I. Minutes Approval
Minutes of the June meeting were approved as written.

II. Role of UCGS
After general introductions of members of the Council, Chair Elizabeth Baranger reviewed the history of graduate education at the University of Pittsburgh. She summarized the role of UCGS, noting its charge and mission.

III. Activities of Council
The Annual Report is mailed to all graduate faculty and to full-time faculty in Arts and Sciences. The draft of the 1996-97 Annual Report was reviewed by Council; corrections were noted and will be made in the final draft.

The Graduate Faculty Roster is also produced under the auspices of UCGS. Steve Hirtle requested that the graduate faculty roster be put on the Web. Baranger will contact Institutional Research to see if this can be done for the 1997 roster.

Members of Council identified the following issues as ones to be addressed in the year ahead;

• health insurance (Student Affairs Committee)
• certificate programs (Graduate Procedures Committee)
• role and process of graduate student advising in light of University’s decision to move to a new student information system
• the role of postdoctoral fellows at the University
• the global commitment of the University and how that impacts on plans to initiate graduate programs overseas
• need for an increased number of graduate fellowships
• clarification of the interface between schools’ strategic planning efforts and evaluation of programs carried out via SEAP (Subcommittee for the Evaluation of Academic Programs)
• creation of a combined graduate bulletin (vs current practice of individual schools’ bulletins)

Council expressed interest in meeting with the Provost at some point this year. Members mentioned the following as items possibly appropriate for such a meeting: role of postdoc fellows at the University; global commitment of University; and the interface between strategic planning and evaluations of programs.

IV. MSW Off-Campus Degree Program; Murtha Center Report

Baranger reviewed the history of the Murtha Center in Johnstown, noting that a report is submitted to UCGS every year to keep the Council apprised of activities. The Center also notifies UCGS, for Council’s review, of any graduate degree programs offered in their entirety at the Murtha Center.

The Graduate Procedures Committee reviewed the MSW program this summer. The proposal has sent the proposal to the appropriate accrediting body for approval, as well. Committee chair Lou Pingel noted that the first cohort of MSW students would enter Murtha this spring; a review would be done in two years. GPC recommended approval of the program due in part to some pressing time concerns. But the committee recommends that UCGS agree on a procedure or process for off-campus graduate program proposal reviews (that is, for programs offering the same degree as one at the Pittsburgh campus, but held entirely off-campus).

Council debated the question of such a review by UCGS. Rosalyn Stone argued that UCGS should monitor off-campus programs (again, referring not to courses offered off-campus but to programs held entirely off-campus), especially in these days of enthusiasm for distance education, to make sure that program quality is maintained. Kathleen DeWalt argued that UCGS should not review such programs, since the schools should and do hold responsibility for any graduate degrees offered.

Hirtle noted that the off-campus courses are no different from night courses or Saturday classes. Stone pointed out that long-distance mentoring is a different and often difficult thing. Mentoring and advising interaction is critical to successful graduate school work; can such interaction happen in a remote location? Baranger pointed out that access to library resources should be considered in the same way.

The guidelines established in the Council of Graduate Schools Policy on Distance Education and in the Distance Education Task Force Report address these concerns. Council agreed that UCGS will not review off-campus graduate degree proposals routinely, but that any such proposals must take into consideration those policies outlined by CGS and the Task Force.

The meeting was adjourned.