University Council on Graduate Study
January 17, 2006
Minutes
3:00-5:00 p.m.
817 CL
Attending: Patricia Beeson (Chair),
Guests: Dr. Louise
Comfort (GSPIA)
I. Approval
of Minutes
The
minutes of the September 20, 2005 meeting were approved as written.
II. Announcements
Dr. Patty Beeson gave an update on the progress of the
new Doctoral Mentoring Award.
Dr.
Beeson distributed two new proposals that Council will review at its February
14th meeting. One is a Professional Doctorate, part of a recent
trend particularly in the Health Sciences. In the last few years this Council
has approved several new professional doctorates including the DPT, AuD, and C.Sc.D in SHRS. A member of Council asked if Dr. Beeson could provide
them with some information on past approved professional doctorate proposals.
Dr. Beeson will send Council a summary paragraph from each proposal. Dr. Beeson
also distributed a document UCGS created on the Guidelines for the Review of
Professional Doctoral Programs for Practitioners http://www.pitt.edu/~graduate/pdoc.html.
Council should review these guidelines as they read over the DNP proposal. Judy
Erlen asked that Council start with the appendix of
the proposal first.
III. Old
Business
Due
to the request of a Council member at a pervious meeting, Council discussed
whether or not to amend the statement in Regulations Governing Graduate Study
that states that dissertation defenses should be announced in the University
Times. After some discussion Council agreed to leave the statement as is.
IV. Proposal
to Establish a Minor in Civil Security and Disaster Management
The
proposed minor builds on the existing strengths of GSPIA and has no budgetary
implications. Dr. Louise Comfort, an internationally-known expert in the field,
played a central role in developing the minor. The proposed minor will meet the
need for such a program in this region while also assisting in the recruitment
of students both nationally and internationally who want to develop these
skills. Dr. Comfort attended the meeting to present the proposal and answer
questions.
The
minor will be taught by current faculty. Prospective students are very
interested in this interdisciplinary minor and enrollment should increase. This
minor will create a visible presence of GSPIA in a very important field.
A
member of Council asked if a student could complete this minor without any
prerequisites.
Dr.
Comfort responded that Policy Analysis would be useful and it is a core
requirement in GSPIA. She would recommend students take this prior to entering
the minor. A member of Council asked that she add the prerequisite to the
document. Dr. Comfort agreed.
A
member of Council asked if a student could get a minor from a different school.
Dr. Beeson said that they could.
A
member of Council asked if similar minors exist elsewhere. Dr. Comfort
responded that a range of degrees have appeared since 9/11, but that she is not
overly impressed with most of these programs.
She did not know of another program that includes exactly what this
minor will offer.
After
further discussion on the potential impact on other courses, certificate and
degree programs; Dr. Comfort was excused.
There
was a motion made to approve the proposal to establish a minor in Civil
Security and Disaster Management. This motion was seconded. Council unanimously
voted in favor of the motion.
V. The
Revised GRE
Carrie
Sparks presented the changes to the Graduate Record Exam as discussed at the
Council of Graduate Schools Annual Meeting in December. Among the revisions mentioned
were the following (for additional information go to gre.org):
Timetable
·
Test Prep
Material (Spring 2006)
·
Test Schedule
Available (Spring 2006)
·
Revised GRE Test
Launched (October 2006)
·
Scores Reported
(November 2006)
·
Percentile Rank
Data and Tables (Early Jan 2007)
Revised Verbal Section
·
More emphasis on
critical reading
·
The relationship
between the words will be emphasized more than the vocabulary
Revised Quantitative Reasoning Section
·
Takes away
multiple choice
·
Focuses more on
skills used in graduate school
Revised Analytical Section
·
Old test gave 45
minutes for issues and 30 minutes for arguments – new test gives 30 minutes for
each
Scoring
·
The Verbal and
Quantitative will be scored as 110-150 in one point increments
·
The Analytic
Section will use the same 6 point scale in half point increments as before
·
The score scale
will come out in early 2007 after ETS has a chance to aggregate
·
It is important
that faculty be aware of the test taking conditions
Council
suggested that the changes to the GRE be distributed to graduate secretaries
and DGS.
VI. Update on the Electronic Theses
and Dissertations Process
As
part of its regular updates to Council, Carrie Sparks, on behalf of the ETD
Committee, gave an update on the ETD project including recent usage stats, the
latest ETD author survey results, and the number of ETDs
produced by each school. For more information about ETDs
at Pitt see http://www.pitt.edu/~graduate/etd/.
There
was some discussion about prior publication issues with certain journals and
the ETD restriction process. The ETD Steering Committee will continue to
monitor these concerns.
The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting of Council
will take place on February 14, 2006.