College of Graduate Studies

Graduate Council Minutes

January 23, 2024

Present:     Marcelo Alvarado-Vargas, Brian Ashburner, Sharon Barnes, Larissa Barclay, Qian Chen, Mai 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, Bindu Menon, Ling Na, Megan Petra, Patricia Relue,
                    Barbara Saltzman, Youssef Sari, Connie Schall, Joseph Schmidt, Rebecca Schneider, Hossein Sojoudi, Kuo-hui Su,
                    Jami Taylor, Varun Vaiyda, Jerry Van Hoy, Eileen Walsh, Kandace Williams, Maha Zeidan (GSA).

Absent:      Saurabh Chattopadhyay, Zahoor Shah.

Excused:    Wissam AbouAlaiwi.

Guests:      President Gregory Postel, Interim Provost Scott Molitor, Chief of Staff VP Govt. Relations, Diane Miller,
                    COGS - Teri Green, Tara Hanna.

                    3MT Award Recipients: Upasana Shrestha, Emma Elizabeth Sabu Kattuman, Md Zubayer Hossain Saad.
                    3MT Graduate Advisors: Bruce Bamber.

 

Call to Order, Roll Call, and Approval of Minutes
The meeting was called to order and roll called. The Minutes of November 28, 2023 were approved.

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

Welcomed Council back following winter break.

• GCEC January 16, 2023
  Preparations for spring schedule 2024 with guest speakers and topics including President Postel at today’s GC meeting on January 23^rd and Interim Provost Molitor to join GC on February 20^th. We appreciate their joining us each semester.
  Priorities in addition to regular business:

• • Planning for FY 25 budget
    How we can engage in that process. GC Chair, Dr. Lawrence and Vice Chair, Dr. Barbara Saltzman, meet on a monthly basis with Interim Provost Molitor.
  • Program Prioritization
    In relation to graduate programs particularly. University is moving quickly through this process and we will look closely for opportunity for feedback.
    Provost Molitor will provide to Graduate Council and Faculty Senate, updated lists from the Deans have prepared on how they are engaged in their college.
  • Graduate Policies
    Regular academic policies up for review that affect graduate students and programs. They are in the review process, internal review and to Graduate Council committee.
  • Curriculum
    Expect significant number of proposals including notifications of programs that have been inactivated. We need to allow sufficient time for these reports.

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

• Policy – Graduate Grading – new policy under development
  The existing policy applies only to undergraduates, so there is a need Graduate Grading policy. We have created a new
  draft policy.  COGS is reviewing before it is sent to the Provost’s Chief of Staff, Dr. Angela Paprocki, GC Chair. She will send the
  draft policy to Dr. Patrick Lawrence and to the Faculty Senate President as well.

• Program Prioritization
  Inactivation of programs, has to go to the Chancellor’s Council on Graduate Studies (CCGS) of the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE). Two options are:
• • Suspension of Admissions
    Stop admitting to the program, however, there is chance it will be brought back or there are currently students in program to be taught out. The suspension can last up to five years. If not reactivated, it is discontinued. If brought back, there is a reactivation form at state level -much less onerous than creating a new program.
  • Discontinuation
    Can only do if there are no students in the programs
    
    
• Pipeline  -  Combined Bachelor's/Master's Programs
  ODHE refers to pipelines as combined bachelor’s/master’s programs. Financial aid eligibility is a concern if students are taking classes that, as part of this combined bachelors/masters, count at the graduate level, but  do not  fill  a requirement at the undergraduate level.  In this case, students might not be eligible for financial aid.
  
  
• CCGS January 19, 2024 -online
  Were endorsed a Ph.D. proposal with over 50% online credit hours. The proposal,  from BGSU, was 85% online and 15% in person, and was a modification of an existing program.  The CCGS chair thought that this was the first primarily online program approved by CCGS, which turned out to be incorrect (see Associate Dean Snyder’s comment below). We may see some 3+3 Professional Doctoral programs. We have something similar with JD 3+3, but may see this moving into PT and OT have opportunity 3 undergraduate and 3 graduate. This has not approved yet by CCGS, but are expected to be forthcoming.

Dr. Rebecca Schneider noted that UToledo proposed and had approved a fully online Ph.D. in Special Education several years ago.

Chair Lawrence noted Patrick in terms of suspending admission, there is a pathway/routing in CIM that triggers notification to GC Curriculum Committee to report back to GC. This is for informational purposes. We do not have the authority to make decisions about offering or not offering, but there is a mechanism for notification and we can of  course, provide comment.  

Dr. Hammel added that the state is notified as well.

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.

• Outstanding Scholar nominations – deadline February 26, 2024
  Recognition of researchers (up to 20 faculty or full-time staff) with highly acclaimed publications of scholarly work (excludes undergraduate textbooks) or highly acclaimed contributions in creative activities, such as performances or works of art. The scholarly work or creative activity should:

• • Occurred over the past three years (2021-2023) from efforts at UToledo
  • Contribute to the University of Toledo mission
  • Have clear evidence of national and/or international recognition as appropriate to the discipline

• Recommendations on AI use in Research
  NSF and NIH expressly prohibit use of AI for proposal reviews

• • NSF reviewers are prohibited from uploading any content from proposals, review information and related records to non-approved generative AI tools.
  • "NIH prohibits NIH scientific peer reviewers from using natural language processors, large language models, or other generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies for analyzing and formulating peer review critiques for grant applications and R&D contract proposals."
  • NSF proposers are encouraged to indicate in the project description the extent to which, if any, generative AI technology was used and how it was used to develop their proposal.

      NIH - Notice NOT-OD-22-044  
      December 14, 2023 Notice
      Notice to research community: Use of generative artificial intelligence technology in the NSF merit
      review process |  NSF - National Science Foundation

• Recommendations on AI Use in Research
  Do NOT use generative AI technology with the following inputs or prompts:

• • Proprietary information– this could be a violation of non-disclosure agreements
  • Inventive information or intellectual property that you may be able to protect through copyright or a patent application
  • Complete manuscripts you plan to submit for publication when being the first to report critical findings is important
  • Confidential or personal identifying information
    When serving as a reviewer for a research proposal for a funding agency or for manuscript review for a publisher do not submit any portion of the research proposal, manuscript, or any personal information to an AI platform

      Low risk inputs to or uses of AI

• • Publicly known data
  • Generated output for public consumption (e.g., marketing material)
    
    
• InfoEd: Budget Completion and Proposal Endorsement
  When preparing a proposal, InfoEd is completely replacing proposal intake form, doing clean up on website. Complete a budget and route for endorsement 10 days prior to submission. Process will replace RSP 100. Act immediately when you see in your email. Urge chairs and associate deans to designate a delegate so that you have a second person can respond to endorsements in a timely manner.
  
  
• Protocol Trainings
  Spring semester 2024 schedule of trainings
  • IRB:  https://www.utoledo.edu/research/rsp/irb/IRB-Training.html
  • IACUC:  https://www.utoledo.edu/research/rsp/RC/animal/
  • IBC:  https://www.utoledo.edu/research/rsp/RC/biosafety/

Discussion:
Dr. Patty Relue sought clarification on the varying number of required endorsement areas sometimes one, sometimes several.

Dr. Schall replied that that she is seeing various stages of proposal development and that she would bring to the attention of InfoEd group. A guidance document on proposal development will be prepared and distributed for further use in assisting faculty.  

Dr. Relue pointed out that budget development is difficult and asked if faculty can utilize the existing budget template used previously which everyone understands very well, and send to the grants coordinator for entry.

Dr. Schall responded that that the Excel budget sheets are not going away soon. However, she pointed out that system to system submission in NIH requires that the budget be developed in InfoEd. Otherwise, not necessary.  There are implications that are being discussed internally. Guidance forthcoming. Faculty will receive direction from the coordinator at this time.

Report of the Graduate Student Association
Maha Zeidan, President of the Graduate Student Association (GSA) reported:

• Midwest Graduate Research Symposium – Saturday, April 6, 2024
  Information forthcoming as well as requests for judges.
• Campaign on Food Insecurity
  GSA working on campaign on food insecurity to bring more awareness to any food security and security issues that may be happening with students on our campus.
• Social Events
  Planning is underway for a couple of social events.
  
• General Assembly meetings
  Returning to some in-person meetings, which we are looking forward to.
• Treasurer position vacant
  Treasurer, Niraj Manandhar, graduated early in December 2023 instead of Spring 2024, leaving a vacancy. Our budget is frozen, meaning no requests will be approved until we get a new treasurer and review the budget. Additionally, we slightly exceed budget in a few areas last semester so we are pausing until we determine how best to allocate the remainder of funds.

Information and Discussion Items
Recognition of Winners of 3MT Competition, Coordinator Teri Green and Finalists and Graduate Advisors
Ms. Teri Green thanked Council and President Postel. The 3MT has become a signature event of the College of Graduate Studies.  The competition was held on November 30, 2023, at 6:00 pm on the Health Science Campus, Health Education Building, Room 105, with 50+ attendees. We host this competition at UToledo in supporting skills development for graduate students in research scholarship in creative endeavors. We are also building a cross disciplinary research culture throughout campus that supports excellence, and we're also growing in enhancing external relations for the university and graduate studies. The institution’s winner is invited to attend the regional competition at the annual Midwest Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) meeting on April 5, 2024 in St. Louis, MO.

The 3-Minute Thesis (3MT®) is a research communication competition that challenges students to communicate the significance of their thesis or dissertation (all 80,000 words) without the use of props or industry jargon, in just three minutes while using one PowerPoint slide. 

Ms. Green shared a PowerPoint presentation recognizing the 6^th Annual 3MT competition winners and finalists. Each recipient was recognized.

Honorable Mention $ 75  l  Md. Zubayer Hossan Said
College of Medicine and Life Sciences
Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology
Graduate Advisor:  Dr. Bruce Bamber
“Black and White and Hundreds of Shades of Gray in Between”

Runner-Up (2^nd place) $225  l  Upasana Shrestha
College of Medicine and Life Sciences
Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology
Graduate Advisor:  Dr. Jason Huntley
“Wonder Bacteria: Shielding our Waters with Microbial Magic”

First Place $350 and People’s Choice $100  l  Emma Elizabeth Sabu Kattuman
College of Medicine and Life Sciences
Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology
Graduate Advisor:  Dr. Sailaja Paruchuri
“Cysteinyl Leukotriene Receptors Promote Melanoma Progression and Metastasis”                                     

Each of the winners expressed their appreciation for the experience to participate in this competition. And for the support of their advisors, their colleges and for the College of Graduate Studies for hosting this event.

Chair Lawrence thanked the event organizers, the judges, the graduate faculty and the Graduate Council. He extended congratulations to all of the participants.

Discussion with President Gregory Postal
President Postel thanked Chair Lawrence for inviting him to attend Council to answer questions and add commentary. Chair Lawrence shared the following questions with President Postel in advance of today’s meeting.

Q1:   Can you provide us an update as to your priorities (and that of the Board) for this year-2024?

Q3:   We understand that you are currently arranging in-person meetings with each academic college this spring term, by meeting
        with us today can you provide Graduate Council the same insights, comments or information planned for those colleg
        meetings (if you are prepared to at this time?

        The response to questions 1 and 3 are very much the same. However, the content of the college meetings will be a more detailed
        review than time allows today going through many of the priorities for the coming year. President Postel encouraged council
        to attend the upcoming sessions scheduled individually with the colleges beginning next week. Universities are places where we
        depend on talent and good people to do our work. We have some critical leadership searches underway. Most prominent is
        provost search with two finalists submitted by a large search committee, led by Dr. Marc Seigar, Dean of the College of Natural
        Sciences and Mathematics. Candidates have visited campus twice and are moving forward with collecting information from
        groups who met with the finalists and references and are in detail process. We anticipate being able to select a new Provost in
        a few weeks following negotiations. There are a number of dean searches underway for the College of Medicine and Life Sciences,
        the College of Nursing, and the College of Arts and Letters. There will be other Dean searches later, namely the College Law, as
        there is an interim there. Would like provost to weigh in on dean searches since deans report to Provost. We are in the final stages
        of a search for a chief medical information officer. It is critically important to have an individual to help further refine electronic
        health records and revenue cycle management processes in the hospital and physicians group.

        Other priorities not listed in any particular order as in regard to our relatively new Strategic Plan. We are working the Board of
        Trustees defining next steps in implementation and timeline and in making sure responsible parties are identified for the many
        tasks associated with driving the success of the plan. Concurrently, we are doing a refresh of campus master plan of prior 10-year
        plan, instituted about 5-6 years ago, with help of Smith Group out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Many of the things in the plan have
        been accomplished, however, a scarcity of resources has a way of slowing things down.  Five years in, we were due for a refresh.
        We brought the Smith Group back and a committee is working with them for the next five years. Some of things remain and there
        are some new items. As we get into spring there will be an opportunity to preview what we are thinking about. We are reviewing
        with deans and academic support units on both campuses for input in the detailed decision making.

        All facilities are being looked at, academic buildings, clinical facilities, residential facilities support, athletic venues, etc. We have a
        beautiful campus but parts are getting old and approaching the stage of being beyond repair. As we think about the longevity of
        the institution and being able to attain our long range strategic goals, we have to make sure we have great facilities, beyond
        adequate, in which we do our work, is critically important. The plan would entail work done over several years and financed over
        many years to make the cost manageable.

        We are working with UToledo Health on a variety of projects. It is a relatively young organization, less than one year old that
        brought the hospital and physicians group together into a combined structure for improved efficiencies, patient experience,
        access, quality of care, access to care, range, get paid for and document care provided, reach out to community. Very exciting
        opportunities.

        Other priorities we are working to develop a new branding and marketing campaign for UToledo, with two major pieces,
        enrollment and healthcare services. After an extensive RFP process, BVK has been selected to be our branding and marketing
        partner. They are a national firm with great reputation that has worked with numerous academic institutions on academics and
        the healthcare side. They will give us candid assessment and opportunities for upgrading and modernizing our brand, our
        messaging understanding how to do a better job advertising our value. The goal is to create a more generalized awareness of the
        quality, and the value of  health care, education and the research, and all the work that is done at UToledo. We are very excited
        about this six-month project that will conclude in June with some dramatic recommendations as a result.

        We are working with Huron Consulting in next stage of our strategic enrollment management function with many more projects
        underway than time permits to describe here. We are at a stage now where a lot of pieces of enrollment operations have been
        improved, but not all working together as optimally as they should. Finding ways to synthesize silos of competence to get all the
        teams working together. Campus experience and coordinate different areas of enrollment approach: Admissions work together
        with the college deans, campus experience for student visitors, as well as the various enrollment approaches: online, transfer,
        international, and direct from high school, which have different plans but yet needs to be commonality that is clearly articulated.
        President Postel was pleased to announce that applications for fall 2024 are up 5%, and with hard work, we would like to get that
        number up to 10% by late spring. It is everyone’s job to minimize summer melt that has hurt us the last couple of years. Once
        people express interest in UToledo and apply, we have to keep them interested, get them enrolled and on campus.

        There are multiple priorities and you get the sense from what I am describing that we have very very heavy lifting: hiring,
        enrollment, marketing, UToledo Health Organization, Campus Master Plan, Strategic Plan. We are doing all this during this
        academic year as all are critical. I am blessed to have good people to work with who do not mind rolling up their sleeves to get a
        lot of work done this year.

        President Postel encouraged Council to attend college President visits over the course of the next month to hear more about
        these topics.

Q2:  Many faculty remain concerned about potential state legislation that could greatly impact academia in the State of Ohio
       (for example provisions in Senate Bill 83)-are you able to provide us an update on such legislative actions and the responses
       by UToledo?

We spend a lot of time thinking about, talking about, and strategizing with our counterparts at the other State universities in Ohio and the Inter-University Council. SB 83 is the bill that has attracted the most attention last year. Made it through the Senate and has stalled for quite a while in the House, without an adequate number of supporting members to push it through to the governor’s office. It is our understanding that conversations are continuing between the leadership of these two organizations to further modify the bill to make it more acceptable in general to the house. We do not know the details of those conversations. Diane Miller and her team in Governmental Relations team are in tune with these issues. Eli Faes, Director of State Government Relations, has an office in Columbus across from the capital and we have two part-time lobbyists with their ear to the ground, as well as constant conversations at the IUC trying to provide input to the elected officials who opine on these matters. There is nothing to be voted on that we are aware of.

Q4:  As Colleges proceed with Program Prioritization, can you comment on how that process for graduate programs relates to
        the priorities as outlined in the UT Reimaged Strategic Plan?

Q5:  It seems that college deans are suspending admissions or discontinuing graduate programs without concern for the
       strategic plan, the research enterprise, and obtaining or maintaining R1 status. Will the new provost have the ability to
       coordinate budget decisions regarding graduate programs to achieve our strategic plan goals or will these decisions
       continue to be made based solely on college budget priorities?

It is the job of the Provost to do this work with academic units, study institutional research data, work with deans and academic leaders to understand their priorities, assets they have and wish to attain, opportunities and demand for their courses, research and clinical work, as well as understanding how these align with the overall strategic plan, and then distribute resources accordingly, which includes graduate programs. There is not a cookie-cutter model as the results are based on different circumstances. It is a common misconception that decisions around academic priorities that those are made in the President’s and Finance Office. We do have a fiduciary responsibility to stay solvent, however a majority of details of how that is accomplished are through conversations with Provost and leaders of academic units. Interim Provost, Dr. Scott Molitor, is doing an exceptional job working with all deans to understand these things. The Provost coordinates efforts with me and with finance so that we are all on the same page, but to very clear, those are academic decisions and note one size fits all decisions, but rather a college-by-college basis.

Final Comments
President Postel described his plan to be very visible this semester with a series of 10 college presidential visits with colleges and one for staff and perhaps another. When there are so many critical projects underway, there are opportunities for miscommunication, so we want to make sure we share accurate information, hear concerns, and make sure that we do our very best when we can to incorporate the input into the decision making. We have tremendous opportunities. It is exciting to think about the things we are going to be able to accomplish through the work of these priorities.

I understand it is also a scary time in higher education. People who do what we do for a living are treading new ground as we go into unexplored territory and making decisions that higher education has not been challenged to make before.

I will be speaking to head a panel at the Helio campus with leaders from about 100 universities in the Midwest and Mid-South on the topic of how we begin to address in a data informed way some of the most significant challenges we are all facing. Society is not uniformly accepting higher education as a good thing. The demographic data shows a decrease in the number of graduating high school students in many parts of the country. We all face greater challenges, keeping our finances in balance with financial factors, such as inflation, as we try to hold tuition flat, and aging campuses. Funding research is expensive and we want to do more of that, but that requires more support. There are solutions, although not simple. It is understandable that there is angst, compounded with political instability or issues in the general assembly, or concerns about safety in the world. There are a lot of reasons for angst, not all unique to UToledo.

President Postel expressed his appreciation to the Council for all they do to serve as great role models for students and patients and carrying the torch of higher education.

Standing Committee Reports
Report of the Curriculum Committee
Dr. Mai Dao, committee member presented the committee’s report, which included a  link to the proposals for full, direct view of the proposals.  [Council approved unanimously.]

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

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 Fall II 2023, for applications received between October 10 through November 21, 2023. The committee reviewed 30 applications this cycle with few issues. There are a couple of applications pending endorsement signatures and have been approved pending signatures.

Reminders:

• • External applicants from Academia = recommend ADJUNCT status, unless specifically requested otherwise.
  • Part-Time Faculty cannot have Professional, Associate or Full membership. Full-time employment at UToledo is necessary.

Old Business
None.

New Business
Dr. Hammel pointed out that we are aware that that the Graduate Faculty Membership Application form is onerous, and are investigating ways to improve to a more automated workflow form. We thought we had one, but ran into issues. We are continuing to look into solutions.

In discussion about Graduate Faculty Membership status at CCGS in the fall, we discovered that we are an outlier with the greatest number of membership statuses. Most have three, but we have five. We can be an outlier if not problematic, but I wanted to point this out.

Adjournment
There being no further business, the Council adjourned at 2:00 p.m.