Graduate Studies Committee

April 7, 2006

105 Hullihen—8:30 am

Members present: Matthew Kinservik, Robert Opila, Andrew Teplykov, Abena Aidoo (Graduate Student), Susan Brynteson, Linda Bucher, John Sawyer, Paula Vasquez (Graduate Student), Ali Poorani; Dewey Caron, Pablo Huq, and Charles Mason, Chair

Minutes of the March 28 meeting were accepted as distributed and approved.

Old Business: The committee went over the draft of a file, which combines the various parts from the Faculty Senate web page that address programs going up for permanent approval, including the new Permanent Status Program Review (PSPR) procedure. The purpose of this effort is to provide a single source document that includes all of the details needed for completing the PSPR and other aspects of final program approval. Although these can be found on the Senate web page, they are linked in various places and were sometimes missed or misunderstood by individuals seeking permanent approval information this past year. It is anticipate that this file will be made available through the Office of the Associate Provost for Graduate Studies and the Faculty Senate Office, the two primary areas that received inquiries this past year about programs being submitted for permanent status. The committee in general had only minor additions and adjustments in the text of the narrative, which is virtually identical to the text on the Senate web page. There was strong support for adding a visual sequential timeline to show the various steps and the approximate times in the year for completion of each step. A diagram of a timeline consisting of about 15 steps was diagrammed, discussed, and recorded. Chuck Mason will put the sequence into a draft, refine it where necessary, and send the product out by email to the committee for review and comment.

The committee wishes to pass on to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee that this approach (everything in one click) of having one file containing all the steps, review lists, outlines, flow diagram, and supporting documentation for proposals of this nature be considered for the other kinds of program proposals.

New Business: George Hsiao of the Department of Mathematics was invited by the Committee to give a short summary and answer questions regarding four program proposals from his department. This included four credits seminar/colloquium being added to each of the following programs: 1) revision of MS in Applied Mathematics, MS in Mathematics, PhD in Applied Mathematics, and PhD in Mathematics. The Committee approved all four revisions by unanimous vote with no abstentions.

The last item of new business on statistics will be covered at the next meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 a.m.

The next meeting will be held on Friday, April 21^st, at 8:30am in 105 Hullihen.