Graduate Council Minutes
April 1, 2025
Webex
Present: Bhuiyan Alam, Marcelo Alvarado-Vargas, Saad Andalib (GSA), Brian Ashburner, Dan Boden, Qian Chen, Mai Dao, Jennifer DeVries, Bashar Gammoh, Rafael Garcia-Mata, David Giovannucci, Dan Hammel Noela Haughton, Ed Janak, Ahmad Javaid, Andrea Kalinoski, John Laux, Patrick Lawrence, Nagalakshmi Nadiminty, Megan Petra, Patricia Relue, Srinivas Saladi, Barbara Saltzman, Youssef Sari, Beth Schlemper, Connie Schall, Joseph Schmidt, Zahoor Shah, Snejana Slantcheva-Durst, Hossein Sojoudi, Kuo-hui Su, Varun Vaiyda, Jerry Van Hoy, Qiuying Zhao.
Absent: Tomer Avidor-Reiss.
Excused: Kristen Keith, Eileen Walsh, Kandace Williams.
Guests: Terri Green, Drew Saltzstein - (COGS).
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. Barbara Saltzman reported:
GCEC leadership meeting with Provost Scott Molitor April 1, 2025
GC Chair, Dr. Barbara Saltzman and Vice Chair, Dr. Dan Boden met with Provost Molitor and received the following updates:
- Low-enrolled program decisions coming forth soon (undergraduate and graduate).
Provost Molitor will be meeting with other Provosts statewide to discuss impact of Senate Bill 1 (SB1) before final decisions are made. SB 1 rules would take effect July 1, 2025, which would only affect new students as current students would be taught out.
- Position Search Updates
- College of Business and Innovation Dean search - will take place prior to VP of Research.
- Vice President for Research search is underway with candidate submissions incoming. Phone interviews should occur late April/early May with finalist interviews hopefully scheduled for late May.
- President search - no updates.
- Provost searches – no updates.
Graduate Council 2025-2026
Vice Chair elected for 2025-2026 will become the Chair in 2026-2027. Think about this position and make recommendations to current Chair Saltzman and current Vice Chair Boden.
Graduate Council Meeting April 15, 2025
- Outstanding Graduate Student Recognition – Graduate Council meeting April 15, 2025
Nominations have been received, and outstanding recipients and their graduate advisors will be invited to attend the Graduate Council meeting April 15, 2025, to be recognized by the Graduate Council on behalf of the graduate faculty.
- Estimating Required Doctoral Research Enrollment to Maintain R1 Status
Dr. Anne Fulkerson, Assistant Vice Provost for Institutional Research and Md Ayubur Khan, Sr. Institutional Research Analyst, from Institutional Research will attend to discuss.
Report of the Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs
Dr. Dan Hammel, Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs provided the following updates:
April is a very busy month for COGS, a lot of admissions activities and four events:
R1 Celebration
Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm, Savage Arena
COGS has been allotted space for small display for 3 of our University Fellows and
a display for 3MT winners of the fall 2024 competition. We are looking forward to
this and turnout from community.
Responsible Conduct in Research Training
Saturday, April 5, 2025, 9:00 am – 2:15 pm, Memorial Field House
Thanks and appreciation to those faculty who have volunteered as break-out session leaders, and to Dr. Scott Hall and Mahesh Pillai, presenters Dr. Patty Relue, Wade Lee and Lucy Duhon in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, as well as COGS staff, Teri Green and Yasmeen Hamdah. Students very much appreciate the training.
Graduate Student Appreciation Week
April 7-11, 2025
This is a national event, and accordingly we want to recognize our graduate students with programming scheduled throughout the week. https://www.utoledo.edu/graduate/success-center/appreciation-week.html.
Midwest Graduate Research Symposium
Saturday, April 12, 2025, Memorial Field House
https://www.utoledo.edu/graduate/success-center/mgrs.html
Will the first in-person symposium since 2019. Saad Andalib, GSA Vice President, has worked diligently to make this happen. Participation will be twice as large as last year, but smaller than earlier years of in-person events. There are participants from universities outside UToledo. Judges are needed, ~20. Please consider volunteering.
Judges Sign-up form https://forms.office.com/r/SZ3HuHymps
Attendee Registration form https://forms.office.com/r/1jkB1qLBr8
Fall 2025 Graduate Applications
As of March 30th, there are 2061 applications across all graduate programs, not including JD or MD,
applications are down about 8-9% from last year but are up 2% from 2 years ago. Some
colleges are using a 3rd party review of international transcripts. It does not seem to have made a significant
difference in the number of applications, but we will take a closer look when final
numbers are available. While there are fewer graduate programs, some of those programs
with low numbers of students may have had a reasonable number of applicants.
Offers letters need to be processed and signed. To date, I have signed about 30 offer letters for 2025-2026. The delay in offers can affect enrollment. I expect to see additional incoming offer letters. We asked colleges to estimate graduate enrollment for 2025-2026, which was optimistic. Barring any substantial changes, we may be flat, noting that graduate enrollment is not dropping at the pace of undergraduate enrollment. Associate Deans inquired about the number of research assistants funded by the university.
Spring 2025:
290 teaching assistants, including about 40 doing internships and clinical work.
203 research assistants.
45 pre-doctoral research assistants (first year COMLS Ph.D. students funded from
grant
indirect costs).
30 administrative graduate assistants - most in Student Affairs under the Provost’s
Office.
Their assistantship should be related to their academic degree.
568 approximately total funded graduate students.
Vice President for Research search update
Dr. Dan Hammel serves on this committee as does Interim Provost Scott Molitor. Interviews
should be scheduled for the end of May. There is no access to review materials yet.
Graduate Student Commencement
Friday, May 2, 2025, 6:00 p.m., Savage Arena
COGS needs Graduate Faculty volunteers. Please notify Terri Hayes if you can serve.
Marshals Two, with one already identified.
Readers Two (if student does not have pre-printed card, a reader reads those names)
Report of the Vice President for Research
Dr. Connie Schall, Interim Vice President for Research provided a brief report.R1 Celebration
Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm, Savage Arena
Faculty are encouraged to attend to view interesting displays and the array of research
being conducted across the university.
Report of the Graduate Student Association
Saad Andalib, Vice President of the Graduate Student Association (GSA) reported:
Midwest Graduate Research Symposium
Saturday, April 12, 2025, Memorial Field House
https://www.utoledo.edu/graduate/success-center/mgrs.html
To ensure we have a successful in-person symposium, we are still in need of about 20 more judges., particularly in the colleges of Medicine and Life Sciences and Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Please consider signing up and spreading the word in your departments and programs. Postdoctoral researchers and professionals holding terminal degrees can serve as judges in this year’s symposium.
Additionally, all Graduate Council members are invited to join as attendees. Your participation would be greatly appreciated.
General Assembly Meeting
March 26, 2025, 5:30 p.m., Health Science Campus at Collier Building, Room-1200. This
was the
third assembly meeting this spring semester and was held in-person. Total attendees 48.
Discussion:
Dr. Qian Chen inquired about GSA funding to support the Biological Sciences Research Symposium which had not received funding this year as in the past.
Dr. Dan Hammel replied that because the GSA budget had been cut, there is no longer additional funds to support other events.
GSA has easels for which they receive requests to borrow. There was a suggestion for GSA to charge for rental of easels as a stream of revenue for the GSA. And notably, we are losing our storage space for them. They are big and heavy.
Information and Discussion Items
Standing Committees
GC Vice Chair, Dr. Dan Boden, thanked Terri Hayes for working with the college Deans
and Associate Deans for GC representation for 2025-2026. At the April 29, 2025 Graduate
Council meeting, we will be holding election officers for next year. We will need
to decide how we conduct GC meetings whether in-personal, virtual or a mix of both.
This could be a consideration for some members. some in mode. We will work to seat
committees as promptly as possible after the new GC is in place.
Standing Committee Reports
Report of the Curriculum Committee
GC Chair Barbara Saltzman report on behalf of the GC Curriculum Committee:
The proposals listed below were reviewed by the members of the GCCC with recommendations to approve. [Council approved unanimously].
| Action | College | Department | Proposal Title | Program / Course Code |
| NCP | CE | Educational Studies | Mixed Methods Research: Theory & Application | RESM 6240 |
| PCR | CE | Teacher Education | Curriculum and Instruction, ME | CE-CURI-ME |
| PCR | CE | Educational Studies | Higher Education, PhD | CE-HIED-PHD |
| PCR | CE | Educational Studies | Foundations of Education – Foundations of Education Concentration | CE-FOED-PHD |
| PCR | CE | Educational Studies | Foundations of Education – Educational Psychology Concentration | CE-FEEP-PHD |
| PCR | CE | Teacher Education | Curriculum and Instruction – Special Education Concentration, PhD | CE-CI-SP-PHD |
| PCR | SM | Chemistry and Biochemistry | Chemistry – Green Chemistry and Engineering Concentration, MS | SM-CHEM-MS-GRCE |
| NPP | SM | Physics and Astronomy | Photovoltaics, Graduate Certificate | XX-XXXX-CRG |
| PCR | SM | Chemistry and Biochemistry | Chemistry, MS | SM-CHEM-MS |
| PCR | SM | Chemistry and Biochemistry | Chemistry, PhD | SM-CHEM-PHD |
| PCR | SM | Physics and Astronomy | Physics, MS | SM-PHYS-MS |
| PCR | CE | Educational Studies | Educational Administration and Supervision, DE | CE-EDAS-DE |
| PCR | PH | Pharmacy Practice | Cosmetic Science and Formulation Design, MS | PH-CSFM-MS |
| PCR | PH | Medicinal and Biological Chemistry | Medicinal Chemistry, PhD | PH-PHMC-PHD |
| PCR | PH | Medicinal and Biological Chemistry | Medicinal Chemistry, MS | PH-PHMC-MS |
| PCR | PH | Pharmacology | Pharmacology and Toxicology, MSPS | PH-PTOX-MSP |
| NCP | PH | Pharmacology | Principles and Methods of Forensic Toxicology | PHCL 5800 |
| NCP | PH | Pharmacology | Laboratory Quality Assurance and Quality Control | PHCL 5810 |
| NCP | PH | Pharmacology | Drug Metabolism and Molecular Toxicology | PHCL 6800 |
| NCP | PH | Pharmacology | Forensic Toxicology and the Law | PHCL 6810 |
| NCP | PH | Pharmacology | Forensic Toxicology Capstone | PHCL 6820 |
| PCR | MD | Family Medicine | Physician Assistant, MSBS | MD-PHYA-MSBS |
| PCR | PH | Pharmacy Practice | Doctor of Pharmacy, DPH | PH-PHARM-DPH |
| PCR | EN | Civil and Environmental Engineering | Microbiome and Multi-Omics | BIOE 4530 / CIVIE 5530 |
| PCR | AR | Philosophy | Philosophy, MA | AR-PHIL-MA |
Discussion:
Regarding the Program Revision for Green Chemistry and Engineering concentration,
MS., Dr. Relue questioned whether this program would still retain its Professional
Science Master’s degree designation (PSM). Dr. Joseph Schmidt, of the Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry, replied that it will likely not be a PSM and that the
designation is going away overall. Additionally, we may no longer be associated with
the PSM society. Dr. Patty Relue will contact Dr. Mark Mason, the program contact.
The proposals listed below were reviewed and approved by the members of the GCCC.
| Action | College | Department | Proposal Title | Course Code |
| CCR | CE | Teacher Education | Trends in Literacy Acquisition | CI 6400 |
| CCR | CE | Teacher Education | Diagnosis of Reading Disability | CI 8430 |
| CCR | MD | Physician Assistant | Diagnostic and Therapeutic Skills II | PHYA 5220 |
| CCR | CE | Teacher Education | Content Area Literacy | CI 6410 |
| CCR | PH | Pharmacology | Principles and Systems Toxicology | PHCL 5730 |
| CCR | PH | Pharmacology | Toxicokinetics | PHCL 5760 |
| CCR | BU | Accounting | Auditing | ACCT 4420 / 5420 |
| CCR | SM | Chemistry | Advanced Materials Chemistry | CHEM 4800 / 6800 |
| CCR | SM | Mathematics | Actuarial Mathematics II | MATH 4770 / 5270 |
| CCR | CE | Teacher Education | Curriculum Adaptations & Strategies in Early Childhood Education | SPED 4080 / 5080 |
| CCR | PH | Pharmacy Practice | Cosmetic Science Formulation Lab | PHR 6750 |
| CCR | CE | Teacher Education | Internship / Student Teaching in Language Arts | CI 6250 |
| CCR | CE | Teacher Education | Internship / Student Teaching in Social Studies | CI 6260 |
| CCR | CE | Teacher Education | Internship / Student Teaching in Mathematics | CI 6270 |
| CCR | CE | Teacher Education | Internship / Student Teaching in Science | CI 6280 |
Report of the Membership Committee
None.
Old Business
None.
New Business
None.
Adjournment
There being no further business, the Council adjourned at 1:21 pm.