Members and Administrative Officers Present:

Absent: Katherine Ziegler

Guests: Fred Isberner

The meeting was called to order by Prof. Tyrrell at 8:00 a.m. in the Kaskaskia Room of the Student Center.

Dean Wilson announced the following proxies: Professor Kay Carr for Professor Robbie Lieberman; Professor Steve Esling for Professor John Crelling.

1. Consideration of the minutes of the October 2, 2003 Graduate Council meeting.

   With no corrections to the October 2, 2003, minutes, they stood approved as distributed.

2. Announcements-Prof. Tyrrell

   As of January 1, 2004, Keith Hillkirk of the College of Education will be the Dean's Council representative on the Council, replacing Shirley Clay Scott (COLA). Katrina Blasingame replaces Deborah Jurmu as GPSC representative. Because of the OVCR move to Anthony Hall, there have been some changes in mailcodes and room numbers, which were distributed along with the minutes at the last meeting.

3. Remarks-Chancellor Wendler

   The Chancellor and staff are continuing to deliberate on the level of tuition increases to present to the Board of Trustees (BOT), and are meeting with campus constituencies (student groups are opposed to increases). Provost Dunn and Chancellor Wendler went to a GPSC meeting to discuss the increases. They are also trying to track what other universities in the state are doing, especially the University of Illinois campuses-we want to be close in terms of numbers to stay competitive.

   The campus constituency groups will soon receive an e-mail questionnaire, compiled with the aid of Applied Research Consultants (Department of Psychology), to evaluate and provide feedback on administrative performance, beginning with Chancellor Wendler. There are about 20 items on the questionnaire. After the Chancellor, the Vice Chancellors will be evaluated, then others. The Chancellor wants to see how long the process takes, and would like to have senior administrators evaluated annually.

   We are making progress on the new programs to support teaching excellence and scholarly/creative excellence. The Provost is gathering data from the deans, and expects to issue an RFP in Spring. This process is taking longer than anticipated.

   Next week Chancellor Wendler is going to NASULGC in New Orleans and will discuss building a coalition of Delta region institutions. In Spring 2004, interested institutions will meet and focus on four issues important to the region: poverty, education, environment, and jobs. He wants to build a coalition of 30 universities to work on finding solutions for these issues. Chancellor Wendler believes that a number of these issues are already being examined by researchers on the SIUC campus and can be tied into this initiative. Eventually, he wants to get these people together to enable him to bring a list of these activities to the meeting.

   Southern at 150 (S150) and the Budget and Planning Task Force: The Chancellor is continuing to work on both and has asked all deans to respond to items that affect their responsibility areas. However, some things are already being implemented without discussion.

   The Chancellor met with the Latino Caucus of Illinois legislature, and discussed SIUC's responses to the needs of Latino faculty and students. Our efforts and results are modest, but were well received by the Caucus - they appreciate how difficult it is for us in this part of the state to get the attention of the Chicago population.

   There was a nice story in the Oct 23rd issue of Black Issues in Higher Education on our efforts to create a more diverse faculty - we were one of three universities profiled.

   Prof. Muhlach noted that Stanley Fish had been brought to UIC to improve research, but Sen. Rauschenberger recently said Illinois institutions have no business hiring researchers when we need to focus on undergraduate education. He asked the Chancellor if this view creates a problem for our S150 process? The Chancellor replied that this is just the Senator's opinion, and he believes that it is not widely shared. The Latino Caucus was impressed that we have two highly paid Latino faculty in the Medical School. We need to continue communicating about how research impacts undergraduate education, like the undergraduate assistantship program, which puts "an undergraduate face" on research.

   Prof. Dettmar asked what are the "no-brainers" in the proposed changes already being implemented? Chancellor Wendler offered the example of administrative reductions: SIUC led the state in administrative reductions by 27%. Outsourcing food services has also been discussed and he decided not to do this because the cultural costs are too high.

4. Remarks-Provost Dunn

   With respect to dean searches underway, the CASA Dean search committee has met and selected co-chairs, Professors Janet Rogers and Harold Bardo. The position will be advertised soon. The same goes for the Agriculture Dean Search Committee, Professors John Preece and Richard Rivers are chairing the committee. The Associate Provost Search Committee has been formed; Prof. Tyrell represents the Graduate Council on the committee.

   Graduate Program Development: two proposals have been submitted to Vice Chancellor Koropchak and Provost Dunn, a Physicians' Assistant masters program and a masters program in architectural studies from CASA. There are pressures and demands from accrediting bodies for such programs.

   The Budget and Planning Task Force is revisiting various issues, with subcommittees meeting. Another meeting will be held on November 14, with a report to be issued to the Chancellor by November 23 The paperwork associated with various university activities-the search approval process, for example-has been streamlined. Other things are being investigated to reduce paperwork, such as forms and the number of necessary signatures.

   The summer term is being examined because it is currently undersubscribed and we need to increase it by: (1) looking at Student Credit Hours from year to year by various academic departments and possibly offering production incentives; (2) making guidelines for scheduling of courses less varied; and, (3) guaranteeing that certain core courses will be offered.

   The Task Force examined organizational lines, for example, recommending that the Office of Economic and Regional Development report to the Vice Chancellor for Research, a transition that is now taking place. The group also is looking at differential tuition rates in business and engineering and increasing admission standards.

   Good news: Rodney Jones was nominated for Poet Laureate of Illinois, and an SIUC student selected as one of four nationally for a trip to Costa Rica. MCMA received an award for best informational programming, in which the competition included large market television stations. Students are engaged on a campus clean-up initiative the following weekend and the Provost invited faculty to join them. He announced that a strategic hire in zoology was just completed.

   As for S150 planning, the units reporting to Provost have provided their goals.

   Prof. Don Rice commented that with respect to summer programs, there is a need for improved timing of the announcement of availability of funds. Provost Dunn replied that he is aware of this need, but is focusing now on core courses. $2.3M from Provost's Office partially underwrites the cost of summer instruction.

5. Vice Chancellor for Research Koropchak

   The Office of Economic and Regional Development is now reporting to him, as recommended by Budget and Planning Task Force. This will enhance the relationship between economic development and the research mission of SIUC.

   With respect to the Washington Advisory Group report, he has organized a focus group from five different colleges to explore how to carry out a similar review for other parts of the university research mission.

   Land has been acquired for a Middle Mississippi Research Station, and he is putting together an advisory board.

   Rodney Jones is a finalist for Illinois Poet Laureate, and he hopes he is chosen.

6. Associate Dean Wilson

   The Alumni Association Outstanding Masters Thesis Award has been awarded to a student in Anthropology, Haagen Klaus, "Life and Death at Huaca Sialupe: The Mortuary Archaeology of a Middle Sican Community, North Coast of Peru." There were two runners-up: one from MCMA, a MFA thesis film by Ippei Watanabe, "Noon/Beach/August," and one from Mechanical Engineering and Energy Processes by Aik-Liang Lim, "Vibration and Dynamics of Two-Disk Disk Brake Systems with Inclusion of Surface Roughness and Wear Groove Effects." Klaus's thesis has been submitted to the Midwest Association of Graduate Schools Outstanding Thesis competition.

   Dean Wilson attended a meeting of the Illinois Association of Graduate Schools in mid-October. The IBHE attention to faculty productivity came as a surprise to IBHE staff. In addition, board staff are expecting another round of PQP, though with another name because Board members are interested in what new programs were created as well as those that have been deleted.

7. Prof. Espy

   The Faculty Senate approved the name change for the Department of Plant, Soil, and General Agriculture to the Department of Plant, Soil, and Agriculture Systems. Senators spent most of their meeting discussing proposed changes in language for the BOT's affirmative action policy, and met General Counsel Peter Ruger. They also discussed the Budget and Planning Task Force recommendations.

8. Dean Carlson

   Prof. Tyrrell noted there has been considerable concern expressed recently on the status of library funds, and particularly monograph acquisitions. He invited Morris Library Dean Carlson to discuss the library budget.

   Dean Carlson passed out handouts with charts and data (all of these handouts are available on the Graduate Council Web site: http://www.siu.edu/gradschl/council/index.html). The library materials budget was not cut, but rather level-funded; however, publishers continue to increase costs. On the operating side, the library had had a 5% reduction. Serials price increases are shown on Attachment A, which presents data for 1993-2003; we can expect a 10% increase this year. Attachment B presents historical information on journal price increases. The last two items show that cuts in the SIU Medical School budget for the library resulted in three positions lost, and the previous commitment of $56K from the Med School to support certain publications was cut in half, to $28K.

   Attachment D shows Association of Research Libraries (ARL) data for Morris Library expenditures: the number of journals subscribed to is relatively stable, and represents a substantial investment that we do not want to lose by discontinuing the subscription. But we bought fewer books as a result. Attachment E shows the same ARL data for public university libraries and indicates a ratio of 70-30, journals to monographs, but Attachment D shows the SIUC ratio has recently been 80-20. In the current budget situation, we will be lucky if the materials budget is level-funded next year.

   Chancellor Wendler (through Prof. Dettmar) asked why is our ratio different? Dean Carlson replied that he did not do a historical analysis of this, but there are only two ways to change the ratio: either get new money, or make up costs of buying journals by buying fewer books.

   Provost Dunn noted that we are having continuing conversations about how to improve library funding.

   Associate Dean Wilson noted the impacts of these problems on the nature of a research university, especially for units in the arts and humanities that often depend on monographs for their research.

9. Prof. Tyrrell

   Next month's Graduate Council meeting will be Tuesday, December 2, 8:00 a.m.

   He sent an email copy of BOT policy on affirmative action to council members, and the suggested language changes. These changes are being discussed by the Affirmative Action Advisory Committee chaired by Seymour Bryson. Susan Ford is the GC representative on the committee.

   He attended the Board of Trustees meeting at Carbondale last month. They gave approval for demolishing the barracks and some buildings in housing.

   At the last GC meeting we discussed the WAG Report, and how to get hard data to evaluate programs benchmarked against our peers. The University of Delaware has been conducting such a study for several years, and Profs. Tyrrell and Vaux discussed the problem of putting together data with Larry Schilling. He passed out two forms used by the Delaware Study - instructional and research.

   The Faculty Senate Status and Welfare Committee reported to the Senate on concerns about the Distinguished Professor award and raised three objections: (1) There are no written procedures to award the "rank" of Distinguished Professor - but GC is saying that the outstanding scholar procedure works and is in fact very similar to the procedure previously used for selecting Distinguished Professors; (2) Not all recipients of the Outstanding Scholar award are eligible for the Distinguished Professor title, the criteria not synonymous - but the GC position is that of the individuals chosen as Outstanding Scholars only those who are tenured full professors should be Distinguished Professor; (3) Because it is a rank not an award, it includes all areas of university service - but the GC says it is a title not a rank and in fact the description of the criteria for Distinguished Professor in the Employee Handbook make it clear that it can be awarded solely for research. Scholarly or creative excellence. The Senate Committee did not bring a resolution to the floor. Prof. Tyrrell maintains that the Graduate Council and Faculty Senate are advisory to Provost in this matter. The GC unanimously passed a resolution in favor of this proposal, while the FSW Committee opposed it but did not bring a formal resolution to the Faculty Senate. The matter is now in the Provost's hands and Prof. Tyrrell emphasized that he hoped the Provost would support a policy change which would recognize excellence in faculty effort.

   Good news: Prof. Tyrrell corrected the information he supplied at the last meeting on Professor Jianjung Wang. Dr. Wang is in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and his award was actually for four years and amounted to $1.1M; Professor Boyd Goodson of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry got an ACS-PRF award and his proposal was ranked first by the review panel. A TV documentary by Prof. Jan Thompson of the Radio and Television department titled "Hidden India" won two Gold Aurora awards. Four programs in Ed Psych received accreditation. Two doctoral students in Health Education, Kelly Boyd and Janet Weatherly received scholarships from ASHA and SOPHE respectively.

10. Prof. Dettmar

    A graduate student has grieved an oral exam, and a grievance committee is being put together.

11. Intellectual Property-Prof. Tyrrell

    Since a new Intellectual Property policy has been agreed to by the Faculty Association and the BOT, the Graduate Council Expanded Executive Committee introduced the following resolution to be voted on at the next meeting:

    Whereas, a new IP policy has been negotiated between the SIUC administration and Faculty Association, and this policy has been approved for application to the bargaining unit by the Board of Trustees; and,

    Whereas, it is desirable to have a single IP policy for the entire campus,

    Be it resolved that, the Graduate Council recommends that the new IP policy be adopted campus-wide, effective immediately.

    Prof. Brown asked to whom this resolution was directed and Prof. Tyrrell indicated that it would have to go to the Chancellor and possibly to the Board.

12. New Programs Committee-Prof. Colwell

    His committee plans to introduce a resolution in support of a Ph.D. degree in the College of Agricultural Sciences in December. In addition, a department in the College of Education and Human services put forward a non-paper option on a Form 90A that should have been approved in advance by the Graduate Council. The committee will introduce an "emergency resolution" next month.

    Associate Dean Wilson noted that there are increasing problems with "professional masters degrees" that don't require a thesis or research paper: programs do not understand that they need to receive Graduate Council and higher administration approval to make program changes of this nature. Graduation clearance forms have been modified to indicate dissertation or thesis, non-thesis option (research paper needed), and a "no paper" checkoff.

13. Education Policies Committee-Prof. Pineau

    Prof. Pineau read the below resolution presented at the October meeting.

    VOTE ON RESOLUTION

    RATIONALE: The Educational Policies Committee has revisited the shared responsibility of faculty and graduate students to provide each other with sufficient time to read, respond and revise theses, dissertations, and papers required for graduation. In response to concerns about insufficient time for committee members to read and respond to students' documents, the Graduate Council passed a resolution on April 3, 2003, recommending that each graduate director or department state clear guidelines, as appropriate for their discipline, governing the time period between submission of a student's dissertation, thesis, or paper required for degree and the date of its defense. Noting that it is just as important for committee members to return drafts of document in a time sufficient for students to revise, the Graduate and Professional Student Council proposed a resolution on May 1, 2003, recommending similar departmental guidelines governing the time period between a student's submission to committee members and the return of the document with a response. The GPCS resolution was supported in spirit, but tabled until a combined resolution could be drafted. In the spirit of mutual respect and responsibility, we propose the following:

    WHEREAS, all faculty members on a graduate student's committee should have sufficient time to read and respond to a document prior to the date of its defense; and,

    WHEREAS, Graduate students should have sufficient time to revise documents based on committee responses.

    Be it resolved that, in the spirit of mutual academic respect, the Graduate Council recommends that each graduate director or department write and provide clear guidelines, as appropriate for their discipline, providing a sufficient time period for committee members to read and respond to dissertations, theses, or papers required for a degree and providing a sufficient time period for students to make revisions and resubmit their documents.

    A voice vote was taken on this resolution which resulted in approval.

14. Program Review Committee-Prof. Vaux

    Paperwork for program reviews are coming out slowly from Provost's office. His committee is looking at the Delaware Report.

15. Research Committee-Prof. Kammler

    The committee wanted to investigate two administrative areas that might facilitate research, and last week they met with General Accounting staff (Jeff Tally, Linda Laird, Kevin Bame). New account set-up for PIs has been greatly expedited. Part of the problem with holdups is that the general accounting report system is on the mainframe. Today the committee is meeting with Phil Gatton to talk about reducing expenses when the Physical Plant is involved.

    Prof. Felleman noted that discussions with General Accounting also included a recommendation that they develop a new form for new accounts with accompanying instructions that explain how to read the account forms.

16. Old Business-continue the WAG Report discussion

    Prof. Tyrrell reported on the discussion in the Expanded Executive Committee. The problem with the report is that it addresses only one portion of the research mission, and we do not have similar reports from other areas (social sciences, etc.). He brought up the following points: (1) We need more research-active faculty. One way to do this is through cluster-type hires. We need more quality faculty; (2) We need to assist and retain quality faculty who do research in the absence of major external funding. When we talk about strategic hiring we should be talking about enhancing the excellence of quality programs in the institution. If done in areas where there is substantial external funding, it will bring in substantial new resources, but we cannot ignore those fields in which high quality scholarly and creative activities are carried out even in the absence of external funding.

    Prof. Nelson noted that the Business School has concerns about emphasis on research and external funding in the WAG Report. He believed that a body should be created to represent the entire university, without the administration, to study the quality of programs and scholarly programs. He suggested that we have a resolution that the Graduate Council and Faculty Senate create a joint committee to study these issues.

    Prof. Don Rice noted that some of this is already being done by the Program Review Committee. Also, Liberal Arts faculty have asked him if he was uncomfortable with the WAG Report given the limited budget climate. He said he is not concerned about the WAG Report in that manner and made two points: (1) Revenue streams-at research extensive universities, major expenditures are in science, engineering, and medicine, so the WAG Report's purpose was to highlight what was needed to enhance SIUC's revenue stream; (2) Visibility as a research institution-at the previous institutions where he worked (U of Chicago, U of Virginia), the emphasis and visibility were based on the quality of all programs, not just science and engineering. We do not have all the data necessary to discuss quality of all SIUC programs via a WAG-like review.

    Prof. Tyrrell said that WAG and subsequent discussions show that we need better data.

    Provost Dunn agreed.

    Prof. Tyrrell observed that the WAG Report addressed only one function: how to increase the revenue stream. But the report included other recommendations that could be equally applied to other areas aside from engineering and science.

    Dean Scott commented that once we have data on all programs; there will be different kinds of indicators; and we need to think about "relative degrees of excellence" and "bang for the buck." There might be other areas where investments could produce additional visibility and excellence at far less cost.

    Prof. Kammler agreed with Dean Scott that we can enhance visibility in areas that do not bring in major money. We need to invest in them, albeit modestly.

    Prof. Brown noted that SIUC needs to hire a diverse faculty in fields other than traditional student services and diversity offices, because they will increase visibility.

    Vice Chancellor Koropchak reminded us that the University has four revenue streams, and the indirect costs that come back from research dollars are used for fellowships, travel money, etc. (in part to replace lost state dollars). Also, he is meeting with other groups - the colleges of Liberal Arts, Education, Business, Law, and MCMA-to talk about how to undertake assessments similar to the WAG Report for other areas. There is no similar group like WAG to evaluate arts and humanities, however, so other options are being considered.

    Provost Dunn pointed out that it is the federal dollars that provide the major indirect costs to support other activities and Vice Chancellor Koropchak observed that we should have closer to 50% of our grants as federal grants, rather than 27%.

    Prof. White noted that the initial minutes about hiring WAG suggested that they were going to study the research mission of the total campus, not just science and engineering.

    Prof. Vaux said that we have poor performance and differential performance in areas covered by WAG Report. Will adding faculty really turn them around? People are asking whether all new resources are being poured into science and engineering in order to increase revenues, and being denied to other units. Faculty need reassurance about this issue and a plan or operating principles to make it clear that this will not happen.

    Provost Dunn asked rhetorically, are we going to take all our resources and put them into science and engineering? He answered, no. We need to monitor the actions already taken. The Library suffered the lowest cuts in the FY04 budget reductions. It is a delicate balance, trying to invest in ways that will enhance research and also support other areas. Cluster hires can be in any areas.

    During the course of the discussions, other council members had asked for reassurances about how resources would be invested. Both Provost Dunn and Vice Chancellor Koropchak indicated that all new revenues would not go to increase faculty positions in the Sciences and Engineering. Vice Chancellor Koropchak noted that the WAG Report demonstrated the importance of hiring additional research faculty in these areas. However, everyone should understand that this is just one part of an overall hiring plan for SIUC.

    Prof. Benshoff observed that the university needs to look at the revenue streams and develop a strategy that reflects fiscal reality.

    At the conclusion of the discussion Prof. Tyrrell again emphasized the following points:

    1. Southern at 150 emphasizes the pursuit of excellence.
    2. Strategic Hiring is a way to pursue excellence by targeting those programs with the greatest likelihood of enhancing their productivity and reputation and should be an ongoing process.
    3. Programs with high potential for external funding will benefit by enhancing their reputation as well as their ability to attract more funding.
    4. Programs where external funding is not a major factor will benefit from the higher level and quantity of scholarly/creative work produced.
    5. Strategic Hiring decisions must be based on clear measures of productivity benchmarked, by discipline, against our peers. There being no further business, the Council adjourned at 10:10 a.m.

    Respectfully submitted,

    Prudence M. Rice and
    David Wilson

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