Graduate Faculty Executive Committee

MINUTES

March 17, 2008

Members Present: Lynn Anderson (at-large), Dan Driscoll (math/science), Nicole Fredrickson (student), Joy Mosher (CE/ECE/FSA), Ellen Patterson (library/dept. with no grad programs), Pamela Summers (literacy/EL), Donna Videto (H/RPLS), Jeff Walkuski (chair) (PE/Kin)

Ex Officio Members Present: Yvonne Murnane (Grad Studies), Donna Margine (Registrar Office), Nancy Aumann (Provost Office)

Members Absent: empty seat (ICC/Eng/His/Psych)

1.� Happy Birthday to Donna Margine!

2.� Minutes:� Approved the minutes from 2/25/08 with one revision � Jeff will make revision (?).�

3.� Updates:�

a. EDA 687 � Jeff has sent letter to Dean Porter about decision made at last meeting.

b. Literacy Dept. MSEd RTP Deletion � major has two remaining students in it; deletion of major could occur for Fall 2009 or Spring 2009 if the status of the two remaining students can be resolved.� Yvonne will follow up.

c. Graduate Program Review Matrix: Jeff emailed to graduate coordinators and has only received two back.� He will follow up with another email (cc�ing dept. chairs and GFEC members) to get a better response.

4.� Graduate Assistantships:� Lynn brought up two ongoing issues with state-supported graduate assistantships at SUNY Cortland.

a. Timing of the process to recruit GA�s:� The current process occurs late compared to other universities, making it difficult, if not impossible, to use graduate assistantships to recruit top students from around the U.S.� Yvonne felt that the process could be moved forward and will talk to the deans about doing so.� The process would need to start in early January, to be competitive with other universities.� Yvonne will follow up.� Funding is always an issue with being able to offer assistantships, and the earlier date will make that harder to predict.

b. Allocation of GA�s:� There have been 15 state-supported graduate assistantships for the last ten years.� Of these, recently, three have been allocated to administrative or clerical duties, versus being academic teaching or research assistantships. Lynn stated that the university should consider using state-supported GA�s in academic departments, assisting with meaningful activities like teaching, research, and development of productive relationships with faculty in the students� majors, versus in clerical roles.� Often, the students who have been in these types of assistantships go on to pursue their PhD�s.� There is a shortage of assistantships to meet academic department needs in teaching and research. Yvonne stated that it was the Provost�s decision to allocate state-supported GA�s to clerical roles and that to change the process, the issue would have to be discussed at the Provost�s Cabinet.� The discussion did not have any follow up.� Lynn will bring the issue back to the Dean of School of Professional Studies.

5.� Change in GFEC By-Laws:� Yvonne and Jeff will work on sending out a ballot to Graduate Faculty to vote on the proposed changes (Psych membership and rolling call for Grad Faculty applications).� The ballots should go out this week.

6.� Signature requirements on the Graduate Course Withdrawal Form:� Issue arose in a dept. where a student withdrew from a course needed in a long sequence, and was not advised by instructor or advisor to stay in course to stay on track in degree program.� The current form is signed by instructor, and grad studies office.� However, the instructor line is labeled as optional.� Yvonne and Donna will bring all course withdrawal forms (UG and G) to next meeting to look at consistency.� Yvonne stated that the GFEC made a decision years ago to make the instructor signature optional.� Donna brought up issue of need to look at how to facilitate course withdrawal for students in asynchronous online courses.

7.� GFEC Seat on Faculty Senate:� Donna Videto, who currently holds the Senate seat for GFEC, has a course teaching conflict this semester and next fall.� No one was available to fill her seat this semester at this time.

8.� Continuous Enrollment Course update:� Nancy Aumann and Yvonne Murnane shared the letters sent to departments that need to develop a culminating activity that is credit-bearing and a general letter to all graduate faculty explaining the implementation of the CE course.�

Next meeting is March 31 at 3:00pm in Miller 228.

Respectfully submitted:� Lynn Anderson (note-taker of the day)