Graduate Council Minutes, October 22, 2009
Attendance: Dan Brown (chair), Jerry Calton, Yoshiko Fukushima, Eric Im, Kerri Inglis, Māhealani Jones, Bryan Kim, Stefan Kropidlowski, Charles Langlas, Ken Morris, Don Price Michael Shintaku, Kenith Simmons, Kathleen Stacey, and Jan Zulich. Colin Phifer (scribe)
Approval of meeting minutes from October 8, 2009
- Committee amendments: add Cathy Zenz to the attendance list and correct the misspelling of her first name from a “K” to a “C” on the second page.
Motion: To approve a change in admission requirements for M.A. Hawaiian Language and Literature to include “a sample undergraduate academic paper (by preference written in Hawaiian)”.
- Justification: some accepted students are deficient in writing term papers.
- Committee suggestions:
- Adopt standard rubric to evaluate quality of writing sample.
- Motion approved 12/0/1.
Program modification for M.A. in Indigenous Language and Culture Education: omit passing scores on required PRAXIS examinations,” and make it instead a requirement for admission to the program.
- Justification: should not be a requirement for graduation since test is administered by ETS and not UHH.
- Clarification: would require passing all three PRAXIS exams.
- Committee amendments: add “…for state licensure” after the word “examinations.”
- Motion with amendment approved 12/0/1.
Program review of the M.A. China-US Relations from provisional to established program.
- Program committee recommends approving the program for provisional status with the following conditions:
- UHH hires program administrator and devote additional resources to program to make it self-sustaining and robust.
- Hire a permanent Chinese language instructor
- Expand electives for Chinese students to take additional 400-level electives in culture, history and political science courses.
- Questions remain over the cost of the program and which program would be appropriate to compare it to. Methods to estimate cost must be consistent with UHH standards.
- Eric Im will follow up to determine if cost comparisons presented in the report include other UH graduate programs PhD or only masters programs. He will find an appropriate comparison program in the UH system.
- Prof. Im detailed some of the difficulties in attracting professors to the program since individual teachers must follow set schedules by their department chair.
- Possible solution would be to approach administration with a plan above the individual program level that would create a mechanism for professors to teach across departments to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations and still be reimbursed.
- Further__review__needed; no council__recommendations.
- Program committee recommends approving the program for provisional status with the following conditions:
Adoption for Graduate Council Charter
- Currently, the GC operates without a charter
- A preliminary draft was made by Dan Brown
- Māhealani Jones, Jan Zulich and Dan Brown will coordinate schedules and begin to draft a charter for consideration of the GC.
M.S. Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science proposed program modifications.
- Proposed two new courses as electives, to be sent to the Course Committee:
- CBES 609 Theory and Application of Landscape Ecology
- CBES 681 Spatial Data Analysis and Modeling
- Program modification to include the two new courses as electives may be considered directly by the full Council and do not need to be directed to the Program Committee.
- Proposed two new courses as electives, to be sent to the Course Committee:
Adjourned at 9:10 AM