Absent: Susan Ford and Abdel Lahrech.
Guests: Rob Jensen, Associate Provost; Ratna Sinha, Associate Director, Graduate School.
Prof. Dettmar called the meeting to order at 8:00 a.m. in the Mississippi Room of the Student Center.
The following proxies were announced: Prof. Bart Hammig for Prof. Roberta Ogletree (for the remainder
of the semester), Prof. William Muhlach for Prof. Carey Krajewski, and Prof. Greg White for Prof. Richard Rivers.
Also, while not officially announced, Prof. Khalid Meksem was serving as proxy for Prof. John Preece, and
Ms. Amy Sileven for Mr. Matt Borowicz.
- Consideration of the minutes of the February 3, 2005 Graduate Council meeting.
There being no revisions to the minutes of the February 3, 2005
Graduate Council meeting, they stood approved as distributed.
- Remarks—Associate Provost Jensen for Chancellor Wendler and Provost Dunn
Authorization has been received from the IBHE to change the name of the Rehabilitation Institute’s doctoral
degree program from an Rh.D. to a Ph.D.
An update on faculty hiring indicates that currently the University has 122 active searches for tenure and
tenure-track faculty in addition to six search waivers. Regarding the 122 searches, 15% have been made offers
and accepted. Of the remainder, 57% are in the interview or negotiation stage. Historically, the University
has had approximately a 60% success hiring rate. If past patterns hold true, the University will come close
to the 26 to 1 ratio of students to represented faculty mandated by the contract with the Faculty Association.
In addition, the Faculty Hiring Initiative which provides approximately $1 million a year of new money for
the recruitment of faculty will continue for FY07. In this regard, Provost Dunn has asked the deans to come
up with their plans for the Faculty Hiring Initiative and look at hires that can make a difference to the
University’s research and scholarly mission and, importantly, to the University’s mission to students. He
has asked the deans to justify their plans in the context of the Southern @150 planning document, the System
20/20 Vision Statement, and the reports of both the Washington Advisory Group and the Arts, Humanities, and
Social Sciences Advisory Group. These requests are due to the Provost on or before April 15.
Responding to a question from Prof. Achenbach regarding dual career hiring, Associate Provost Jensen said that
Provost Dunn is working with Dr. Bryson to establish guidelines and procedures on this matter. The University
is very interested in dual career couples and there are a number of them currently on the campus. The University
would like to continue that wherever possible, while at the same time, being mindful of affirmative action
concerns and guidelines. Prof. Achenbach then asked if dual career hiring would be used as a strength by the
University to retain good faculty. The Associate Provost responded in the affirmative, but this would be done
on a case-by-case basis with the support of the department and the college.
Prof. Kammler asked about the circumstances under which searches are waived. The Associate Provost said
search waivers are done for a variety of reasons—insufficient applicant pool; the need to move very quickly,
or other considerations regarding the hiring process. Search waivers must be approved by the Affirmative
Action Office, the Provost, and the Chancellor. VCR Koropchak added that search waivers are also used in
situations when a faculty member with a spouse is offered a position. The search waiver would allow the spouse
to be hired without having to complete a search which could be prohibitive to the success of their dual careers.
Following up on Associate Provost Jensen’s comments about approval of partner hiring on a case-by-case basis,
Prof. Dettmar noted that faculty members cannot be inflicted upon units that are not willing to accept them.
In that regard, there has been discussion to find language that can be used to proactively recruit faculty
without locking academic units into making unwanted hires. Provost Jensen said this is an active dialogue process
and the University is trying to make sure that it does right by the current faculty and by faculty with whom it
hopes to recruit. At the same time, departments must have their considerations and concerns addressed.
Prof. Hatziadoniu asked if the 26 to 1 student to represented faculty ratio was mandated at the University
level or college level? The Associate Provost said this ratio is across campus and would require approximately
690 tenure and tenure-track faculty to be on board by August 16 to meet that mandate.
Prof. Dettmar remarked that if the University currently has 122 active searches and six waivers in progress
(potentially 128 new individuals) which means it is currently searching for 15-20% of its total faculty. Prof.
Dettmar asked if that number was high compared to other universities? Associate Provost Jensen said it is high
because typically 9-10% of the tenure and tenure-track faculty each year is lost through death or resignation.
Currently, SIUC has approximately 678 tenure and tenure-track faculty. The goal is to bump up to the 26 to 1
ratio, so more searches have been authorized this year. Some of these searches are part of the Faculty Hiring
Initiative; some are for positions that have been newly created, and some are replacement positions. The
Associate Provost added that the University is making a good faith effort to try to adhere to the terms of the
contract with the Faculty Association and to come as close as possible to reaching the mandated ratio of students
to represented faculty.
Regarding the Faculty Hiring Initiative, Prof. Hatziadoniu asked if the University was still planning to require
25% matching funds on new hires? Associate Provost Jensen responded in the affirmative. The VCR added that the
25% is waived in the case of minority hires. The Associate Provost said sometimes the 25% matching is negotiable,
but on the whole, the University tries to treat everyone the same in that regard.
- Announcements—Vice Chancellor Koropchak; Associate Vice Chancellor Rice
Vice Chancellor Koropchak
Copies of the recent ORDA publication, Research Profile, were distributed. This publication is prepared
under the direction of AVCR Rice, Marilyn Davis, and the Media and Communication Office. VCR Koropchak
complimented these individuals for their work on this publication.
In a recent meeting that the Chancellor held with deans, directors, and chairs, the Chancellor proposed that
the University target significant growth in its graduate enrollment by the year 2010. Currently, there are
approximately 4000 graduate students enrolled and the Chancellor is targeting growth of our total graduate and
professional student population to 6000. Since there are about 700 professional students currently enrolled,
that means growth of approximately 1300 graduate students. At the same time, the Chancellor proposed increasing
the percentage of minorities from 14% to 18% which would be roughly an increase of 300 students. As a result of
the Chancellor’s proposal, planning is underway on how to reach these goals. This planning will involve one of
three areas—recruitment, where there is an insufficient number of applicants for the capacity of a program;
programmatic initiatives which might provide new areas for growth, and support dollars where there is insufficient
dollars for fellowships, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships for the qualified applicant pool
that a program can handle. A request for proposals from academic units will be forthcoming.
Prof. Hatziadoniu asked if funding for these initiatives would come from new monies and would these monies be
held centrally or distributed to departments? Also, he asked if the funding would be available from year to
year. The VCR said that since planning was in the very early stages, it was too early to answer those questions,
but he would not rule out any particular plan at this time.
As part of the recruitment process, Prof. Dettmar reminded individuals that funds are available from the
Graduate School to bring prospective students to campus. The application form for these funds can be found
on the Graduate School website. VCR Koropchak added that there is also a commitment to provide units funding
for telephone calls to cover the cost of faculty calling students for recruitment purposes.
Regarding the Chancellor’s initiative to increase graduate student enrollment, Prof. Jones inquired if there
would be faculty involvement during the planning process. The VCR felt certain there would be faculty input
along the way on this issue. Prof. Dettmar said perhaps the Educational Policies could be involved in this
initiative.
Regarding the Graduate School’s pool of recruitment money available through its website, Prof. Gupta felt
that the application process seemed somewhat complicated due to downloading and completing the form, and
obtaining appropriate signatures. He felt there should be an easier way to apply for that money. The VCR
said that problem can certainly be addressed and corrected.
Associate Vice Chancellor Rice
Regarding the latest issue of Research Profile, AVCR Rice complimented both Marilyn Davis and Jay Bruce for their
work on this publication.
The AVCR mentioned that applications for the McNair Scholars program are due in the middle of this month. The
VCR added that while the program was originally designed for environmental area topics, it has now been opened
up to basically all topics across campus.
The Faculty Seed grant applications are currently going through the review panels. ORDA plans to finish this
program earlier this year so that the faculty will know when they will have their funding.
Approximately two weeks ago, the Undergraduate Research awards were made. The AVCR did not have the names of
those individuals at this time.
Proposals have been received for the ORDA external review. In order for the University to meet its goals in
terms of research, ORDA will need to manage grant activity as well as possible. Therefore, it is seeking external
advice about how to organize according to best practices.
There are two new staff members in ORDA. Connie Shanahan was replaced by Joel Fritzler who will be in charge
of Research Matters and handling proposals for Agriculture, Law, and Medicine. Carolyn Donow’s replacement
is Jo Nast who will be handling the Undergraduate Research Program and proposals from Liberal Arts, Library
Affairs, MCMA, and OERD.
In response to a question regarding the number of Seed Grant applications received this year, AVCR Rice said
there were 47.
- Faculty Senate—Prof. Duggan
At the February Faculty Senate meeting, Dr. Poshard addressed the Senate on principles of governance. Also in
attendance were Drs. Walker, Sanders, Wendler and Dettmar.
During that meeting, the Senate passed an RME for Workforce Education and Development, accepted the report
of the Ad Hoc Textbook Cost Committee, and passed a resolution on a Partner Hiring Policy. In addition,
there was a first reading of a resolution to reorganize the Senate’s allocation of seats, based on colleges,
with the potential of allocating two seats for term faculty. This item will be voted on at the next meeting.
Also, Dean Carlson has been invited to address the Senate at its next meeting.
As a final announcement, Prof. Duggan said he and the Chair of the Governance Committee will be meeting with
the Judicial Review Board on March 23 to discuss a number of issues.
- Announcements—Prof. Dettmar
Prof. Dettmar recalled that, due to time constraints at the February Council meeting, he asked people to
contact a member of the Executive Committee with feedback on the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences review.
To date, no feedback has been received on this report. However, the Executive Committee will meet again in two
weeks to draft a response for the Council’s consideration at the April meeting.
- Nominations to Committees—Prof. Benshoff
Prof. Benshoff said he would be serving as the Graduate Council’s representative to the Chancellor’s Alcohol
Advisory Task Force.
- GPSC Report —Ms. Logan
Vice President Larry Dietz, Athletic Director Paul Kowalczyk, and Executive Director of University Finances,
Kevin Bame addressed the GPSC recently regarding the University’s proposal to increase student fees.
GPSC passed a resolution against the Graduate Council’s ProQuest resolution because it felt students should
have a choice in the matter, but the resolution does not provide for such a choice.
The Nostram Bucinam Canimus Conference has been re-instated and the deadline for submission is next week.
The conference will be held at the Student Center. However, since the Center is not equipped with the
technology that some students would like to use in their presentations, the GPSC is asking departments to
allow students to borrow departmental equipment. Also, the GPSC encourages faculty to help read student
papers over Spring break. Regarding offers of additional individual awards or funding for the conference
that were made at the previous Graduate Council meeting, the GPSC decided that money would be better spent
by publishing a collection of the presented papers.
Ms. Logan said that she, Dr. Dettmar, Ted Clark, a past BOT representative, Nate Brown, USG representative,
and Tequia Hicks, USG President, attended an IBHE conference recently. The conference included student
representatives from all Illinois public campuses, in addition to one private college representative and
one representative from the community colleges. The purpose of the meeting was to start a grassroots
lobbying effort on local campuses to get the additional 1% of the IBHE’s budget back that was not given
by the governor.
Returning to Ms. Logan’s earlier comment about the lack of needed equipment at the Student Center for students’
use at the conference, VCR Koropchak suggested contacting the Library for assistance.
VCR Koropchak noted that at the same time the Nostram Bucinam Canimus Conference is being held, the tradition
of Research Town Meetings will continue; the next one is scheduled for April 4, from 3:00-5:00 p.m.
- Report of New Programs Committee—Prof. Colwell
Prof. Colwell handed out an Announcement of Resolution regarding the proposed elimination of the two
concentrations in the MFA program. He added that the reason the Committee has recently been distributing
resolutions on the day of the Council meeting is because it has been working up until the deadline and the
resolutions do not make it in time for inclusion on the agenda. Prof. Colwell said it was not intentional
and hoped this would be the last time resolutions would be distributed on the day of the meeting.
The Committee has one other item still under review at this time—the Medical Dosimetry certificate. Hopefully,
this will be brought before the Council at next month’s meeting.
Prof. Colwell then read the Announcement of Resolution:
ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESOLUTION
RATIONALE: The College of Mass Communications and Media Arts has submitted a proposal to abolish the
concentrations in its Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program. This request would eliminate the two current
concentrations in the MFA program (Cinema and Photography) in favor of a more integrated, efficient,
interdisciplinary structure with no specified concentrations. One key goal is to broaden the artistic
and theoretical scope of the MFA students and their ability to deal with inter-media production and its
impact on art world practice and society at large. In addition, eliminating concentrations in the MFA
program will encourage more efficient and effective use of existing personnel, equipment, and facilities.
Students will benefit also from a program that places more emphasis on graduate-level critique and dialogue
with refocused and expanded course offerings.
No new money was requested through the RAMP process to establish the program.
RESOLUTION: Be it resolved that, the Graduate Council approves the elimination of the two concentrations
in the MFA program in the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts.
Prof. Benshoff asked if this resolution was part of the Global Media Research Center that the Council passed
recently. Prof. Felleman answered that it was not part of that Center.
Prof. Gupta raised a concern that several resolutions had come forward from MCMA recently and felt that it
would be best if all proposals came together as a package rather than piecemeal. As it is now, it is unclear
if one proposal affects another which, in turn, makes it difficult for the Council to vote. Prof. Felleman
said the proposals come separately because they do not always come out of the College at the same time. She
noted, however, that there is college-wide communication on changes to master’s programs. Additionally, the
establishment of the Global Research Center and the two revisions of the master’s programs were curricular.
Prof. Dettmar said that since the MCMA proposals were curricular, not administrative, he was not concerned about
these particular proposals. However, Prof. Gupta’s point was well taken because one could imagine a wholesale
restructuring of a college taking place in bits and pieces without being noticed. Prof. Felleman commented that
much of the restructuring of these master’s programs is due to media changes that have occurred. As the
discussion continued, suggestions were made that if it is known in advance that multiple proposals were
forthcoming, better coordination could occur so they could be consideration by the Council at the same time.
As a final announcement, Prof. Colwell urged units to submit pending proposals to the New Programs Committee as
soon as possible so they could be considered before the end of the year.
- Report of the Educational Policies Committee—Prof. Turley
The first resolution to be voted upon at today’s meeting recommends printing the Graduate Catalog annually
rather biennially and totally in electronic form. SIUC is the only major university in the State than does
not follow this policy.
VOTE ON RESOLUTIONS
RATIONALE: Whereas the Graduate Catalog is now published biennially and solely in electronic form;
And whereas a “shadow” version of the catalog is updated continuously;
And whereas annual updating of program information and requirements would better serve the needs of academic units;
And whereas shifting from biennial to annual updating will impose no additional burden on administrative resources;
RESOLUTION: Be it resolved that the Graduate Council recommends that the Graduate Catalog be updated
and published annually.
Prof. Dettmar said a concern that had come to his attention was about archiving. Administrators and students
need to have access to past issues of the Catalog since students are held to the rules under which they
matriculate. He assumed the Graduate School would make provisions for archived PDF files. Ms. Logan said the
GPSC felt that it was important that previous issues of the Graduate Catalog be available on-line so graduate
students can track their programs in the academic year under which they entered.
The question was called and seconded on the resolution;
it passed in a voice vote.
The next vote on resolution was considered.
RATIONALE: Whereas ProQuest Information and Learning, through its UMI® Dissertation Publishing program,
is the official offsite digital “national repository” for dissertations and master's theses, through its
landmark agreement with the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/1999/99-007.html), and is thereby
committed to ensuring that electronic theses and dissertations remain accessible despite changes in software
and hardware; and
Whereas it is becoming increasingly common for theses and dissertations in some disciplines to contain material
that cannot be represented in a printed document; and
Whereas masters theses written at SIUC currently are not readily available to the worldwide scholarly community;
therefore,
RESOLUTION: Be it resolved that beginning with the fall semester of 2005, all SIUC master’s theses
(but not non-thesis products) and doctoral dissertations will be submitted to the graduate school either as
unprotected PDF documents, or, when the work contains materials that cannot be represented in a PDF document,
in an electronic format that conforms to the guidelines established by ProQuest Information and Learning.
Prof. Dettmar distributed handouts pertaining to the above resolution— Appendices A and B.
Prof. Turley said this resolution would change what is now optional to mandatory; namely, that dissertations
and theses be submitted to ProQuest UMI in electronic form. Nothing else in University policy would change
including copyright policy.
Questions arose about costs to students under this new policy. Dr. Sinha responded by summarizing the cost
section found on page 3 of the handout, “Electronic Theses/Dissertations (ETD)” (See Appendix A).
Prof. Hatziadoniu asked why the GPSC disagreed with this resolution. Ms. Logan answered that the biggest
concern was that students would no longer have a choice in the matter. Also, the GPSC questioned ProQuest’s
policy of providing a 10% profit to students upon sale of their papers, but only if the profit amounted to $10
or more. GPSC also felt that future publication options of students could be affected by this policy.
A lengthy discussion followed during which time the above-mentioned GPSC concerns were addressed by the Council.
Other GPSC concerns that were addressed by the Council included whether the process of filing dissertations
with the University would be impacted by this resolution and, in addition, the effect of the resolution on
students whose departments require a bound copy of their paper.
At the conclusion of the discussion, Ms. Sileven said it was her understanding that graduate students are
allowed to remain under Graduate Catalog policies under which they matriculated. Therefore, since the new
policy will not be effective until Fall 2005, students who matriculated before that date will be able to
retain the optional choice regarding electronic submission of papers. However, Prof. Felleman pointed out
that dissertation filing guidelines are not part of the Catalog. Thus, the new policy will be applicable to
both continuing and new graduate students.
The question was called and seconded on the resolution.
The resolution passed with two dissenting votes.
- Report of the Program Review Committee—Prof. Calhoun
Prof. Calhoun said all of the internal and external reports of the affected graduate programs under review have
been completed with the exception of Philosophy.
The Committee now plans to pursue the idea of developing minimum uniform standards to be included in all
self-studies in the future. To this end, the Committee will seek input from the Graduate School, the GPSC,
this body, and others to come up with a recommendation on this matter. Prof. Calhoun said that an example of
standards that are not uniform are SIUC’s peer institutions as identified by the University. Therefore, the
Committee would like to frame self-studies so they are meaningful and develop standards that every department
can follow.
Prof. Turley asked if the document pertaining to new program review procedures, passed by the Graduate Council
4 or 5 years ago, had been implemented? Prof. Calhoun said the Committee plans to examine both that document
and the work done by Prof. Alan Vaux on program review.
Discussion ensued about departmental peers. Prof. Hatziadoniu felt there was a danger in allowing departments
to name their own peers to whom they would be compared; the danger being that they might select departments
that did not set a high enough standard. Prof. Dettmar added that there was an equally real danger in setting
a list of peers at the university level, because universities which are our peers do not always match up
one-to-one with our departments.
AVCR Rice commented that SIUC’s peers’ list as identified by the University is intended to define institutions
very broadly in terms of numbers of students, programs, and other criteria such as whether there was a Medical
or Law School at the institution. These peers are not intended to be department or program specific.
Associate Provost Jensen noted that departments recommend peers and help choose internal and external reviewers.
Prof. Kammler felt that the review process was generally a good one. The problem is that the reviews sit on
the shelf afterwards and there is no follow-up on the reviewers’ recommendations. The Associate Provost said
that Provost Dunn is very concerned about this issue. So this year, he met with the chairs and deans in each
of the units that were reviewed last year and asked the deans to come up with proactive steps to meet the
concerns that were raised by the reviews.
Prof. Kammler strongly encouraged that Dr. Dunn address the Council regarding follow-through of the review
process. Prof. Dettmar said he would ask the Provost to do so at next month’s meeting.
Following up on Prof. Kammler’s comments, Prof. Achenbach said that when she had served recently as a reviewer
for the Plant and Soil Science program, the concerns of the reviewers were identical, point for point, as those
of the reviewers of 8 years ago. Nothing had been done to correct the problems noted in the earlier review.
Prof. Turley said today’s discussion was exactly word for word the same discussion the Council had 5 or 6 years
ago which led to the generation of a review document that was specifically designed to guarantee that there
would be follow-through and consequences of review.
- Report of the Research Committee—Prof. Felleman
No report.
- Old Business
Regarding the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences report, Prof. Dettmar re-iterated that the Executive
Committee would bring a document to next month’s Council meeting for discussion purposes. In the meantime,
he asked that comments regarding the report be forwarded to any member of the Executive Committee.
- New Business
Prof. Felleman noted that the Big Muddy Film Festival, the second-oldest student-run film festival in the country,
is underway. Starting tonight there are three evenings of juror presentations at the Student Center at 7 p.m.
Jurors include Barbara Hammer, replacing the published juror Cheryl Dunye for tonight; Slawomir Grunberg tomorrow
night; and Jenny Walsh Saturday night. The Best of the Fest will be held on Sunday at 7 p.m. More information
on this event can be obtained at www.bigmuddyfilm.com.
Dean Carlson said that the Library is now subscribed to the Institute for Scientific Information's database for
Journal Impact Factors. The database can be accessed from the ISI main page for the Web of Knowledge at this URL:
http://isi01.isiknowledge.com/portal.cgi/. At this site, users click on the link for "Journal Citation Reports."
The JCR database provides in depth research and analysis Journal Impact Factor by journal title and subject;
access is available campus-wide.
Prof. Jones said there has been discussion that social security numbers of graduate student would not be released
to faculty. However, they are available to others, such as secretarial staff. She asked if graduate students’
social security numbers were released, would that pose a security problem? If so, is there a need to come up with
a system to protect graduate students and their identities and still have a way, for example, that faculty can
post grades?
Associate Provost Jensen responded that the University is moving toward a system that will not use social
security numbers, but currently every record is coded by social security number. Vice President Dietz’s staff
is working on this matter, trying to make the transition as smooth as possible and trying to protect student
identities while at the same time, not running the risk of compromising records. This matter will probably be
fully resolved with the new Student Information System which is to go on line in 2007-08 but until that time,
we are going to have to cobble together some solutions that may not be very convenient for the next few years.
There is a strong effort to protect students’ identities as best as possible while at the same time not
compromising the operations of the University and these two issues have to be balanced.
There being no further business to bring before the Council, the meeting adjourned at 9:35 a.m.
Sandra L. Ballestro
Recording Secretary
