Binghamton University

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

MINUTES OF THE February 9, 2009 MEETING OF THE GRADUATE COUNCIL

PLACE: Couper Administration Building, Room 148

PRESIDING: Nancy E. Stamp, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School

MEMBERS: David Campbell, Michael Conlon, Susan Currie, James Fang, Robert Guay, William Haver, Sarah Lam, Weiyi Meng, Andrew Merriwether, Susan Pollock, , Olga Shvetsova, Pamela Stewart Fahs, Marilyn Tallerico, Lindsay Tremain, Diane Wiener

EX OFFICIO MEMBERS: Stephen Gilje, Dara Silberstein, Lindsay Tremain

EXCUSED: Gerald Sonnenfeld, William Heller, Wendy Martinek, Tom McDonough, Karen Salvage, Marilyn Tallerico

GUESTS: Nancy Um

ABSENT: Jacques Beaumont, Mark Fowler, Christof Grewer, Edward Li, Max Pensky, Maria-Teresa Romero, Nan Zhou

I. CALL TO ORDER:

Vice Provost and Dean Nancy Stamp called the meeting to order at 3:00 pm.

II. MINUTES:

The minutes of the December 15, 2008 were approved as written.

III. COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Academic Standards Committee This Committee has not met.

Advisory Committee for Scholarship and Research

Advisory Committee for Scholarship and Research met to select the Chancellor’s Award. Three names were submitted to the President to forward to the Chancellor.

Budget Advisory Committee

The Committee met on February 9th to discuss the budget situation, the implications and how to move forward. Dean Stamp stated that there were two take-home messages: 1) The budget cuts are severe and 2) Binghamton will prevail. Dean Stamp drew a pie chart showing how the money is portioned and how the budget cuts affect each portion. The cuts to the university will be about 10%. The Legislature is considering cutting our tuition scholarship fund by 0.6 million, in addition to cutting another 0.1 million for other programs. The total projected cuts equal around 2.2 million dollars.

Dean Stamp explained the process of the TA allocations for next year because of the budget cuts. She has sent to departments a Phase I allocation for planning purposes and then will follow-up with a Phase II allocation. Dean Stamp explained that in the past the Graduate School paid the tuition scholarship regardless of the amount (out-of- state or in-state). However, because the tuition scholarship cut is going to be severe next year, the Graduate School will give dollar amounts of tuition scholarship that departments will allocate.

Dean Stamp explained the newly developed Pilot Program. The Pilot Program is for those students who are officially ABD or course complete master’s students and are funded. In the past, students in this category would register for 9 credits (full-time) and SUNY would give us money for each full-time registered student. Under the pilot program, the student would now register for 1 credit, which means SUNY would give us less money per student. We would have to enroll more full-time students to balance out the money we lose on part-time students. By allowing those funded students to take one credit, it saves us tuition scholarship money. This is a way to stretch the tuition scholarship budget for more students. The Pilot Program will be in effect for 3 semesters, and we will be monitoring the effectiveness of the program. The University is implementing a new rate for tuition budgeting for Research Assistants on grants. Starting on March 1, the average cost of a Research Assistant’s tuition which is 9,900 will be required on new proposals. If the PI appoints an in-state student, the PI would pay the in-state tuition. If the PI appoints an out-of-state student, the PI would pay $9,900 and the Graduate School would pay the additional amount of approximately $13,000. The amount of money that will be allocated back to the units, instead of being a percentage, will now be $3,000 for students registered for 12 credits and $2,500 for students registered for 9 credits. If they are ABD or master’s course complete, then the tuition scholarship will be for one credit and the grant would have to pay that without receiving an allocation.

Dean Stamp stated that the Graduate School has been looking into ways to increase revenue and reduce cost. Dean Stamp explained how the state tax support system works and that it is an enrollment model. This means that the more students we have, the more money we receive from the State. During this time of the budget crisis, the focus is not growing the university but instead “changing the mix”. For example, if we take more out-of-state undergraduates than in-state, then we would benefit because out- of-state would pay a higher tuition. If we take in more graduate students, we would get more state tax support than for undergraduate students. For every new graduate student we take in that is above our current enrollment, we could take in two less undergraduates

Discussion ensued amongst the council regarding ways to cope with the current budget situation. One suggestion was the students who were associated with professional associations could write letters in support of graduate education. Another suggestion was the use of pod casts for the students. Another suggestion was to work with students who are interested in a combined program and who want to stay the 5th year to complete their degree. These students are always self-paying students.

Clark Fellowship Advisory Committee

The Clark Fellowship Advisory Committee will meet on Wednesday, February 11, 2008. Curriculum Committee

This Committee met on Friday, February 6th, 2008. The committee accepted all the following proposals in Anthropology:

1) Combined Degree Program in Anthropology BA & MA 2) Combined Degree Program in Anthropology BA & MS 3) Combined Degree Program in Anthropology BS & Biomedical Anthro MS 4) Combined Degree Program in Anthropology BS & MA

In Combined degree Programs, undergraduate students complete their general education and major requirements before their senior year. This allows them to take some graduate courses in their senior year and they take all graduate courses in their 5th year. The motion was made to approve the proposals, and all were in favor.

Both the economics and finance proposal, and the proposal to have TRIP or Translation Studies move into the Comparative Literature department were approved by the Curriculum Committee. The motion was made to approve both proposals, and all were in favor, with the exception of one abstention.

The committee also reviewed the proposal for a M.A.-Ph.D. Combined Program in Art History. Professor Nancy Um, from the Art History Department, gave an overview of the proposal. This program would allow applicants who have a MA degree in another related field or qualified students with BA degrees to apply directly to the PhD program. A motion was made to move this proposal forward, and all were in favor.

Grievance Committee

Grievance Committee met on December 18, 2008 to decide on the Grievance before them. A recommendation was made by the committee regarding the grievance.

Strategic Planning Committee

This committee has not met.

IV. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 on a motion by Associate Vice President Stephen Gilje and seconded by Professor Sarah Lam.

______Minutes recorded by Cheryl McGowan, Secretary to the Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School