Graduate Affairs Committee January 27, 2004 3:30 P.M
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Graduate Affairs Committee January 27, 2004 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. UL 1126 AGENDA 1. Approval of the minutes for November 25, 2003 .................................................... Queener 2. Associate Dean’s Report .......................................................................................... Queener 3. Purdue Dean’s Report ................................................................................................... Story 4. Graduate Office Report ............................................................................................ Queener 5. Committee Business a. Curriculum Subcommittee ........................................................................... O’Palka 6. International Affairs a. IELTS vs. TOEFL ............................................................................................ Allaei 7. Program Approval .................................................................................................... Queener a. M.S. Health Sciences Education – Name Change b. M.A. in Political Science c. M.S. in Music Therapy 8. Discussion ................................................................................................................ Queener a. MSD Thesis Optional b. Joint Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering 9. New Business…………………………………… 10. Next Meeting (February 24) and adjournment Graduate Affairs Committee January 27, 2004 Minutes Present: William Bosron, Mark Brenner (co-chair), Ain Haas, Dolores Hoyt, Andrew Hsu, Jane Lambert, Joyce MacKinnon, Jackie O’Palka, Douglas Perry, Sherry Queener (co-chair), Kathryn Wilson Staff: Monica Henry The required quorum for the GAC is 51%. This quorum was not met. A draft of the minutes were distributed to those members who were not in attendance in an effort to obtain an electronic vote on action items. Subsequent votes confirmed original votes. Approval of the minutes - Dr. Queener The November 25th, 2003 minutes were approved by the members present. Associate Dean’s Report – Dr. Queener Spring Campus Day will be held on March 7th, from 1 – 4 p.m. in the BS/ES corridors. Dr. Queener encouraged schools to have a graduate representative available at this recruitment event. Summer Research Opportunities Program brochures were made available to GAC members. Dr. Queener asked members to encourage any qualified undergraduate student to apply to the program. Campus Housing brochures promoting the “Graduate and Professional Community” at the new campus apartments were made available to the GAC. This new community can accommodate 88 graduate and professional students. The GAC has been invited to hold a GAC meeting in the facility and take a tour. School of Liberal Arts proposals have been submitted to the Ford Foundation and funding has been allotted for those projects. Purdue Dean’s Report – Dr. Story Dr. Story was unable to attend due to the adverse weather. Vice Chancellor’s Report – Dr. Brenner A new TOEFL test will be implemented in the Fall of 2005. The new test will assess both English speaking and listening skills, and will utilize interactive computer based systems. Dr. Brenner recently attended a GRE Board Meeting. The main discussion revolved around how to better communicate the proper use of the GRE test scores. Combining scores and using this as a threshold is an inappropriate use of the GRE. Using the GRE scores as an indicator for potential success in the first year of graduate school is appropriate. Combining the GRE scores with undergraduate GPA is a stronger predictor for success. The best indicator for success is combining the score of the subject test and the undergraduate GPA. Only 1/3 of programs use the subject test due to the expenses incurred and potentially losing students. Dr. Brenner was recently involved in a conference call with the CIC Big 10 Schools. International Student applications were discussed. Most universities represented are seeing a 20% to 30% decrease in international applications. Sara Allaei stated that as of January 21st IUPUI international applications for Spring 2003 were up nearly 100%, the graduate level was up nearly 85%. The growth in online applications received is substantial. Dr. Brenner noted that Michigan State seems to be losing the less qualified students. Sara noted that there has been a recent effort to promote IUPUI internationally and recruit international students. The National Research Council is having a difficult time obtaining funding for their study on doctoral programs. When the study is launched there will be difficult questions to answer; and there should be consistency on how the questions are answered throughout the Big 10 Universities. One of the difficult questions that will be asked is the amount of space per faculty member. Applications for the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships for fall of 2004 are now available. Applications should be postmarked by February 19th. Monica Henry will forward information about the program to the GAC. Graduate Office Report – Dr. Queener The automatic download of GRE scores into PeopleSoft has not happened. It was discovered that one school unknowingly had been receiving all the electronic scores, and had deleted all scores not pertaining to their program. Dr. Queener noted that the Graduate Office will be lenient and will try to assist any program with problems pertaining to GRE scores. Dr. Brenner noted that the difference of 25 points in a GRE score is statistically indistinguishable. Questions on the GRE will be changed over the next two years. Committee Business Curriculum Subcommittee – Dr. O’Palka Five Course Change requests and 3 New Course requests were approved. Dr. O’Palka noted that the instructional materials on the Curriculum Subcommittee website have been updated. Dr. O’Palka encouraged anyone planning on submitting course requests to visit the website (http://www.iupui.edu/~resgrad/grad/currcomm.htm). Discussion IELTS vs. TOEFL – Sara Allaei A document explaining the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) vs. TOEFL was made available to the GAC prior to the meeting. Tom Upton authored this document and can answer questions regarding it. Sara Allaei noted that IELTS is the British equivalent to the TOEFL. IELTS is administered by the University of Cambridge and through the British Council in countries throughout the world. The number of institutions that accept the IELTS as a substitute for TOEFL is increasing. It is becoming a recognized standard within U.S. graduate institutions. Sara noted that it would wise to consider accepting the IELTS to maintain a competitive advantage. Sara noted that a 6.0 overall IELTS band score would be the rough equivalent to a 550 TOEFL score (or 213 computer based TOEFL score), and this has been set as the minimum for graduate admission to IUPUI. If a program is considering accepting IELTS they would need to evaluate what band score is likely to meet the minimum needs of that particular program. More information about IELTS can be found at:http://www.ielts.org/. Dr. Queener asked the GAC to share this information with their schools and decide how they would like to utilize this option. Dr. Brenner noted that a policy will be implemented in the near future that will require anyone working in a lab more than 4 hours a semester to have English competency and to take the Compliance test. Program Approval – Dr. Queener M.S. Health Sciences Education – Name Change The proposal is to: Change the name to Master of Science in Health Sciences, change credits to 36 instead of 39; add two new cognate options (tracks), one in management/supervision and the other in advanced practice (education would continue to be offered as a cognate); two new courses added to the core; and several courses would be offered in distance format. Two reviews were posted to the GAC website. The reviewers had two primary questions; one had to do with the Master of Science in Medical Science, and whether or not this degree could be confused with it. Dr. Bosron noted that this should not be an issue, and that recruitment materials should address this. The second concern was about certain School of Nursing courses in the proposal that have been reconfigured, and that special attention should be paid to the courses offered outside of the school. Dr. MacKinnon stated that she met with representatives from the School of Nursing, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and from the School of Education last summer. The courses outlined under cognate areas in the proposal are meant to be examples of courses that students can take. At the time of acceptance the student, along with their advisor, has to complete a plan of study, which would accurately reflect the courses that are available at the time. Dr. Queener noted that the IUB Curriculum Committee may need justifications for the new tracks. The present members accepted the proposal with the idea that the cognate issues may need to be addressed. The subsequent electronic vote confirmed this original vote. M.A. in Political Science Two reviews of the proposal and the proposal were presented to the GAC prior to the meeting. One review recommends accepting without revisions. Both reviewers had comments. One overlapping issue had to do with the courses that would house both undergraduate and graduate students. Dr. John McCormick noted that this is a temporary set up, and that in the past they have not had an issue with this. Graduate students will be required to do additional work,