UWM College of Letters and Science
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
College of Letters and Science

2000-2001
Graduate Program Committee
Meeting: Wednesday, December 6, 2000, 1:00 p.m.
Holton Hall 241

Minutes No. 2

Present:   Allen Bell, Doug Cherkauer, Jeff Hayes, Dave Heathcote, Bob Jeske, Connie Jo (ex officio), Patrice Petro, Diane Reddy, Kris Ruggiero, Chuck Schuster (ex officio), Bill Wainwright
Guests: Marshall Goodman, Celi Jeske, Jeffrey Merrick, Joe Rodriguez, Gabrielle Verdier


  1. Call to Order/Announcement(s) - The chair, Dave Heathcote, called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m. in HLT 241.

    It was moved, seconded, and approved to suspend the agenda to accommodate the guests.

    IV.A.   Dean Goodman addressed four questions (attached) that had been presented to him in advance of the meeting.

    Graduate Student Stipends
    State money cannot be used to fund competitive stipends for graduate students. The College is doing a number of things to address this issue. First, we are seeking funds within departments that can be used for this purpose. Physics has identified such funds to supplement graduate student stipends. Geography has a $1M bequest that can be used for this purpose. In Biological Science, the Ruth Walker Scholarship monies will supplement stipends. Second, the College has been successful in fund-raising; it currently has a fair amount of unrestricted funds. It is very difficult to raise donations specifically for stipends; donors feel it is the State's responsibility to fund this. Donors are more likely to support scholarships for undergraduate (minority and top scholar) students than stipend supplements for graduate students. Therefore, the College will fund from unrestricted monies twelve $2000 supplements for next year to help recruit PhD students. Six will go to the sciences where the need is greatest, four to the social sciences, and two to the humanities. Committee members were invited to suggest any guidelines for awarding the supplements they felt were appropriate. Third, Dean Goodman is a member of the capital campaign committee. Plans include raising $5M in endowed funds, $1M in recurring funds that will go to graduate stipends. This won't happen immediately as the campaign is a five-year undertaking, but graduate stipends are a priority.

    We have not been successful in getting stronger salaries for graduate assistants, largely because this has not been a priority for this State administration. Nor has the Madison campus articulated this as a top priority. Since Madison has access to supplemental funds for stipends, that campus is not (yet) in crisis mode on this issue. We need to convince the Board of Regents and the Governor's office of this need. The Legislature has the view that UW trains graduate students from other states who then leave Wisconsin, so they do not support providing money for stipends.

    Graduate Student Recruitment

    Dave Heathcote mentioned that departments don't have a good sense of how to do marketing. Dean Goodman indicated that help is available from the College office, particularly from Jennifer McKenzie's staff. In addition, Homer Hruby will assist departments in developing web-based advertising. Patrice Petro suggested having a classy web page and mailing out postcards that direct potential students to the web page. Dean Goodman noted that we have translated some of our web materials into Spanish; we would like to move to Chinese translations next. This should help with international recruitment. Also, we will do more international recruitment through the Center for International Education. Terry Miller has been brought on-board to lead this effort. One of the past problems has been the budget for international student recruitment. Last year's allocation of $1900 has been increased to $30,000 for this year. Homer can provide information concerning the countries from which hits on our web sites are coming. The College also has a recruitment officer whose past emphasis has been the recruitment of undergraduate students. This year, her priority will shift to graduate student recruitment.

    Potential Growth Areas for Programs in the College

    Among the current DIN proposals, fifteen from the College have been submitted, and they are faring well so far. L&S is likely to get a major share of the $8M request. We plan to hire 313 new faculty members over four years, which will contribute to enhancing graduate education. Right now, interdisciplinary programs are very strong across the country. Dean Goodman mentioned his long standing interest in the development of a Master's in Public Policy, a program that is extremely popular nationwide. Within such a program, various tracks (with foci on health, environmental science, transportation, etc.) can be developed. To date he has been unsuccessful in getting the cooperation of all the departments that would be involved in such a project. The Master's in Public Administration is developing a new curriculum with the School of Business Administration. Another area of potential (interdisciplinary) strength is media studies. Among Milwaukee Idea initiatives, areas such as aging, environment, and others are emerging. We have two PhD proposals pending at Madison. After ten years, we finally have received approval of our request for an entitlement to plan a History Ph.D. Bob Jeske asked if the major focus in graduate program development would be in new interdisciplinary programs rather than in strengthening existing programs. Dean Goodman noted that the main focus of our plans for reinvesting in graduate education will be strengthening existing programs that are strong and have growth potential. The revised Geography Ph.D. program is among these. We also will look to rebuilding the Geosciences Ph.D. The recommendation to discontinue the program came at the nadir of our period of faculty losses. We are rebuilding our faculty to the extent that we now can make this a successful program as well as invest in new programs. Allen Bell asked if there will be a push for more programs on-line. Dean Goodman noted that there already is a plan to put the Nursing Ph.D. on-line to Asia. In L&S, there has been discussion of putting communication, industrial math, and technical writing on-line. Patrice Petro asked how we will maintain quality and who will be charged with providing quality oversight for outreach programs using the UWM name. Dean Goodman indicated that this has not been worked out as yet.

    Tuition-Generating Master's Programs

    Dean Goodman indicated that there is great interest in such programs, though not to the exclusion of more traditional programs. Jeff Hayes pointed out that there is not necessarily a dichotomy between traditional research and tuition-generating programs. Dean Goodman noted that the latter of these help pay the bills. The real dichotomy is between undergraduate and graduate education. The former makes money while the latter loses. We need to do all of these kinds of programs. The College is not in favor of eliminating programs based on low Student Credit Hour counts. Dave Heathcote noted that the Committee has seen more traditional master's programs introducing non-thesis tracks. He asked if this "should be" the trend toward which programs lean in the future. Dean Goodman said that this should be done only if the program faculty members see it as good for the program. The College has not adopted a goal of developing non-thesis track programs.

    NRTRs

    Gabrielle Verdier asked where NRTR awards currently are handled. Dean Goodman indicated that the associate deans handle this. They may make recommendations to the Dean about shifting the balance of NRTRs between departments. State law limits the number of NRTRs that can be granted. We have exceeded our limit, since having an up-to-date count of what has been accepted is nearly impossible as admissions are in flux. We have been pushing UW System to seek a change in the law. When we have requested additional NRTRs from the Legislature, we have been told that departments and faculty members should build the tuition rates into their grant proposals. Bob Jeske pointed out that NSF will not fund these aspects of grants. Doug Cherkauer noted that State grants also will not fund NRTRs. Dean Goodman indicated that this was the kind of information we need to support our arguments for a change in the law. There are some stand-alone remissions that the College funds. Questions should be directed to the associate deans and Pat Kissinger.

    Dave Heathcote thanked Dean Goodman for attending the meeting.
    V. B.   Joe Rodriguez gave a more detailed explanation for the request to modify the requirements of the M.S. in Urban Studies. A major incentive for the changes came from the Economics Department restructuring of its course offerings. He also noted that very few students specialize, so elimination of detailed course lists for specializations would have little impact in fact. Those few students who still wish to earn a specialty can do so by working out an individual program of study with their advisors. It was moved, seconded, and approved unanimously to recommend to the Dean approval of the revisions in the M.S. in Urban Studies.

    Joe Rodriguez also noted, apropos of the earlier discussion on recruiting graduate students, that departments and programs are uncertain how to proceed. They need help developing recruitment strategies.
    Connie Jo requested that a new item, not included on the printed agenda, be considered. Due to a shift to a new on-line system for program changes, there has been a temporary breakdown in the system for transmitting proposals. A proposal from the History Department should have been included in the agenda. It was moved, seconded, and approved to consider the History proposal.
    VI.B. Proposal to Amend the Admission Requirements for the History Master's Program. Jeff Merrick indicated that the Department, through experience, had learned that many students who did not have a full major in history, but who had a substantial number of credits, were well qualified to pursue a history M.A. without deficiencies. The department proposes to change the admission requirement from a major in history to a minimum of a minor or 18 credits in history. It was moved, seconded, and approved unanimously to recommend this change to the Dean.

    It was moved, seconded, and approved to return to the order of the agenda.

    1. Master's Program Survey - It was pointed out that the Philosophy Department had not yet responded. Dave Heathcote will ask committee member Bill Wainwright (who had to leave the meeting before this discussion) if he can get the requested information from his department. A couple other corrections to the table were noted. Connie Jo was asked to request from Sherry Kulhanek updated figures on the number of graduate students for 2000-2001.

  2. Automatic Consent
    1. Minutes #1 (September 13, 2000) were approved as submitted.

  3. Procedural Matters
    1. Informal Review of Graduate Proposals by Grad School - Connie Jo reported that requests from the Graduate School for modifications in proposals already approved by the L&S GPC continued to be a problem. An informal resolution has been worked out with Dale Jaffe. New proposals will be forwarded to him for his comments prior to placing them on the agenda of the L&S GPC. There was no objection to this procedure.

  4. Special Order of Business
    1. Meeting with Dean Marshall Goodman - See above.

  5. Old Business
    1. Amendments to Geography PhD Proposal Approved May 5, 2000. It was moved, seconded, and approved to accept the amendments proposed by the Graduate School to the Geography Ph.D. proposal.
    2. Urban Studies Proposed Changes - See above.

  6. New Business
    1. Proposal to Amend the Requirements for the PhD in Political Science - It was moved, seconded, and approved to recommend approval of these amended requirements to the Dean.
    2. Proposal to Amend the Admission Requirements for the History Master's Program - See above.
    3. Members requested that the following two items appear on the agenda of the next meeting:
      1. Must a department/program have a member present at the GPC meeting when changes to that unit's program are considered?
      2. Discussion of the On-Line Program Change system and the possibility of eliminating paper copy distribution of proposals.

  7. Adjournment - Connie Jo will confirm spring schedules. The meeting was adjourned at 2:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,


Connie Jo
Secretary to the L&S Faculty


Distribution: Dean Marshall Goodman
Associate Deans, L&S
Assistant Deans, L&S
Secretary of the University
L&S Faculty (via web- http://www.uwm.edu/letsci/committees/)


COLLEGE OF LETTERS AND SCIENCE
Graduate Program Committee

Meeting: December 6, 2000, 1:00 p.m., HLT 241



Questions for Dean Goodman

  1. How can we get competitive stipends to recruit students, particularly in the sciences?

  2. Can we get College help with graduate student recruitment (marketing) , particularly for international students? There is a huge interest in China, India, and Pakistan in our programs. How can we turn inquiries into applications and admissions?

  3. What are the potential growth areas for graduate programs within the College?

  4. Is there an interest in emphasizing tuition-generating Master's programs (based on course work) rather than the traditional research-based programs? How can the two be balanced?


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