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Alabama Council of Graduate Deans (ACGD) |
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ALABAMA COUNCIL OF GRADUATE DEANS MEETING MINUTES March 4, 2009 UAB HILL UNIVERSITY CENTER
Members Present: Pamela Arrington, Jeff Barksdale, Dianne Barron, George Crandell, Thomas DeVaney, Jeff Engler, George Flowers, Dave Francko, Keith Harrison, Rebecca Hartley, Ellen Haulman, Donna Jacobs, Debra Moriarity, Charles Nash, Bryan Noe, Michael Orok, Jean Pugliese, Susan Rich, Jack Riley, John Schmitt, Alan Sheppard, Welcome: Dave Francko welcome all members of ALCGD as well as Ellen Haulman and Pam Arrington from ACHE. Approval of minutes from November 5, 2008 Meeting: The minutes were approved with no changes. Treasurer's Report: Dianne Barron gave a report on the current budget which reflected no deposits or withdrawals. The dates of the annual retreat are April 15-17 in Orange Beach, AL. Because of several factors including pending budget issues with the state, the registration fee for the 2008-09 retreat remained at $175 even though ALCGD voted in November to change the fee to $200. The registration fee for the 2009-10 retreat will be $200. April 6, 2009 is the deadline for paying the registration fee. The AL travel policy and costs gives a $75 per diem which should cover the cost of the hotel for two nights. Dr. Barron gave the group information on the restaurant situation due to the closing of Zeke's. The group agreed to try the Cobalt Restaurant instead. In lieu of using $50 of the registration fee toward the cost of the hotel room, the group agreed to use $25 toward the hotel room rate and $25 toward the trolley for transportation from the hotel to the restaurant. Jean Pugliese mentioned that several institutions in AL have not paid their annual membership dues for CSGS and to please pay those ASAP. Huntsville is still an option for the 2011 annual conference. For this to happen, AL would need the individual institutions to help with the receptions in both a time and monetary capacity. The CSGS Executive Committee will vote in June to determine if AL will host the conference. Dianne Barron was recently voted Chair-elect for CSGS. Deb Moriarity will bring the presentation for the CSGS Executive meeting in June to the ALCGD's retreat in April in the event that changes or additions should be made. ALCGD will formally endorse the idea for the CSGS conference to be held in Huntsville. Final planning for the April ACGD Retreat: Dave Francko discussed possible topics for the annual retreat. Gordon Emslie will attend the conference and discuss issues with health insurance for graduate students. Jeff Engler, Dave Francko, and Deb Moriarity could make a presentation on the scholarly conduct and research survey they conducted and the implications of that survey for graduate study. Other topics included discussion on the CSGS potential conference in Huntsville for 2011, ALCGD proposal review process if time did not allow for enough discussion during the current meeting, ACHE update and a legislative update from Gordon Stone, CSGS 2009 conference update for those universities who could not attend this year due to budget constraints, and a presentation by Deb Moriarity on workforce development (" The Evolving Need for Collaboration between Graduate Education and Workforce Development "). ACHE Report: Pamela Arrington gave a presentation on the progress made in the state development plan for AL higher education (2009-2014). The purpose of the plan is to the next step in higher education in the state. Dr. Arrington reported that the state is not allowing the economy keep them from making plans even if those plans are delayed. The plan can be accessed at www.highered.alabama/gov or through the ACHE website. She also mentioned that ACHE appreciates any comments about the report. Update on Economic Development report: Jeff Engler presented a potential storyboard that each institution can use in recruiting purposes and for providing information regarding the contributions of graduate education in AL. Dr. Engler created the storyboard for graduate deans to narrate the information on their particular institution and provide a five minute spot on their websites. The group thanked Dr. Engler for all of his hard work on this important project. Questions arose about the low research and design costs on one of the handouts reflected. Dr. Engler said that he planned to meet with deans individually to personalize the information on the storyboard and make the information easy to update each year. UAB will create an example version of the storyboard with their information to present at the retreat. Dr. Engler also mentioned that anyone who is interested in making comments in regard to the National Science Foundation (NSF) should make those before the March 31 st deadline on the website. Perceived Problems with new ACGD proposal review process: Dr. Barron expressed concerns with the proposal review process in regard to the possibility that identifiers are present on the votes and comments from each institution. Dr. Francko mentioned that all identifiers are removed before he receives the NISP responses and other documents. Other concerns arose about using raw data and the possibility of using summaries instead. The summary should be one page instead of several pages and should list the comments verbatim (not summarized) while the votes should be summarized. The NISP responses should go directly to ACHE instead of the ACGD Chair. The Final Vote should summarize the votes and list all comments, and should be sent directly to ACHE and the proposing institution. The ACGD membership as a whole should get a summary of the final votes. This was considered a friendly amendment to the current procedure. Dr. Francko will begin this process immediately and is looking into the possibility of adding a response box within the NISP. The group also agreed that Dr. Francko should continue to send email reminders to the group regarding due dates for the NISP. Other Business : Ellen Haulman mentioned that the next ACHE meeting will be on March 13 th . She also gave an update on the nursing student clinical issue. She said that she sees this issue to be used in the future not only for nursing but for other health services. Ms. Haulman also mentioned that questions have arisen about "formal options" being used in lieu of academic programs. She asked the group to review their catalogs for formal options that may be listed but should not be. In addition, she asked that the group email ACHE with formal options that have been eliminated. Higher Education Day is March 5 th at 10:45 in Montgomery. Alan Sheppard asked the group how GTA's, GRA's, and GA's are evaluated by each institution. The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 pm Next Council Meeting: April 15-17, 2009 (annual retreat in Orange Beach, AL)
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