Graduate Council – Minutes
East Tennessee State University
April 27, 2009 1:15pm
President’s Conference Room, Burgin Dossett Hall Room 206
Present: Dr. David A. Arnall, Ms. Amy Arnold, Dr. Jeffrey P. Beck, Ms. Queen Brown,
Dr. Scott W. Champney, Dr. Wallace E. Dixon, Dr. Wayne Gillespie, Dr. Helene K. Halvorson,
Dr. Donald B. Hoover, Ms. Billie Lancaster, Dr. Cecilia A. McIntosh, Dr. Martha M. Pointer,
Dr. Phillip R. Scheuerman, Dr. Marie Tedesco, Dr. Ester Verhovsek, Dr. Jon Webb
Absent: Dr. Judith R. Anderson, Dr. Stacy D. Brown, Ms. Maria D. Costa, Dr. William Duncan,
Ms. LaDonna Hutchins, Ms. Jessica King, Ms. Mary Ellen Musick, Ms. Jenny Reed, Dr. Jasmine Renner, Dr. Paul Trogen
The minutes for March 30, 2009 were approved with no corrections.
The first order of business began with Mr. Jerry Shuttle, ETSU Anti-Plagiarism Administrator, who gave a brief explanation of Turnitin, and then gave a PowerPoint demonstration of the Turnitin Resource. According to the Mr. Shuttle, Turnitin is a web based plagiarism detection service which can be used for originality reporting, grade mark and grade book, and overall course management tool for professors and students. The Turnitin report shows a word for word matching with resources from different websites and gives a percentage of identity with the assignment given. Once a report is obtained, then the instructor must go in and verify to assess originality. After the presentation, Mr. Shuttles had a question and answer session. He gave the website http://www.etsu.edu/oit/ats/Resources/Turnitin.asp to access if there were any further questions.
Curriculum Subcommittee Report and Recommendations – Dr. Martha Pointer.
I. ARTH 5907, Art History Seminar – New course proposal
http://etsuis.etsu.edu/CPS/forms.aspx?DispType=OutputForms&NodeID=5_4a_9&FormID=6&Instance=1154
An investigation of specific themes or topics in the history of art, including analysis, discussion, and interpretation of works of art and scholarly literature. Students will research individual topics and present their findings both orally to the class and as a research paper. Student participation is an essential part.
The subcommittee recommends approval with the following changes:
A. The wording of the Major Course Topics needs to be corrected by removing the blank area.
B. The Major Assignments need clarification. The four article requirement appears to be redundant.
Action taken by council: Approved
II. ARTH 5007, Renaissance Art in Northern Europe – New course proposal
http://etsuis.etsu.edu/CPS/forms.aspx?DispType=OutputForms&NodeID=5_4a_9&FormID=6&Instance=776
The course description regards of European art outside Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with emphasis on the art of the Low Lands and Germany.
The subcommittee recommends approval with the following changes:
A. In the Learning Outcomes, the last bullet needs to be rewritten to read “research and write….”
B. In the Grade Assignment section, more detail needs to be provided regarding the number of points for each exam and for the paper. Then the points need to be converted into a percentage for the grade determination.
Action taken by council: Approved
III. Substantive curriculum change proposals for M.A. Psychology and Ph.D. Psychology, including several course proposals, were tabled until the TBR forms are complete.
Graduate Faculty Subcommittee report and recommendations – Dr. Tedesco brought committee report to the council meeting.
New Application
Applicant Department Recommendation
Wright, Gary Pharmacology Full
Action taken by council: Approved
Reapplications
Applicant Department Present Status Recommendation
Davenport, Mary Jo Physical Therapy Interim Interim
Gold, Jeffrey PHIL Associate Associate
Malkus, Amy J. HDAL Associate Associate
Pawlowicz, Peter Art & Design Associate Associate
Robertson, Patricia HDAL Full Full
Turner, Barbara Physiology Full Associate
Vaglia, John Engineering Tech. Full Associate
Wallace, Christopher CSCI Interim Interim
Action taken by council: Approved
Old Business:
Dr. Scott Champney and Dr. Cecilia McIntosh gave a report on Academic Council consideration of revision to graduate faculty guidelines. The revised levels of membership are as follows: (1) Temporary member appointed for a maximum of one year, at the discretion of the Dean of Graduate Studies, (2) Affiliate member appointed for three-year term, (3) Member appointed for a five-year term, and (4) Senior member appointed for a seven-year term. After some discussion, it was agreed the current professors will be grandfathered in under the old guidelines until their term has expired. Also, the council members agreed to send an email to the departments and chairs to inform of this revision.
Dr. Gillespie extended an awards ceremony invitation to all council members and an update on departmental participation. The Award Ceremony will be held May 1, 2009 at the D. P. Culp auditorium. This year the awards will be given for Outstanding Dissertation, Outstanding Thesis in Arts/Humanities, Outstanding Thesis in Education/Social Science, Outstanding Capstone, Excellence in Teaching Award for a Graduate Teaching Associate, and Service Projects that Enhance the Public Good Award. There were no nominees for Outstanding Thesis in Math/Science this year. If the individual departments are honoring a graduate student is their department, Dr. Gillespie has invited departments or programs to consider including this in the Award Ceremony for special recognition.
Next, there was continued discussion of the potential to require Turnitin submission as part of the thesis/dissertation process. The council members discussed the cost, the participation, the advantage and disadvantages; this idea was tabled until the first meeting in the fall semester.
New Business:
Dr. McIntosh presented an idea for a new scholarship. This scholarship will entail bringing in more diversity, international students, and out-of-state students to various programs through a limited number of scholarships for part of the out-of-state portion of tuition. Presently, the vast majority of scholarships on campus go to in-state students and this program may help recruit students from outside the border county regions. There was discussion by the council members of the new scholarship and requests were made to send an email to coordinators to identify the out-of state students in their departments. This will be piloted for the fall 2009 term.
Other:
There was no further council business to conduct, therefore, the meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m.
The next Graduate Council meeting will be in August 31, 2009.