STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE COUNCIL

MINUTES

SEPTEMBER 26, 2002

Meeting #1

Present: Dr. David Jeffrey Dr. Joe Oliver

Mr. Al Cage Dr. Brian Oswald

Dr. Jill Carrington Dr. Pamela Roberson

Dr. Beatrice Clack Dr. Aileen Smith

Dr. Raymond Eastman Ms. Sherry Wells

Absent: Dr. Anna Bradfield Dr. Darrel McDonald

Dr. Janie Kenner Dr. Lauren Scharff

Visitor: Dr. Glen McCuller for Dr. Anna Bradfield

The Graduate Council met at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 26, 2002 in Room 307, Austin Building. Dr. Roberson made a motion to accept the minutes of the April 25, 2002 meeting. Dr. Oswald seconded the motion. The motion passed.

I. Announcements

A. New Graduate Council Members

Dr. Darrel McDonald is representing the Faculty Senate. Dr. Raymond Eastman was elected to the College of Liberal Arts. Dr. Joe Oliver was elected to the College of Applied Arts and Sciences. Dr. Brian Oswald was elected to the College of Forestry. Dr. Beatrice Clack was appointed to the College of Sciences and Mathematics and Dr. Jill Carrington was appointed to the College of Fine Arts. Ms. Sherry Wells is replacing Mr. Dennis Jones as the new Ex Officio from the Registrar's Office.

B. Library Budget Increase

The library budget received a substantial increase this year of $235,000.

Mr. Cage extended his appreciation to the Graduate Council members for their continued support.

C. Graduate Assistantships

Graduate Assistantship stipends have increased along with the number of graduate assistant positions by ten. There will also be an additional seven graduate assistant positions added to the ten. Dr. Jeffrey expressed his appreciation to Dr. Guerrero and Dr. Young for their support.

D. Graduate Enrollment

Graduate Student enrollment for Fall 2001 was 1,286. Our current Fall 2002 enrollment is 1,573 which is an increase of 287 students. This is a 22.3% increase over last fall. Credit hours by course level has also increased from 7,267 last fall to 9,052 for Fall 2002 which is an increase of 1,785 hours. This is a 24.6% increase of graduate hours.

E. New Section of the GRE

The GRE test will now consist of verbal, quantitative and analytical writing. The new analytical writing section allows the student to express their own ideas about complex issues and arguments rather than choose answers from a multiple-choice format. GRE scores will be sent to institutions and test takers within 10 to 15 days of the test administration. Score reporting timeframes may be longer for test takers choosing to hand write their essays because of grading and processing delays. Score reporting timeframes will be published to allow students to plan accordingly.

II. New Business

A. Committee Assignments

l. Academic Affairs Committee

Dr. Anna Bradfield will chair the Academic Affairs Committee. Included on the committee is Dr. Brian Oswald, Mr. Al Cage, Ms. Sherry Wells and Dr. Aileen Smith. The Academic Affairs Committee will be working on curriculum and program review along with reviewing selected Graduate School policies.

2. Faculty Affairs Committee

Dr. Pamela Roberson has agreed to chair the Faculty Affairs Committee with Dr. Janie Kenner, Dr. Ray Eastman, Dr. Bea Clack and Dr. Darrel McDonald. The committee will be doing graduate faculty review and reviewing graduate faculty regulations on adjunct faculty.

3. Student Affairs Committee

Dr. Lauren Scharff will be serving on the Student Affairs Committee along with Dr. Joe Oliver and Dr. Jill Carrington. The Student Affairs Committee will be reviewing graduate tuition, thesis guide revisions and guidelines for graduate assistant selection, training and evaluation.

B. Graduate Faculty Applications

Dr. Jeffrey has reviewed and given administrative approval to the following Graduate Faculty membership applications:

Name Department/Program Membership Type

Dennis Chessman Agriculture Limited

Edgar Oviedo Agriculture Associate

Alexandra Van Kley Biotechnology Associate

Warren C. Conway Forestry Associate

David Haukos Forestry Adjunct

Haskell S. Cooper Social Work Limited

Connie Moore Social Work Limited

Dr. Oswald made a motion to accept the membership applications as presented. Dr. Roberson seconded the motion. The motion passed.

C. Thesis Guide Revisions

Mr. Al Cage and his staff recommended the following text be used for the Thesis Guide:

(Proposed text.) Style and manner of reference citation and bibliographic format are determined by academic discipline. The style manual or journal used must be acceptable to the discipline and stated on the bottom of the Vita page preceding the identification of the typist. The AARC Writing Program currently employs graduate and undergraduate tutors who have been trained in most of the commonly accepted documentation styles. AARC graduate tutors are engaged in similar writing, so their experience may prove useful in the evaluation of resources and their proper documentation.

Although style manuals will govern the way electronic sources should be cited, citations from web-based resources raise special concerns due to the transitory nature of the data. While electronic versions of scholarly articles appearing also in print or refereed electronic journals may be expected to persist in online form, the same is not true of conventional web sources. Thesis writers should take this into account when preparing their theses by including copies of cited text in an appendix to their work for review by the thesis committee. Sufficient material should be provided to enable the thesis committee to determine whether the sources have been used appropriately. In cases in which conventional web sources form a significant foundation for a thesis, consideration should be given to binding the appendix with the thesis to the extent this can be done without violating copyright.

Dr. Oswald made a motion to adjourn. The motion was seconded by Dr. Clack. The meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.

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Dr. David L. Jeffrey Lagena B. Carver

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