ability to improve the overall student
     experience of life on campus as well as how that actually directly relates and interacts with our academic offerings. Thus, making a
     more direct tie of the student experience outside the classroom to the student experience inside the classroom. He also wanted to
     emphasize the idea of what he calls ‘winning in our backyard’ by asking what we can do to be a university with many nationally
     and internationally recognized as well as in our own region. He sees part of that as connecting more directly with the community.
     We ask ourselves, how can we directly connect our students and the community, and how can we get the community to engage
     directly with our students? Of note, this was something that was part of the Art and Science report that came out Fall 2023 listing
     things we could do to promote not only our institution but our region itself and ensuring that that is a positive selling point for our
     students. We also wanted to increase the amount of experiential learning opportunities and direct career connections with our
     programs so that students can see directly what they can do in their future careers. It pairs skills and the education obtained in
     their programs.

     This led to the President Schroeder tasking the Provost’s Office with development of an overall student success plan with the focus
     is undergraduate student success. We wanted to make these areas part of our overall strategic enrollment planning process. This is
     not to say we are not interested in graduate student success, but retention and graduation rates in our graduate programs already
     are very high.

     Students who start those programs tend to finish them. The student success plan will integrate proposed changes to advising and
     other areas that being looked at, making sure that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, as well as community engagement efforts,
     are incorporated into the overall student experience.

     That was the rationale for these organizational changes. Incorporating these areas into the Provost Office does not mean that
     these efforts are not continuing. We still have DEI, Community Engagement, and Student Affairs with a goal of integration with the
     academic enterprise coupled with more ability to enroll and graduate our students and see that they are successful when they
     move on into their future careers.

     There were no comments or questions from Council.

•  Upcoming Accreditations and Certifications
   Higher Learning Commission (HLC) mid-cycle report, is a standard report that we provide to HLC on the pathway that we are on, is
   due in 2026. Groups are being organized for each of the five criteria associated with HLC accreditation to gather indicating that we
   are meeting accreditation standards. More information to follow.
  
  
•  Jason Huntley has left UToledo for a position at Texas A&M University. Heather Huntley, Assistant Vice Provost for University
   Accreditation and Program Review in the Office of Assessment, Accreditation and Program Review will be leaving soon, so a plan
   will be developed to transition for an oversight of those accreditation initiatives. Once completed, we will continue working on the
   HLC committees.
  
  
•  Carnegie Community Engagement Classification
   Valerie Simmons Walston has organized a group led by Dr. Monica Holiday Goodman, Associate Dean for Student Affairs & Diversity
   and Inclusion in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, who has also spent some of her time working on
   community engagement efforts, is leading the ongoing efforts to renew our Carnegie Community Engagement Classification,
   which is due in December 2025. Similarly, a report is due for submission in April 2025 connected to Innovation & Economic
   Prosperity Program of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities.
  
  
•  Artificial Intelligence
   Some Graduate Council members are being invited to participate in various subcommittees related to start looking at ways we
   can or should utilize AI here at UToledo. The overarching coordinating committee includes: Provost Scott Molitor, Angela Paprocki,
   Chief of Staff for Academic Operations and Associate Vice Provost for Institutional Effectiveness, Bill McCreary, Chief Information
   and Technology Officer, Janelle Schaller, Deputy General Counsel from the Office of Legal Affairs, Gerald Natal, Associate Professor,
   Health Science Librarian from University Libraries, and Bhuiyan Alam, faculty member in the Department of Geography and
   Planning, College of Arts and Letters and Letters, who is serving as a Provost Office faculty fellow, who wanted to take on this project.
  
   There are six subcommittees, each with a focus area:
   -  Healthcare
   -  Policies and Ethics
   -  Professional Development needs
   -  Research and Scholarship
   -  Teaching and Curriculum
   -  Technology

      To ensure we receive a wide range of input, the subcommittees will be tasked to provide a survey opportunity for faculty, staff and
      students on each of the topics resulting in providing recommendations on areas where we should think about pursuing or not
      pursuing AI and what our needs are to develop technologies, policies, procedures and guidelines.

•  Strategic Enrollment Committee
   Thanks to Dr. Dan Hammel and Dr. Barbara Kopp-Miller for their leadership, co-chairing a committee devoted to strategic
   enrollment efforts for graduate enrollment. We are completing a process of strategic enrollment planning, which we have done
   this in the past, but for the first that he could recall graduate education is included as part of a strategic enrollment plan.

     Discussion:
      Dr. Tomer Avidor-Reiss asked how faculty should be informed and trained in learning to use AI in the classroom as it becomes a
      major tool in the future.

      Provost Molitor responded that a couple of the subcommittees will address AI. One is teaching and curriculum, and another is to
      address needs for training and professional development.

      Dr. Patty Relue noted that over the summer her college had put funding into tech cred to train faculty on using AI and are working
      with a local company to do that. Although the contract, likely focused on research and education, is being worked on for
      deliverables, anyone interested in available space should contact Dr. Relue.

      Provost Molitor thanked Dr. Relue for sharing an excellent idea and opportunity with Council.  He also thanked the Council for their
      time and the opportunity to meet with them.

Graduate Council (GC) Standing Committees Membership, Call for Volunteers
Dr. Dan Boden, (GC) Vice Chair, reviewed the Standing Committees of the Graduate Council and the seats available that need to be filled. He will be reaching out to Graduate Council members to serve, and committee chairs will be contacting existing members to verify continuation.

Dr. Dan Hammel stated that the Graduate Student Affairs Committee reviews graduate research funding, approximately ~$2,000, with most proposals coming from COMLS, NSM and a few in Engineering with most being Ph.D. students. He thanked Dr. Kandace Williams and Dr. Jonathan Bossenbroek for their continued work on this committee with opening for a couple more seats. Last year there were approximately 16-18 proposals.

Standing Committee Reports
Report of the Curriculum Committee
None.

Report of the Membership Committee
On behalf of the Membership Committee, Dr. Svetlana Beltyukova, Chair, presented a summary report for Graduate Faculty Membership for Summer I 2024 for applications received between April 9 – June 3, 2024, and Summer II 2024, for applications received between June 4, 2024 – August 12, 2024, for a total of 48. The committee is populated and working well.

Notes:

• External Members from Academia and not from Academia.
• The Membership Committee tries to be consistent in endorsing adjunct for external members who are from academia and special for external members who are not from academia.
• Signature Issues
• Whether they appear or not is sometimes a PDF-related or they may actually be missing signatures. Following verification of signatures, decisions/letters will be released.
• No Terminal Degree
• Endorsements from chairs and deans are very important, especially when it comes to the applicant not having a terminal degree. The evaluations need to be explicit in indicating the equivalency.
• A couple of cases where doctoral students did not yet have the doctoral degree, we made in clear that their Special membership level would be limited to teach at the master’s level only.

Summer I 2024 (applications received between April 9 – June 3, 2024)
                

Summer II 2024 (applications received between June 4 – August 12, 2024)

Old Business
None.

New Business
None.

Adjournment
There being no further business, the Council adjourned at 1:35 p.m.