MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
March 25, 1999
PRESENT: Pamela Banks-Lee, Salah M. Bedair, Gregory E. Dale, Edwin R. Gerler, Richard D. Gilbert, John G. Gilligan, Bruce Hammerberg, Margaret F. King, Charles R. Knoeber, Gary E. Mitchell, William Oxenham, John C. Park, C. David Raper, Jr., Rebeca C. Rufty, Daniel L. Solomon, Debra W. Stewart, Paul Tesar, Beth E. Wilson and Nanda W. Irons (Recorder)
ABSENT: George T. Barthalmus, Carolyn R. Miller and Robert S. Sowell
SUBSTITUTES: John C. Cornwell for George T. Barthalmus, Gail W. O'Brien for Carolyn R. Miller
GUESTS: Chancellor Marye Anne Fox
1. The minutes of the March 4, 1999 meeting were approved.
2. Announcements:
Applications from tenured or tenure-track life science faculty members are being solicited for the NABC Bioethics Institute. The institute is scheduled for May 22-27, 1999 here at NC State. An informational brochure was distributed.
The Graduate Student Association (GSA) has reviewed all nominations for outstanding TAs. Recommendations have been made for the Alumni Association cash awards and Directors of Graduate Programs will be notified of the winners. The Outstanding TA Awards Reception, honoring all outstanding TAs nominated by their departments, will be held on April 13 from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. in the Witherspoon Center.
The annual Preparing the Professoriate competition is currently underway. Applications and additional information are available on the Web at http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/grad/prethepr/prethepr.htm. The deadline for application submission is April 23. Announcements have been sent to Department Heads, Directors of Graduate Programs, Graduate Secretaries and others.
3. The Future of Graduate Education at NC State University
Dean Stewart introduced Chancellor Marye Anne Fox to the Board and mentioned to her that the Administrative Board of the Graduate School is one of the longest-standing faculty boards on campus. Each college is represented by an elected member and seats on the Board are competed for in each college. The larger colleges have an additional appointed representative. The Graduate Board sets graduate policy, advises the university about matters of importance in graduate education and has been a leader in the development of the Graduate Student Support Plan. Chancellor Fox's background as Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Texas is indicative of her extensive knowledge of and appreciation for graduate education. With that introduction, Dean Stewart turned the floor over to Chancellor Fox.
Chancellor Fox began her remarks by saying that graduate education is the best expression of scholarship at a university and is the foundation of our Research I status. She wants the importance of graduate education reflected in her administration, hence the promotion of Dean Stewart to Vice Chancellor so that she, as Dean of the Graduate School, can be involved in deliberations at the highest levels of administration.
Chancellor Fox said that she feels the proposed 3% faculty raises for next year are not enough and emphasized the difficulties of attracting and retaining the best faculty. She would like to make the Graduate Student Support Plan, interdisciplinary program models, new faculty, new sources of revenue, and new FTEs all priorities in her administration.
A problem she has observed since becoming Chancellor is that many new program proposals are not realistic in terms of funding. New programs cannot simply be wish lists without accountability and/or commitment of upper level faculty. Internal reallocations should be related to short and long term priorities and have adequate resources. Strategic planning without financial analysis is pointless. Grass roots participation in the process is essential. She also pointed out that college/program rankings and other statistical data, including the number of full-time graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, influence the perception of scholarship level on any campus. She stressed that Board leadership is essential in the long range planning process and is necessary in each new budget cycle.
Chancellor Fox went on to discuss successful partnership initiatives at NC State. She wants NC State to be involved with industry representatives in national discussions about partnerships and the quality of teaching. Strong leadership by the Provost and the Graduate School is essential in partnership endeavors. She wants to encourage partnerships across disciplines as well as with outside agencies. Finally, she emphasized that there is very little new money coming to the university from the legislature.
A brief question and answer session followed the Chancellor's remarks. Among the issues raised were, in order to meet our intellectual goals, graduate enrollment needs to grow by one-third, although UNC-GA has projected that it will not meet that threshold. We need an enrollment model that focuses on realistic targets for new growth. It was pointed out that the mix of undergraduate vs. graduate students is the problem, not the total numbers. We are already over capacity and, without considerable additional resources (funding, faculty, facilities, etc.), we cannot continue to grow the numbers at the UNC-GA desired rate. Another issue mentioned is the problems associated with submission of proposals to the National Science Foundation through Fast Lane and procedures not permitting pre-proposals.
After Chancellor Fox left the meeting, Dean Stewart reiterated to Board members the importance of planning for the total cost of new program initiatives at the departmental and college levels prior to the proposals moving to higher levels for approval. She said that there is no need to plan unless realistic funding is identified and we are assured that the program can be delivered at a nationally competitive level. We don't want to squelch new initiatives but if they are to be compared and weighed, resource issues must be addressed. The bottom line must be, are there adequate resources to run the program with quality? Dean Stewart urged Board members to initiate discussions about funding for all new initiatives in their colleges early in the planning process. Discussion followed and the Board agreed that it would be very helpful to inventory all successful partnership and funding situations now in place on our campus and try to craft guidelines or a policy to aid faculty in estimating the actual costs of overhead. The numbers could then be presented to companies from which they are soliciting research dollars. Companies should be aware that, when paying what appears to be high overhead costs, they are actually getting research work done by persons who are not on their payrolls.
4. Report on status of Request for Authorization to Establish a New Degree Program in Genomic Science
The Genomic Science proposal was submitted to UNC-GA on March 9. The first step at that level is distribution to external reviewers whom we previously identified. We have requested that GA expedite the review process as much as possible to ensure that the proposal can be presented to the Board of Governors at their May 14 meeting.
5. Report on Status of Authorization to Establish a New Degree Program in Computer Networking
The Computer Networking proposal will be submitted to GA in the next week in a similar approval process. There were some challenges with regard to funding and the budget but they have been resolved. The proposal should be included for final approval on the Board of Governors' meeting agenda on May 14, as well.
6. Report on status of Request for Authorization to Establish a New Degree Program in Design
The Design proposal was submitted last week to the University Council for review. It should be on the Board of Governors' meeting agenda in April.
7. Elapsed Time Per Graduate Credit Hour for Intensive Courses for Graduate Credit
A draft of a proposed policy was distributed at the last meeting but discussion was postponed. Dean Stewart briefly reviewed the draft today and confirmed that a Council of Graduate Schools statement (approved by that body in 1989) is the model upon which the following policy statement is based, i.e., "The Conference of Southern Graduate Schools endorses the widely accepted norm of one week of full-time study for each semester hour (or equivalent) of credit earned in workshops, institutes or other intensive courses." The purpose of a written policy at NC State regarding the amount of graduate credit awarded for short, intensive courses is to guard against students being enrolled, faculty hired to teach and credit being unacceptably high for one week's work. A motion was made, seconded and passed to approve the following policy, effective immediately:
Elapsed Time Per Graduate Credit Hour
for Intensive Courses for Graduate Credit
Background:
1. The normal time spent in class per academic semester (15 weeks including the exam period) for a three credit hour course is 150 contact minutes per week or 2250 minutes per semester (37.5 hours). For each hour spent in class, the student is expected to spend at least two hours studying, reflecting, conducting research, and preparing papers and reports. This is a total of approximately 112 hours for three credits or 37.5 hours per credit hour received, roughly equivalent to one work week.
2. A one credit hour laboratory that is self contained, i.e., requires essentially no preparation outside of the laboratory session, normally meets three hours per week throughout a 14 week semester. One credit laboratories or problem sessions that meet two hours normally require at least one hour of time outside of class. The time commitment per credit hour is approximately 38 hours, again roughly equivalent to one work week.
3. The Council of Southern Graduate Schools has reported that the widely accepted norm for graduate credit hours earned in workshops, institutes, or other intensive courses is one week of full-time study for each semester of credit.
4. The Council also suggested that contact hours in intensive graduate courses should be at least equal to those of a regular term, and there should be adequate time for study and reflection apart from scheduled class meetings.
5. Further, the Council suggested that if the contact hours are concentrated in a period of less than one week for each credit hour awarded, there should be follow-up activities such as a research paper or the implementation of a project to be evaluated before the final grade is turned in and that time requirements should be clearly stated.
Policy:
A maximum of one credit hour will be awarded per week of full-time study for graduate courses offered by NC State University. Exceptions may be made if the course has pre-class reading assignments and other preparation and/or follow-up activities such as a paper or research project which will be evaluated before the grade is assigned. When pre-class or follow-up assignments are required, they should be clearly described in the syllabus of the course which should include the time expected to complete the requirements and how the work will be graded. The syllabus should be made available to the students prior to the beginning of the course with enough lead time to schedule the work. The syllabus should also be submitted to the Graduate School with the request to offer the course, at least 60 days before the course is to begin and before commitments are made to prospective students in the course. In no case will more than two graduate credit hours be awarded for a course that meets full-time for one week. Credit hours for intensive classes that meet less than full-time will be adjusted accordingly.
(End of Policy Statement)
8. Status Report on Omission of final doctoral examination announcements in the NC State Bulletin
Dr. Rebeca Rufty reported to the board on her discussions with the editors of the Bulletin regarding omission of final doctoral oral examination announcements in their paper version. (The Board recommended at the last meeting that these announcements be resumed.) The problem for the Bulletin editors is that many exam announcements reach them after their layout has been finalized for the paper version. To include a late announcement means changing the layout at the last minute; and if it is postponed to the next issue, the announcement appears after the exam has been held.
Since the reason for the announcements to appear in the Bulletin is to permit the University community to attend, Dr. Rufty wishes to remind Directors of Graduate Programs that oral exam requests should be submitted to the Graduate School for approval at least two weeks prior to the proposed date of the exam. Publication deadline for the Bulletin is noon on Tuesday, ten days prior to publication every other Friday. The Graduate School realizes that due to the busy schedules of advisory committee members, it is sometimes impossible to schedule an oral examination with enough lead time to include the announcement in the hard-copy Bulletin before the exam is held, but we will work with everyone who attempts to meet a publication deadline. Also, if a department wishes for an announcement to be included in the Bulletin after the fact, for informational purposes only, the Graduate Secretary may inform the appropriate Graduate School Liaison.
9. Review of Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) Resolution re offers of financial support to students
Dean Stewart distributed a copy of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) Resolution regarding Graduate Scholars, Fellows, Trainees, and Assistants, a document to which NC State University has been a signatory since 1993. She asked Board members to remind constituents in their departments that students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15, as earlier deadlines for acceptance into our graduate programs violates the intent of the resolution.
10. Course Actions:
SOC 744, Health Behavior and Interventions, 3(3-0) - New course. (The Departments of Sociology and Psychology are continuing to review this course.)
CE 509, Highway Safety, 3(3-0) - New course. Approved.
CE 561, Construction Project management, 3(3-0) - Revision in content, title, abbreviated title and description. Approved.
CE 702, Traffic Flow Theory, 3(3-0) - New course. Approved.
CE 705, Intelligent Transportation Systems, 3(3-0) - New course. Approved.
CE 706, Advanced Traffic Control, 3(3-0) - New course. Approved.
FOR 583, Tropical Forestry, 3(3-0) - Revision in number [formerly FOR 783] and description. Approved.
FOR 728, Quantitative Forest Genetics Methods, 3(3-0) - Revision in number [formerly FOR 710] and description. Approved.
FOR 733, Forest Ecosystem Analysis, 3(3-0) - Revision in content, number [formerly FOR 734], title, abbreviated title, prerequisite and description. Approved.
NR 571, Current Issues in Natural Resource Policy, 3(3-0) - Revision in content, number [formerly FOR 742], credit and contact hours, description and scheduling. Approved.
AEE(ED) 535, Teaching Agriculture in Secondary Schools, 3(3-0) - New course. Approved.
ARC 571, The Urban House, 3(3-0) - Revision in content, title, abbreviated title, prerequisite and description and addition of restrictive statement. Approved.
ECI 546, Literacy Instruction, Technology and Media, 3(3-0) - New course. Approved.
ECI 547, Teaching Children's Literature, 3(3-0) - New Course. Approved.
*VMC 989, Zoological Medicine. Approved.
*VMC 951, Companion Animal Medicine and Surgery I. Approved.
*VMC 976, Veterinary Emergency/Critical Care Medicine. Approved.
*Note: The above Veterinary Medicine Professional Courses were reviewed and approved by the DVM Professional Curriculum Review Subcommittee, Dr. Bruce Hammerberg, Chair. Copies were not distributed to Board members.
11. Next scheduled meeting:
April 8, 1999
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Alumni Conference Room