<p> Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators Minutes Tuesday, January 21, 2014 2:00-4:-00 p.m. Mendenhall 221</p><p>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; </p><p>1. Call to order</p><p>2:05 pm</p><p>2. Approval of minutes from November 11, 2013</p><p>Approved</p><p>3. Follow up report on 2012-2013 Assessment Plans & Reviews</p><p>Presented by Dr. Susan Beck-Frazier (Director of Institutional Assessment) </p><p> Alex Senior can provide access to custom reports for graduate program directors </p><p> Monitoring report due to SACS in Sep 2014 </p><p> Demonstrate using data gathered to make improvements</p><p> 5% of programs have not been reviewed </p><p> 146 graduate programs (8% of graduate program have not been reviewed) – 297 programs total</p><p> Component data: 65 outcomes developing, 131 acceptable, 257 proficient </p><p> UNC student learning outcomes website will be updated Feb 15– corrected per comments of the reviewer</p><p> 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 </p><p> Demonstrate all educational programs are invested in data assessment </p><p>4. Finances and Graduate Students – with Julie Poorman</p><p> Schools assume graduate students are financially literate</p><p> Academics think their students do not borrow because they have assistantships or other support</p><p> Most loan counseling is not personalized </p><p> Graduate education is traditionally funded differently than undergraduate education, with more and more turning to student loans and other loans</p><p> Graduate student loans are more expensive than undergraduate student loans</p><p> Students who default on loans impact the institutions default rate</p><p> Current default rate is 3%</p><p> PowerPoint sent to graduate program directors via email </p><p>5. Certificate programs – financial aid approval process – Julie Poorman</p><p> ECU Graduate School working with GFA to be in compliance with US Department of Education requirements:</p><p> Gainful Employment legislation </p><p> Financial aid approval process for certificate programs requires approval from SACS and Department of Education – relatively few certificate programs approved for federal financial aid</p><p> Departments can apply for a certificate program to be financial aid eligible </p><p>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.</p><p> ECU will be required to report on student job placement for all title IV eligible certificate programs next year</p><p> If graduate program directors suspects a student is abusing the system, contact financial aid </p><p>7. Continuity of operations in the Graduate Admission – Paul Gemperline</p><p> Robin Ashley resigning and will be employed at Pitt Community College</p><p> Plans are in place to continue operating admissions office well</p><p> Join with the Graduate School in saying farewell after the Graduate Council meeting at Winslow’s on January 27, 2014</p><p> Position description is under review</p><p> A search will be conducted (Dr. McConnell will chair search committee) </p><p> In the interim Colleen Roland, Theresa Cartwright, Sarah Batchelor, Derrick Isler, Belinda Patterson, and Tom McConnell </p><p> The directors duties have been distributed </p><p>8. UNC-GA GTA standards and reports – State requirement, due Feb. 15</p><p> Associate deans will filter report down to graduate program directors </p><p> Those graduate teaching assistants listed as such without a faculty member listed as instructor of record</p><p> 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 </p><p> Report to GA limited to 5 pages 9. Thesis/Dissertation Oversight Committee report – Brett Keiper</p><p> Committee has not yet met </p><p> Charge by Graduate Council to look into definitions of individuals working on theses and dissertations </p><p> Clarifying how committees are composed, the responsibilities of these individuals, and where committee goes if there is a problem</p><p> Gain an understanding of how departments do things differently in order to devise a set of best practices</p><p> Will develop recommendations for the Graduate Council</p><p> Will conduct a study using a Qualtrics survey </p><p>10. Plan for next 2-year cycle of Graduate Assistantship and out-of-state remission reallocation – Paul Gemperline </p><p> A process to conduct the 2nd round of the 2 year reallocation project will be initiated this spring </p><p> Input will be sought from 4 stakeholder groups: graduate deans, graduate directors, graduate council, and Academic council </p><p> 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</p><p> The Graduate School will collect performance data this summer, populate forms, and distribute them in early fall 2014 </p><p> Proposals from colleges by October 18</p><p> Initial budget recommendation will go to Academic council and then to the Graduate deans, for 2016.</p><p>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 </p><p> Success rate for students writing proposals last year is 17%</p><p> NSF also considers equitable distribution geographically and by discipline </p><p> Program directors are asked to identify talented students and help them through a series of workshops </p><p> Ernie Marshburn and Dean Gemperline will give a PowerPoint presentation for graduate program directors to help identify student for these awards </p><p>12. Announcements</p><p> Graduate recruitment and enrollment plans – update on college meetings</p><p> Succeeding in Graduate Research workshops this spring – Belinda Patterson</p><p> o Series will be held on east and west campus</p><p> o Workshops will be taped for viewing and links posted on the website </p><p> o Resend announcement to graduate program directors</p><p> Changes in program review </p><p> o review of capstone or other student products, theses and dissertations will be randomly provided by the Graduate School </p><p> o Access only to submissions that have been released in ECU Scholarship</p><p> o Keep library of capstone projects for the reviewers random selection </p><p> “What’s new” feature in the Graduate Catalog & Follow us on Twitter</p><p> o New approval and revisions will be added here</p><p> o 800 twitter followers – encourage student to follow</p><p> Thesis dissertation award submissions are due Feb 5</p><p> RCAW 2014 – abstracts due Feb 3!</p><p> Faculty Mentor Awards information will be distributed Next meeting – Wednesday, February 12, Time and Room TBA</p><p>Respectfully submitted, </p><p>Amy Tripp </p>