Graduate Studies

Graduate Council Minutes - April 5, 2021

3:00 p.m., Virtual

Members Present: C. Anderson, S. Ghimire, J. Hammersley, A. Hyde, B. Locke (Chair), J. McQuillan (Vice Chair), T. Roberts

Members Absent: C. Blackinton

Guests Present: H. Hemphill, T. Davis, J. Plos, R. Polubinsky, D. DeVolder, K. Daytner

Ex-officio Present: M. Mossman

Others Present: A. Schulz

 

I. STUDENT APPEAL

A. Instructional Design & Technology

1. Request for a late total university withdrawal

Student unable to attend but Dr. Hemphill was present. Dr. Hemphill noted that the petition is pretty straightforward. The student’s father passed away during the semester in question and they didn’t know the process to withdraw. They now want to return to the program. Dr. Locke asked about remaining courses and revalidation. Dr. Hemphill provided the plan for completion.

Motion: To approve the request. (Ghimire/Anderson)
MOTION CARRIED: 5 YES – 0 NO – 2 AB

II.  ANNOUNCEMENTS

A. Academic integrity incident reports filed in the School of Graduate Studies, February 2021 (2)

1. Resolved at instructor level – 2

B. Graduate Council Nomination and Election Update

Ms. Schulz reported that election ballots for both colleges that have an open seat are open and the deadline is this week. Everything was handled via email and Google Form submission again this time which has a much higher response rate than the paper ballots previously used. The elected representatives will be invited to the final meeting of the 2020-2021 academic year for introductions and election of the chair and vice chair positions.


III. GRADUATE CURRICULUM

A. College Student Personnel

1. Request to increase credit hours

a. CSP 561, Practicum in Student Affairs, 1 s.h. to 3 s.h.

Dr. Davis explained that the program has made changes to several courses and provided the rationale for them. This increase in credit hours matches the work that the students are required to complete.

Motion: To approve the request. (Hyde/Roberts)
MOTION CARRIED: 6 YES – 0 NO – 1 AB

2. Request to change graduate program requirements

a. Master of Science in College Student Personnel

Dr. Davis noted that the program has moved out of the School of Education and into the newly renamed Department of Counseling and College Student Personnel. These program requirement changes align the courses with the current department and implement the recently approved course changes.

Motion: To approve the request. (McQuillan/Ghimire)
MOTION CARRIED: 6 YES – 0 NO – 1 AB

B. Kinesiology

1. Request for a New Graduate (500 or 600-Level) Course

a. KIN 590, Critical Incident Stress Management, 3 s.h.

Dr. Plos and Dr. Polubinsky explained that the department has offered this course twice as an experimental course and that it covers hot topics during the specific time of offering. Dr. McQuillan asked if there was any conflict with any existing Health Sciences courses. Dr. Plos responded that this course is specific to students in their field and athletic trainers can use the course towards their certification. Dr. Polubinsky added examples of the topics the course could cover.

Motion: To approve the request. (Hyde/Roberts)
MOTION CARRIED: 6 YES – 0 NO – 1 AB


IV. NEW BUSINESS

A. Assistantship eligibility requirement proposed changes

Ms. Schulz brought forth a proposal from the School of Graduate Studies asking to remove the requirements of a personal goals statement and three letters of recommendation from the requirements to hold an assistantship. She explained that this will allow for greater efficiency in the hiring process and remove barriers for students in programs that do not require these documents for admission purposes. She also added that hiring areas can still choose to require the documents but the School of Graduate Studies will no longer require them to be on file for eligibility purposes if this proposal is approved. Students would still need to be a fully admitted degree-seeking student, maintain a 3.0 graduate GPA, and successfully complete all other employment paperwork including the background check. Dr. McQuillan asked if an additional sentence could be added to the requirement noting that additional materials could be required by the hiring department. The new requirement would read: Must have a graduate assistantship application on file in the Graduate School. Please note that individual hiring areas may require additional application materials or processes.

Motion: To approve the request with the amendment to the requirement. (Ghimire/Hammersley)
MOTION CARRIED: 7 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB


B. Proposed elimination of cost guarantee for graduate students

Dr. Locke informed Council members that a proposal to eliminate the cost guarantee for graduate students was presented at the recent Board of Trustees meeting. Dr. Locke was not made aware of the proposal until shortly before the meeting so did not have time to submit a comment. Dr. Mossman added that he was not sure why the proposal was not presented to the Graduate Council prior to moving forward to the Board. He noted that the Council should consider it, make a motion, and proceed with a statement either for or against the proposal. The proposal to the Board of Trustees states that the elimination could create a small amount of revenue for the University and that there is no evidence that the guarantee has impacted enrollment plus no peer institutions have this in place. Dr. McQuillan commented that other schools not having it in place is not a reason for us to not have it. The guarantee is a marketplace differentiator for us and a lot of students cannot afford a surprise increase in expenses. He also added the students in his program send information home to friends and family so a large, unexpected increase in tuition could dry up their pipeline of prospective students. Dr. Locke asked if Dr. McQuillan’s program has a lot of out-of-pocket students. Dr. McQuillan stated that yes, there are a very small number of assistantships within the program.

Dr. Locke questioned if the cost guarantee for full and/or part time students. Dr. Mossman noted that it is for full time students only. Dr. Roberts stated his opposition to the proposal. He commented that it will likely negatively impact the brand and reputation of WIU and that the proposal to reallocate the additional revenue to graduate programs didn’t sound like a firm commitment. Dr. McQuillan added that this could result in fewer students and instead the University should push for more marketing to international students. Dr. Locke provided information from his personal experience as an international student. The tuition should be set much further in advance than what is currently done at WIU. The financial obligation for international students is huge and students should be able to plan in advance knowing what the tuition will be throughout their program before they even take a class.

Dr. Mossman stated that there is no evidence that this is a significant factor in recruitment or enrollment. Dr. DeVolder questioned what information is being collected to use as evidence and that no one really knows. He asked if it was based on actual reports or is it just opinions so far. His program does not give many assistantships so based on the rationale in the proposal, his program should be very small but it is in fact one of the largest graduate programs. He added that while it is ultimately a Board of Trustees decision, he is very unhappy with the amount of wrong information being presented and that the stakeholders should have had a voice. He would like to see accurate information presented to the Board of Trustees before they make a final decision including the actual assistantship data and enrollment for graduate programs. Discussion was held regarding international students and their ability to pay. Dr. Hyde noted that this proposal seems to target specific programs and the international student population so she is not in favor.

Motion: To recommend retention of the cost guarantee for graduate students (McQuillan/Anderson)
MOTION CARRIED: 7 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

Discussion was held over the creation of a statement to submit to the Board of Trustees regarding the cost guarantee. Dr. McQuillan will start the document and share with other Council members for editing.


V. OTHER BUSINESS

Dr. Mossman reported that the HLC visit was complete and that while they could not tell if the accreditation was approved yet or not, the visit went really well. There were numerous positive points during the visit and the majority of negative items were ones that were out of the University’s control. Dr. Locke thanked Dr. Mossman for all of the work that was put into the process.

 

Meeting adjourned: 4:45 p.m.