Wednesday, September 11, 2024 

9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
LJH 325

 

Council in Attendance: 
Marc Giullian (Business) 
Catherine Dunlop (Letters) 
Rob Maher (Faculty Senate) 
Rollin Beamish (Arts) 
Stephan Warnat (Engineering) 
Ezgi Balkanay (Architecture) 
Kari Perry (Student Representative) 
Anna French (Student Representative) 
Craig Ogilvie (Dean of The Graduate School) 
Brennan Reeves (Office of International Programs) 
Katey Franklin (Health & Human Development) 
Amy Reines (Sciences) 
Sweeney Windchief (Education) 
Ryan Thum (Agriculture) 
Wade Hill (Nursing) 
Sarah Mannheimer (Library) 


Also in Attendance: 
Emily Peters (Graduate School) 


Absent 
Akash Gulati (Student Representative) 

Meeting started at 9:30 a.m. 

August 28, 2024 minutes 

  • Motion to approve by Beamish, Franklin 2nd, 10 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 abstention 
     

Announcements 

  • Update from the Dean 
    • Speakers invited to upcoming UGC meetings 
      • State economist attending October 9th meeting 
      • Housing leadership attending December 4th meeting  
        • Questions/comments: 
          • Could we survey graduate students to ask if graduate housing was available, would they be interested in it?  
          • Get number from housing on how many students were on waitlist and didn’t get in 
          • If collecting data, what can be done with it?  
            • Inform university decisions about new housing 
            • Potential reallocation of current space 
      • CPS invited to attend a fall meeting to discuss graduate student access to counseling services after fee change 
    • Accreditation visit in October; possible they will want to meet with UGC 
    • Dean Ogilvie will soon release request for faculty to join GradCat Wellness program; RFP is pending 
      • Help support faculty as they continue to create healthy research environments on campus 

 

  • Faculty Senate Update (Maher) 
    • Next week is BOR meeting in Billings;  
      • Faculty Senate leadership from each campus will meet with Regents; topic likely to be access to education.  
    • Upcoming campus speakers 
      • Isabel Allende on September 30th  
      • Margot Lee Shetterly on October 30th  
    • Faculty Senate looking at DEI statements – heard they were not allowed to have a diversity statement on their syllabus, but clarified that is not the case. Faculty applicants cannot be asked to provide a diversity statement in the hiring process, but faculty can add statements to their syllabus.  
    • Ariel Donahue will attend Faculty Senate meeting today 
    • Suicide prevention month 
      • Kognito changed to Mindwise – faculty and students have access to this  
    • Questions/Comments 
      • Were the results of the faculty mental health survey ever published?  
        • Scheduled to be discussed at an upcoming Faculty Senate meeting 
        • Maher will update UGC  

Old Business 

  • Appeals policy  
    • Review changes: subcommittee makeup, department head should consult with Assistant Dean of The Graduate School, expansion of scope to include suspensions from something in the department’s handbook 
    • Did subcommittee cover all the suggested changes?  
      • Suggest one subcommittee member appointed by Dean (instead of the UGC member) and one appointment by department head  
      • Discussion on what “relevant documentation” means 
        • Decision to leave language as-is; will vary depending on the situation 
    • Department head “must” consult instead of “may” consult 
    • Request Dean Ogilvie adds a written paragraph explaining the “why” of the policy 
      • Fundamental right to appeal, transparency of this process, subcommittee provides combination of independent review and knowledge of the unique field 
    • Discussion on how appeals are handled at other universities 
      • At universities of our scale, the final decision usually rests with the Graduate Dean 
    • Subcommittee to make minor changes and then representatives will send a clean draft out to colleges for feedback.  
      • Recommend presenting as: this is a draft, open for discussion, and invite feedback 
      • Email your dean to get a list of grad coordinators in your college 
      • Ask for feedback by the meeting in one month  
      • Once ready to vote on a final draft, there will be two readings  
      • Goal to get through UGC this fall 

  • 1 cr ext and in absentia graduation policy 
    • Should go out to departments in the same process as the appeal policy 
    • Dean Ogilvie to provide a paragraph of explanation for representatives to send out with the policy 
    • Discussion on concern of implications for faculty not on contract during the 1 credit extension period 
      • The 1 cr extension option does not have to be used if it does not work for the committee or the department. It provides an option if it works for the student, committee, and department. 
      • Could add language that this must be a joint decision between the committee and the student. 
      • The 1 cr extension option currently exists; the main changes in this policy is that it is now a defined time period instead of variable depending on the semester and the tuition rate stays the same  
      • This shouldn’t be expected, but many faculty are willing for the sake of student  
        • Nothing in the policy that prohibits it or requires it 
        • Add to the explanation paragraph that students are advised to avoid this, it is not routine, just an option in special circumstances  
      • Discussion on contracts and payment for faculty 
        • Ask Faculty Senate to take on this issue in parallel  

  • Scholarly Works Option Formatting Guidelines 
    • Review revised language: define what the role of an appendix is, move the decision to the graduate committee, graduate school staff would not review that aspect of an ETD 
    • Could clarify the content is separate standalone manuscript on an unrelated or different topic 
    • Support making this change to the website  

 

New Business 

  • Failed Comprehensive Exam Policy 
    • Current policy language conflicts with the Academic Standing policy approved last year that outlines the process to suspend a student and a pathway for suspended students to reapply  
    • Term suspension feels misleading because it implies a set period of time; temporary 
      • Suspension is the term used in the new Academic Standing policy—trying to match the language  
      • The Academic Standing language was changed to suspension per BOR  
    • Is it possible to change language slightly to “removed from program”, or something similar? 
      • Discussion on logistics of what happens to the student status 
        • Non-degree status, i.e., no longer be part of your graduate program 
    • Discussion on stop out options for students that aren’t able to finish the doctoral degree  
    • Continue discussion at next meeting  

Updates from subcommittees  

  • Curriculum subcommittee working through CiM  
     

Public comment 

 

Adjourned at 11:02 am 

Next scheduled meeting – September 25, 2024