Graduate Studies

Graduate Council Minutes - December 4, 2017

3:00 – 5:00 p.m., Horrabin Hall 60/QC 2203

Members Present: J. Ehrlich, H. Hemphill, A. Hyde, K. Kapale (Vice Chair), J. Laurent (Chair), S. Szyjka

Members Absent: J. Jones, M. Stryker

Guests Present: T. Kaul, S. Ghimire, K. Mayborn, K. Daytner

Ex-Officio Present: N. Parsons

Others Present: A. Schulz

I. GRADUATE FACULTY – FULL MEMBERSHIP

A. Shankar Ghimire, Assistant Professor, Economics and Decision Sciences

Drs. Ghimire and Kaul were in attendance. Dr. Kapale asked if Dr. Ghimire has already worked with students on their committees. He responded yes, that he has worked with a few. Dr. Hemphill asked for clarification on authorship of publications and about the level of courses that are currently taught. Dr. Ghimire responded that he is first author and teaches a balance of undergraduate and graduate courses.

Motion: To approve the request. (Kapale/Hyde)
MOTION CARRIED 6 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB


II. ANNOUNCEMENTS

A. Academic integrity incident reports filed in the School of Graduate Studies, November 2017 (0)

B. Requests to serve as a reader on exit option committee, November 2017 (0)

C. Graduate Research Conference

Ms. Schulz announced that the Graduate Research Conference will be held on March 2, 2018 and the Call for Proposals would go out soon. Dr. Kapale added that the conference will need several volunteers to serve as judges and moderators. This is the fifth annual conference and will also be the year of the 75th anniversary for the School of Graduate Studies. The keynote speaker will be the recipient of the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Scholarly/Creative/Performance/Professional Activities.


III. GRADUATE CURRICULUM

A. Economics and Decision Sciences

1. Request for a New Graduate (500 or 600-Level) Course

a. DS 560, Categorical Data Analysis Using Logistic Regression, 3 s.h.

Dr. Kaul explained that this is a brand new course that is being offered as experimental in Spring 2018. The content covers an area that is missing in the curriculum that employers and students are asking to be covered. Dr. Ehrlich questioned specifically using SAS in the description. Dr. Kaul stated that employers use it specifically and the description can be changed if the university moves away from using it. Dr. Kapale asked about the response to the experimental course as far as registrations. Dr. Kaul noted that nine students are already registered.

Motion: To approve the request. (Hemphill/Kapale)
MOTION CARRIED 6 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

b. DS 600, Thesis Research, 3 s.h.

Request was withdrawn by the department.

c. DS 601, Thesis, 3 s.h.

Dr. Kaul noted that the course request needed an edit to make the course repeatable to 6 hours after the withdrawal of the request for DS 600. He also noted that students have used the ECON thesis course but it should be listed as DS for the students in the Applied Statistics and Decision Analytics program.

Motion: To approve the request with amendments to repeatability. (Kapale/Hemphill)
MOTION CARRIED 6 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

2. Request to Change Graduate Program Requirements

a. Master of Science in Applied Statistics and Decision Analytics

Dr. Kaul stated that they are changing the program requirements from 36 hours to 30 hours because of the current dependency on courses from the Mathematics Department and the recent approval to offer the program at the Quad Cities campus.   Dr. Parsons noted a few changes that were needed based on the previous curriculum approvals at the meeting.

Motion: To approve the request with amendments. (Hyde/Ehrlich)
MOTION CARRIED 6 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB


IV. OLD BUSINESS

A. Graduate Degree Options proposal

Dr. Ehrlich presented the proposal to Council for review. He noted that the line that reads “Programs may determine whether options are transcripted” needed to be changed to “Options are transcripted”. Dr. Kapale also provided and edit to the proposal so that it states “Departments must ensure that students can change options without too much hardship”.

Motion: To modify the proposed policy with the minor changes. (Ehrlich/Hemphill)
MOTION CARRIED 6 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

Motion: To approve the modified policy. (Szyjka/Hyde)
MOTION CARRIED 6 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB


V. NEW BUSINESS

A. Student Athlete absence discussion

Item postponed until the February meeting of the Graduate Council.


VI. OTHER BUSINESS

None reported.


Meeting adjourned: 3:42 p.m.