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

II. Finding The Graduate Program That’s Right For You
The recruitment purpose of this publication, newly revised and printed, was reviewed. Council was asked for feedback and suggestions for the next edition.

III. Review of Initiation of Off-Campus Graduate Programs
Council had agreed at the September meeting that UCGS will not routinely review off-campus graduate degree proposals, but that any such proposals must take into consideration those policies outlined by the Council of Graduate Schools and the Task Force on Distance Education.

Chair Elizabeth Baranger noted that this issue was brought to the attention of the Provost’s senior staff, which decided that when such proposals were presented, the Provost’s Office would review it as follows: budget review, academic review by vice provost for graduate or undergraduate studies, and review by vice provost who is contact person for that area. If there are problems or concerns, UCGS will be asked to review the proposal, too.

This review would follow a short checklist which will be developed by Baranger, using the CGS and Penn State guidelines. Units preparing the proposals will be encouraged to consider this checklist.

Merrilee Salmon raised the question of how distance education credits are accepted (or not accepted) as transfer credits at the graduate level, noting that it is not always clear what standards other universities may use to approve or accept graduate off-campus or distance education programs. This issue will be added to those to be addressed in committee this year.

IV. Advising
Baranger distributed CGS guidelines and definitions of graduate advising. Members of Council discussed how advising is carried out in their schools or departments; the type of advising varies considerably from one discipline and department to another. In some cases, one faculty member might advise on academic, research, and placement issues; while in other cases, students might expect to turn to three or more different faculty members for these issues.

Variations included:

• assigning and academic adviser to a student upon admission; this adviser may become obsolete when a research adviser is chosen
• faculty member must agree to act as adviser to a given student before that student is admitted to the program
• graduate director matches faculty member with newly admitted students based on interests
• appointing one faculty member to serve as general academic adviser to groups of students until research adviser is chosen

Council agreed that recording the annual meeting of the dissertation committee somehow is a good idea; this takes place in more or less formalized ways in different parts of the University.

V. Web Pages
Baranger asked Council for comment on whether graduate schools at the University should be required or at least encouraged to link to the central graduate studies page (http://www.pitt.edu/~graduate). There was consensus that schools should link to this page or to its relevant links. Ed Sussna raised the question of whether there should be a minimum standard of information regarding graduate education presented on school Web sites. Links to the documents available through the central graduate studies page (or that page itself) will serve to standardize that information to some extent.

Council noted the value of the Web as a recruitment tool for graduate students.

There was discussion on how to best present the graduate faculty roster online. The roster will be presented in its alphabetically-by-school format rather than its alphabetical-only format.

VI. Committee Assignments

Baranger reviewed the charges of the three standard UCGS subcommittees: SEAP (Evaluation of Academic Programs), Graduate Procedures, and Student Affairs. UCGS members noted their preferences for committee appointments; these appointments will be made at the November meeting.

Council agreed that, in addition to the three standing committees, a task force on the position of postdocs at the University will be appointed, as well as a small (2 or 3 member) task force on off-campus programs. University Research Council will participate in the postdoc task force.

Issues for the subcommittees this year include:

GPC: certificate programs at the University; transfer of distance-education credits

Student Affairs: placement; housing; health insurance