College of Graduate Studies

Graduate Council Minutes

October 3, 2023

Present:    Marcelo Alvarado-Vargas, Brian Ashburner, Tomer Avidor-Reiss, Sharon Barnes, Larissa Barclay, Saurabh Chattopadhyay,
                   Qian Chen, Mai Dao, Jennifer DeVries, Jim Ferris, Timothy Fisher, David Giovannucci, Dan Hammel, Noela Haughton,
                   Andrea Kalinoski, Kristen Keith, Addison Kittel (GSA), John Laux, Patrick Lawrence, Bindu Menon, Ling Na, Barbara Saltzman,
                   Youssef Sari, Connie Schall, Zahoor Shah, Snejana Slantcheva-Durst, Kuo-hui Su, Jami Taylor, Varun Vaiyda, Jerry Van Hoy,
                   Eileen Walsh, Kandace Williams, Jianlong Zhu.

Absent:     Halim Ayan, Bashar Gammoh, Megan Petra, Rebecca Schneider.

Excused:   Patricia Relue.

Guests:     Teri Green (COGS), Alana Malik, Sheryl Milz, Timothy Mueser.

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. Patrick Lawrence reported:

• GCEC Meeting of September 26, 2023
  Approved two replacements to Research Council for Spring 2024, extended term of Kevin Czajkowski appointed summer 2023 to cover Dan Hammel’s sabbatical to include all of AY 2023-2024, and a replacement for Tomer Avidor-Reiss from the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, who is on sabbatical spring semester 2024, Dr. Mark Mason will serve as the replacement.
• Upcoming Guests to Graduate Council
• Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will be invited to speak to Graduate Council with regard to the impacts from the Supreme Court decision in 2023 effectively eliminating the use of affirmative action in college admissions.
• October 31^st Graduate Council meeting - Dr. Scott Molitor will be speaking to Council with any updates from the Provost’s Office as well as addressing questions or concerns of the Graduate Council. I will collect questions GC has for Interim Provost Molitor.
• Census Day
  Data trends and shifts in graduate enrollment compared to last year including those impacted by college budget reductions for returning and new graduate assistants.
• Annual Meeting of Graduate Faculty – October 11, 2023, via Webex
  Will be given by Acting Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs, Dr. Dan Hammel.
• Monthly Meeting with Interim Provost, Dr. Scott Molitor - September 28, 2023
  Discussed items of graduate education and students:
• Review of graduate student policies, timeline.
• Continuing to address enrollment operations, training, etc., to improving procedures, processes, and policies for graduate affairs and operations.
• Shift PDF forms to workflow trackable system, similar to CIM for curriculum, for example, the Graduate Faculty Membership Application process may be utilized in Faculty180.
• Catalog Clarifications
  - Aligning listing of graduate programs with multiple specializations.
• Clear on modalities of instruction of graduate programs so that students are well informed whether the program is offered completely online, face-to-face or hybrid.
• Preliminary discussions of possible alignment of the Colleges of Health and Human Services and Nursing
  The focus would be student success. A committee including representatives for undergraduate education and GCEC will work with Dr. Hammel to create similar group for graduate education.
• PRS and PRU Grades
  Cleaning up grading policies with PRS and PRU should continue to remove challenges they create for students and delivering grades that reflect performance so that their transcripts are complete.

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

• Annual Meeting of the Graduate Faculty slated for October 11, 2023, 3:00 pm.
  An invitation is forthcoming for the It will be recorded for those who are unable to attend. Topics of interest may be directed to GC Chair, Dr. Patrick Lawrence. 

• Changes to Slate
  As it relates to the Supreme Court decision summer 2023, Students for Fair Admissions v. both Harvard College and the University of North Carolina, which prohibited admissions decisions based on race.
  • In order to protect admissions committees from liability the University has chosen to remove information on applicants’ race and ethnicity.
  • Our admissions team also worked hard to make sure that the outward facing functions in Slate did not change and the application portal remained as straightforward as possible.
  • Race and ethnicity information may still be necessary to collect for other federal agencies and/or grant related requirements.
  • The only way to accomplish this in Slate involves removing the option of downloading full applications to pdf. The best route will be to create workflows in Slate for committee members to send recommendations to the program director.
  • In the short-term, committees need to move forward using Slate as a ‘reader’ for viewing applications.

• Undergraduate to Graduate Pipeline Programs
  • Likely to see an increase of these pipeline programs being proposed.
    - Recruiting tool both at the undergraduate and graduate master’s level.
    - Savings of time and money with 9 hours overlap of graduate courses at undergraduate rate.
    - Can apply for graduate program at around 60 undergraduate credit hours.
  • Terminology concerns.
    - These are not 4+1 programs. They are more commonly 4+1.5. Many programs take longer than one year of graduate study for completion.
  • The curricular process is not complicated, but it is unique
    - Dual curricular proposal at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the same time.
    - Not new programs, but program modifications.
  • Guided by strict ODHE policies
    - For exceptionally well-prepared students. Expectations that entrance standards will be higher than for regular master’s programs. It is a great opportunity, but it is a risk. If students are not fully prepared, it could endanger their ability to complete their undergraduate degree.
    - ODHE approval is not required, but notification is provided.

• Accessible Theses and Dissertations
  • Pilot Stage of Enforcement
  • Minimal Digital Accessibility Standard
  • OhioLink policy went into effect February 1, 2023

We are in pilot stage of checking for accessibility in establishing a baseline. We are establishing a minimum accessibility standard (OhioLink minimum standard) which is somewhat different from the state standard.  Some standards include alt text, images with descriptions beyond auto generation text, and charts require descriptions. It will take some time to get up to standard as are other institutions.

OhioLink is checking for standards and we are going to start checking as we move forward. We are not going to stop anyone from graduating in the near term. Many journals already require these standards as well. Accessibility is necessary in academia and in business. This becomes professional development for our graduate students.

Teri Green is working with the University Library on draft development.

• COGS Organizational Chart
  We are generally more thinly staffed than our counterparts throughout the State. BGSU has a smaller staff since they moved their graduate admissions function to Admissions.
  
• Chancellor’s Council on Graduate Studies (CCGS) Ohio Graduate Deans Retreat – Oct. 5-6, 2023
  Among the agenda items is a discussion on artificial intelligence pointing to the future on how students should or should not use.  Could be in syllabus form and/or policy form.

Discussion:
Dr. Schall inquired where student demographic should be obtained that is required for grants.

Dr. Hammel replied that it is a complex issue with some federal programs that are race-based. Census data would be obtained from Institutional Research. Legal advice will be key.

Dr. Kandace Williams noted the T32 grant is disadvantaged based. Socioeconomic and geographic are considerations. We are discussing with Dr. Dilip Das eligibility terminology to use the application process.

Chair Lawrence responded that Dr. Dilip Das, Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, will be invited to Graduate Council for discussion.

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

• Federal Government – continuing resolution 45 days
  Awards with mid-November end date
  - Evaluate if a no cost extension will be requested – submit a request no later than mid-October to the Office of Research
     and Sponsored Programs
  - In case of a federal government shutdown, agencies will be prohibited from issuing new grants/contracts or amendments,
     including those for continued funding increments, supplements, or no cost time extensions requiring explicit prior Federal
     awarding agency approval.
  - Ensure that required award reporting is up to date. PIs should continue to meet all deadlines set forth in their awards and should
     be able to submit annual and final project reports to most agencies.
• Research Mixer l Faculty Fulbright Alumni Panel l October 6, 2023
  Phoenicia’s Restaurant, 4:00-6:00pm. Co-sponsored by the Office of Competitive Fellowships.
  Panelists: Jonathan Bossenbroek, PhD, Youssef Sari, PhD, Llew Gibbons, JD, Jill Humphries, PhD (via video call from South Africa), Arwa Nouby, PhD.
• InfoEd Updates
  Production environment is live. Launch to public October 2, 2023
  UT News featured the story last week
  InfoEd Web Page and support email established (InfoEd@utoledo.edu)
  Training sessions scheduled (all on InfoEd Web Page, with links to meeting recordings)
  
• Research Compliance Training
  Training and education offered for those interested in conducting research spanning IRB, IACUC, and IBC
  -  Training dates for Protocol Development
       https://www.utoledo.edu/research/rsp/irb/IRB-Training.html
       If you need IRB training for a specific group/ department/course or have additional questions, please reach out to either
       Madison Rowe-Stanley (BioMed) or Gabby McMunn (SBE).
  -  Training dates for Research Compliance
       IACUC Training & Registration https://www.utoledo.edu/research/rsp/RC/animal/
       IBC Training & Registration https://www.utoledo.edu/research/rsp/RC/biosafety/
       If you need IBC or IACUC training for a specific group/ department/course or have additional questions, please reach out
       to Tyara Vazquez.

Discussion:
Dr. Avidor-Reiss inquired whether graduate students should attend Conflict of Interest (COI) training.

Dr. Schall replied that they should go to InfoEd platform to update as an annual update is required.  

Report of the Graduate Student Association
Addison Kittel, Vice President of the Graduate Student Association (GSA), provided a brief report:

• General Assembly Meeting l Thursday, October 5, 2023, 6:00 pm, Webex
• College Representatives 
  Graduate student representatives to the GSA are needed from the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Health and Human Services.  

 Information and Discussion Items
Assessment Overview
Dr. Alana Malik, Director of University Assessment and Dr. Sheryl Milz, Chair of University Assessment presented an overview of the curricular assessment process (see attached PowerPoint) and the previous year’s completed review cycle for 2021-2022 highlighting these key areas:

• • University Assessment Reporting Timeline
  • Summary of Graduate Program Reports
  • Highlights of Deans’ meetings
  • Recommendations to Provost

Dr. Malik and Dr. Milz will provide this presentation to Faculty Senate on October 10, 2023.

PowerPoint Presentation Slide Highlights:

• Co-Curricular Assessment
  While HLC has its own definition they have asked us to create our own definition and priorities too. HLC has defined curricular learning, co-curricular learning and extra-curricular learning.
• University Assessment Reporting Timeline
• Overview of Program-Level Reports
  Includes 85 graduate programs and 530 Data points of Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) aligned with one or more of the Institutional Student Learning Outcomes.
• Number of Data Points and Number of Programs per College
• Measurement of Student Learning
  Direct vs. Indirect, Embedded and Capstone
• Stoplight Indicator of Student Achievement
• Overview of Program-Level Reports
• Student Achievement of Institutional Student Learning Outcomes.
  Overall, programs indicated that student achievement of the institutional student learning outcomes is strong.
• Use of Assessment Strategies
• Summary Meeting with Deans l Strengths and Challenges
  - Malik met with Alana met with the Deans to review their program results. Unfortunately, we could not separate results of undergraduate and graduate. It is a snapshot of what is happening in programs.
  - Certificates must be assessed too although they generally do not have as many students as degree programs.
  - Understandably, there are fewer resources and program resources.
• Recommendations to Provost 
  - Review the certificate program assessment process 
  - Research co-curricular assessment and benchmark best practices at other institutions.

Standing Committee Reports
Report of the Curriculum Committee 
None.  GCCC Chair, Dr. Tim Mueser will report at the next Graduate Council meeting.

Report of the Membership Committee
None.

Old Business
None.

New Business
None.

Adjournment
Next meeting is scheduled October 31, 2023, with guest Dr. Scott Molitor, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. Questions for Dr. Molitor will be solicited from Graduate Council. There being no further business, the Council adjourned at
1:55 pm.