Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators Minutes

Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators Minutes Tuesday, January 21, 2014 2:00-4:-00 p.m. Mendenhall 221

Present: Avenarius, Christine; Bagley, Becky; Bass, Kelly; Bishop, John; Bunch, Sheila; Cook, Alethia; Cox, Kathy; Curtis, Scott; Dingfelder, Michael; Donica, Denise; Eagle, Scott; Fran, Amy; Franklin, Rich; Harris, Susie; Hines, Ian; Huener, Tom; Gemperline, Paul; Jones, Terry; Juska, Arunas; Keiper, Brett; Kelley, Tim; Kisling, Eric; Kulas, Anthony; Lamson, Angela; Mahar, Matt; McConnell, Tom; Monroe, Richard; Morehead, Andrew; Patterson, Belinda; Poorman, Julie; Ringler, Marjorie; Schmidt, Steve; Scott, Elaine; Sears, Sam; Skalko, Thomas; Sorenson, Jon; Sua, Lou; Swanson, Carl; Tabrizi, Nasseh; Thompson, Bob; Van Dross, Rukiyah; Williams, Tina; Woods, Terri;

1. Call to order

2:05 pm

2. Approval of minutes from November 11, 2013

Approved

3. Follow up report on 2012-2013 Assessment Plans & Reviews

Presented by Dr. Susan Beck-Frazier (Director of Institutional Assessment)

 Alex Senior can provide access to custom reports for graduate program directors

 Monitoring report due to SACS in Sep 2014

 Demonstrate using data gathered to make improvements

 5% of programs have not been reviewed

 146 graduate programs (8% of graduate program have not been reviewed) – 297 programs total

 Component data: 65 outcomes developing, 131 acceptable, 257 proficient

 UNC student learning outcomes website will be updated Feb 15– corrected per comments of the reviewer

 Chairs and directors will receive a note to ensure all developing components of 2012-2013 have been addressed by Feb 15  Programs 13-14 data in May for a report to be run in August

 Demonstrate all educational programs are invested in data assessment

4. Finances and Graduate Students – with Julie Poorman

 Schools assume graduate students are financially literate

 Academics think their students do not borrow because they have assistantships or other support

 Most loan counseling is not personalized

 Graduate education is traditionally funded differently than undergraduate education, with more and more turning to student loans and other loans

 Graduate student loans are more expensive than undergraduate student loans

 Students who default on loans impact the institutions default rate

 Current default rate is 3%

 PowerPoint sent to graduate program directors via email

5. Certificate programs – financial aid approval process – Julie Poorman

 ECU Graduate School working with GFA to be in compliance with US Department of Education requirements:

 Gainful Employment legislation

 Financial aid approval process for certificate programs requires approval from SACS and Department of Education – relatively few certificate programs approved for federal financial aid

 Departments can apply for a certificate program to be financial aid eligible

6. Certificate programs and Gainful employment – federal requirements, due for posting Jan 31  Program directors received relevant questions in the handout distributed by email for this meeting, these questions should be considered and may be necessary for future reports to Dept of Education.

 ECU will be required to report on student job placement for all title IV eligible certificate programs next year

 If graduate program directors suspects a student is abusing the system, contact financial aid

7. Continuity of operations in the Graduate Admission – Paul Gemperline

 Robin Ashley resigning and will be employed at Pitt Community College

 Plans are in place to continue operating admissions office well

 Join with the Graduate School in saying farewell after the Graduate Council meeting at Winslow’s on January 27, 2014

 Position description is under review

 A search will be conducted (Dr. McConnell will chair search committee)

 In the interim Colleen Roland, Theresa Cartwright, Sarah Batchelor, Derrick Isler, Belinda Patterson, and Tom McConnell

 The directors duties have been distributed

8. UNC-GA GTA standards and reports – State requirement, due Feb. 15

 Associate deans will filter report down to graduate program directors

 Those graduate teaching assistants listed as such without a faculty member listed as instructor of record

 Each program with GTA instructors of record are asked to provide a short narrative regarding how these students are trained/overall, honors, communications, oversight, and a summary of how operations are conducted in program

 Report to GA limited to 5 pages 9. Thesis/Dissertation Oversight Committee report – Brett Keiper

 Committee has not yet met

 Charge by Graduate Council to look into definitions of individuals working on theses and dissertations

 Clarifying how committees are composed, the responsibilities of these individuals, and where committee goes if there is a problem

 Gain an understanding of how departments do things differently in order to devise a set of best practices

 Will develop recommendations for the Graduate Council

 Will conduct a study using a Qualtrics survey

10. Plan for next 2-year cycle of Graduate Assistantship and out-of-state remission reallocation – Paul Gemperline

 A process to conduct the 2nd round of the 2 year reallocation project will be initiated this spring

 Input will be sought from 4 stakeholder groups: graduate deans, graduate directors, graduate council, and Academic council

 This spring the Graduate School will distribute last year’s form and processes to all stakeholders for review and feedback– finish revising form by late spring

 The Graduate School will collect performance data this summer, populate forms, and distribute them in early fall 2014

 Proposals from colleges by October 18

 Initial budget recommendation will go to Academic council and then to the Graduate deans, for 2016.

11. NSF GRFP & Dissertation Awards workshop, to be scheduled. All NSF eligible disciplines should attend  The NSF GRFP program provides up to $33,000 for 5 years for proposals for a senior going into a graduate program or a 1st year graduate student in any area to which NSF provides funding to graduate students

 Success rate for students writing proposals last year is 17%

 NSF also considers equitable distribution geographically and by discipline

 Program directors are asked to identify talented students and help them through a series of workshops

 Ernie Marshburn and Dean Gemperline will give a PowerPoint presentation for graduate program directors to help identify student for these awards

12. Announcements

 Graduate recruitment and enrollment plans – update on college meetings

 Succeeding in Graduate Research workshops this spring – Belinda Patterson

o Series will be held on east and west campus

o Workshops will be taped for viewing and links posted on the website

o Resend announcement to graduate program directors

 Changes in program review

o review of capstone or other student products, theses and dissertations will be randomly provided by the Graduate School

o Access only to submissions that have been released in ECU Scholarship

o Keep library of capstone projects for the reviewers random selection

 “What’s new” feature in the Graduate Catalog & Follow us on Twitter

o New approval and revisions will be added here

o 800 twitter followers – encourage student to follow

 Thesis dissertation award submissions are due Feb 5

 RCAW 2014 – abstracts due Feb 3!

 Faculty Mentor Awards information will be distributed Next meeting – Wednesday, February 12, Time and Room TBA

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Tripp