Minutes of the Graduate Council Meeting

Feb 10^th 2009

Members Present: Ashley Bennington, H.A. Razzak (for Linda Challoo), Raj Challoo, Jieming Chen, Michell Garcia, Thomas A. Fields, Fidel Hernandez, Enrique Massa, Mamoudou Setamou, George Wagman, Venkatesh Uddameri, Roberto Vela Cordova, Guillermo Cesar

Members Absent: Sue Bradley, La Vonne Fedynich, Patrick Mills, George Gresham

The meeting was called to order at 2:45 PM.

Dr. Fields announced that the graduate council meetings will not be re-scheduled unless under extreme emergencies and requested all members to make time to attend all the meetings.  A recommendation was made that the meetings be held on the scheduled dates with the Vice-chair presiding in the event of the Chair having other pressing last minute engagement.

Executive Committee – No report at this time

Curriculum Committee – No report at this time

Membership Committee – No report at this time

Dr. Fields announced that the Chair of the program review committee had resigned.  He requested Dr. Enrique Massa and Dr. Raj Challo to assist him with the process.  They both agreed.

Discussion ensued with regards to formatting requirements of the thesis.  Dr. Fields mentioned that a portion of proceeds from the thesis manual helps defray the costs of the graduate school.  He indicated that he would be interested in new ideas to simplify the formatting requirements. 

Dr. Chen was requested to chair a task force to look into the formatting guidelines.  It was suggested that an e-mail survey be carried out to assess what graduate coordinators felt about the current guidelines and solicit their ideas for improvement. 

The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Venki Uddameri

Vice Chair Graduate Council