September 22, 2017

Upchurch Conference Room – Bell Engineering

Members Present:

Voting:  Paul Cronan, Jeannine Durdik, Michael R. Evans, James Gigantino, Ethel Goodstein-Murphree, Fran Hagstrom, Douglas Karcher, Patricia Koski, Kathleen Lehman, Cathy Lirgg, Ketevan Mamiseishvili, Jared Pack, Manuel Rossetti, and Joel Thornton

Non-Voting:  Amanda Corbell

Members Absent:

Voting:  Karen Boston, Norman D. Dennis, Jr., Will Foster, Jennie Popp, and Timothy Yeager

Non-Voting:  Kierstin Bible, Alice Griffin, and Lisa Kulczak

Guests:  Jenna Cambria, Miran Kang, and Terry Martin

Jeannine Durdik called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m.

  1. The minutes for the August 4, 2017 meeting were approved.

  2. Course Change Proposals:
    All course change proposals were approved without opposition.  The approved courses are listed on the CIM Course Report created by CourseLeaf and will be forwarded for consideration as appropriate to the:
    • Faculty Senate, meeting scheduled for October 11, 2017 
    • Graduate Council meeting scheduled for October 19, 2017

  3. Old Business: 
    None

  4. New Business:
    The following program change proposals were approved on the CIM Program Report without opposition.  The program changes will be forwarded for consideration as appropriate to the:
    • Faculty Senate, meeting scheduled for October 11, 2017
    • Graduate Council meeting scheduled for October 19, 2017

    1. Proposed graduate program change for the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, SPEDME, Special Education, Master of Education presented by Kate Mamiseishvili. 

      We are requesting use of the Praxis Core Exam or other Standardized Core Knowledge Test in lieu of the GRE for admission to the SPED Master of Education program in the Graduate School.

      After reviewing other programs nationally, we found that most are not requiring the GRE. This was limiting our applicant pool in Arkansas and across the nation (4a_SPEDME report).

    2. Proposed graduate program change for the Department of Rehabilitation, Human Resources, and Communication Disorders, EDEVMC. Educational Program Evaluation Post Master’s Certificate presented by Kate Mamiseishvili.

      Requesting to inactivate program. This certificate program has not been successful in recruiting students. There has not been any student enrolled in the program for a number of years. Inactivating this post-master’s certificate will allow program faculty time to continue conversations about the potential reconfiguration of this certificate program at a later date. However, if these conversations do not result in actions/strategies that can potentially result in increased recruitment/student demand, the program should be deleted/removed from program inventory as planned in 5 years (4b_EDEVMC report, 4b_EDEVMC-Inactivate – Ltr of Notification). 

    3. Proposed graduate program change for the Department of Rehabilitation, Human Resources, and Communication Disorders, EDPSGC, Educational Psychology Graduate Certificate was presented by Jenna Cambria. 

      We would like to adjust our 18 hour Post Masters Certificate to be a 15 hour Graduate Certificate.  Changed the requirement of two doctoral level statistics classes to one master's level or introductory doctoral level class, allowing master's level students into the certificate.

      We make these adjustments in order to allow Masters students into the program and include appropriate Masters level coursework. Most of the students that take the educational psychology classes are Masters students and they do not enroll in the certificate because they take Masters level statistics classes. The current form suffers from a mismatch of primarily Masters students in educational psychology classes and doctoral statistics classes. We have discussed possibly changing the certificate to include Masters level statistical work and there has been increased interest from students and program coordinators. We do not feel that the doctoral level coursework is necessary for the Masters level graduate certificate and we are currently unable to support a number of students that want to enroll and would benefit from the certificate, but are not enrolled in a doctoral program. There was also a prerequisite to the statistics coursework in the previous configuration (ESRM 6403), which in practice meant students were technically required to take 3 statistics classes (the prerequisite plus two additional). This might also explain our historically low enrollment in the certificate with 4 Master’s classes and 3 doctoral level classes (4c_EDPSGC report, 4c_EDPSGC – Reconfig – Ltr of Notification.docx).

  5. Additional items/Announcements:
    1. Applied Sustainability Center – deletion (5a_APPL SUST Ctr – Admin Unit Deletion –  Ltr of Notification, 5a_Applied Sustainability – Closing Document).

    2. RFID Research Center – deletion (5b_RFID Res Ctr – Admin Unit Deletion – Ltr of Notification, 5b_RFID Center Closing Letter).

    3. CourseLeaf and Curriculum Changes Information Session – Thursday, October 5 from 2:30 – 4:00 pm and Friday, October 6 from 8:00 – 9:30 am.  Registration is available at:  https://edp.uark.edu/register_schedules.php?courseID=30240
  6. Next Meeting:  October 27, 2017 at 2:30 p.m.  (Agenda deadline is October 13, 2017). 
    Plan for an extended meeting.  

    Meeting adjourned at 3:00 p.m.