Tag Archives: funding

5/8 Graduate Council Meeting minutes

by Jessica Mahlbacher
I. Approval of the Minutes: March 5, 2014 – Interim President Robinson p.13
A. Minutes approved! Chase was very thankful.
II. Opening Comments – Interim President Robinson
A. State Budget Announcement:
1. Good News:
a. Major colleges received an additional 45 million in funds to primarily to cover fringe benefits.
b. They will also receive 65 million to cover the increased tuition revenue, much of that is to cover the difference between tap assistance and the rising tuition level.
TAP has been raised from 5154
c. Community colleges did well, and will now receive 75 dollars more per student from the state.
d. Good for capital funding
2. Okay news:
a. The state is not funding the costs of moving the faculty through contractual steps, this is now on the university.
b. There is some variance in terms of state bureaucratic commitment to assisting CUNY in closing the gap between TAP assistance and rising tuition levels.
c. There were also a number of smaller programs funded by the state.
d. Moderate decrease in what the state is going to allocate for maintenance, but an increase in strategic projects. Chase did not want to proclaim doom and gloom too soon, but the building is 40-50 years old. While the building has been well looked after, we are incurring costs all of the time, including a new set of chillers (which should in the long run save us money).
3. Chase Robinson: “The future is… obscure”: next year will be the end of the five year contract and the governor’s race is coming up. The current occupant of the gubernatorial seat likes to style himself as a “cost-conscious democrat.”
a. The biggest variable is the modified priority of an incoming chancellor. This will not cause problems in the upcoming fiscal year, but it will affect the long run.
B. Commencement!:
1. Dance card for the event
a. There will be the awarding of a Distinguished Alumni Medal: Carol J. Oja https://www.music.fas.harvard.edu/faculty/coja.html
b. Chase wants this to be continued and perhaps expanded, at the very least institutionalized.
c. Professor Uday Mehta will be giving the faculty address, Suzanne Tamang of Computer Science will be giving the student address.
d. The Chancellor will come!
C. Chase wanted to give a shout out to this event with Thomas Piketty. Even has had millions of youtube views.
D. Student Awards:
1. 2 graduate NSF research fellowships
2. The Society of Behavioral Medicine awarded a Distinguished Award for Student Research in 2014
3. One Guggenheim Fellowship to a recent alumni in Philosophy
E. Faculty Honors:
1. Two of the faculty were chosen to be on the National Academy of Science’s panel on the integration of immigrants into American society
2. Matt Gold and the Digital Humanities crew won an NEH start up grant
3. Michelle Fine 2014 Recipient of the Education Award from the Center for Fair and Open Testing
4. The EO of Physics won the Jefferson Science Fellowship Award from the State department
F. Recent Faculty Appointments (Props to the Provost and the English Department:
1. Eric Lott will join the English Department, from the UVA. Also American Studies
2. Feisal Mohamed will join the Department of English in 2015 from the University of Illinois.
3. Chase is delighted for them.
G. Offers are out Urban Education, Anthropology, Jewish Studies, Psychology. It may be awhile before closure.
H. Admission Season (Final numbers will not be ready until the fall).
1. Total number of applications is slightly higher than last year (by 9!), in spite of concerns that it would be down. Chase is heartened by this considering anecdotal evidence points to the national numbers being down.
2. The number of offers is the same as last year.
3. Chase thanked everyone for their hard work, particular props go to the Provost.
4. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it was an extremely strong season, filled with quality students.
I. The Doctoral Student Parental Policy is out, Chase thinks the product is sweet. Props to the members of the Provost and members of the DSC (including our own Sarah Kostecki)
1. Accommodations up through the age of six
2. This is a two year pilot program, this can be tweaked as needed.
3. Chase advises that under this policy, one can have a plethora of children, but they have to be sequential. No doubling up due to twins, triplets, sextuplets etc. “Live long and multiply, but not at the same time!”
III. Granting of Degrees and Certificates to May 2014 – Interim Provost Lennihan
A. Doctor of Philosophy Degree is given to 120 candidates, the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree is given to 1 candidate, Masters of Arts Degree is given to 48 candidates, Master of Philosophy Degree is given to 121 candidates, the Doctor of Cardiology is given to 9 candidates, Doctor of Physical Therapy is given to 47 candidates, and the Doctor of Public Health be given to 1 candidate.
B. Motioned, seconded. Nobody disapproved.
IV. Results of Election to College Association – Professor Thistlethwaite
A. Klara Marton from Speech, Language and Hearing Science
B. Herb Saltzstein from Psychology
C. Thom Thurston from Economics
V. Nominations for two faculty to serve on the Student Complaint Appeals Committee for 2014-2015 -Professor Thistlethwaite (only faculty can make nominations)
A. The biggest single issue that Polly wanted to highlight, and was highlighted repeatedly, was the issue of preferential voting. All candidates, no matter how many there are, have to be ranked under the system of preferential voting. Anyone who puts down their choices, without ranking all of the choices has their vote disqualified. Not for the whole ballot, for that particular slate.

VI. Nominations for Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary of Graduate Council for 2014-2016 – Professor Thistlethwaite
A. The chair and the vice chair have to be faculty members, the secretary can be faculty or a student.
B. Marty Burke as chair for 4 years. No one wanted to take this away from him.
C. Gerald Creed has been Vice-Chair. He was (quietly) begging for competition. Somebody nominated Jeremy Porter from Sociology. He decided to stand for the election. Polly said that all we were allowed to know was the department. No one started the revolution.
D. Polly announced that she, as the current Secretary, was the only one who had put her hat in the ring for this position. She hoped for competition. All she got was polite laughter.
VII. Committee on Committees Presentation of nominees for Standing Committees for 2014-2016 -Professor Thistlethwaite
A. There was confusion over whether students could only vote for students, and faculty could only vote for faculty. It was decided that nominations could be made by faculty for faculty, and students could only nominate students, but that everyone could vote for everyone.
B. It is not clear yet whether students’ votes actually count for the faculty, but they figured they could disaggregate the vote to ensure that policy is followed.
C. The Committee on Research is the most popular committee in town.
D. There was no excitement for the rest of the elections for the standing committees. No last minute nominations.
E. The nomination and elections process took a good 35 minutes. Chase warned that we had not heard the last of preferential voting. Clearly its minutes were numbered.
VIII. Committee on Curriculum and Degree Requirements – Ms. Anne Donlon p.17
A. Change to PhD in Computer Science, the new first exam is getting a 70% or higher on the algorithms test and a B+ average in the 4 core classes. New Classes added.
B. Change in Criminal Justice PhD, elimination of Forensic Science specialization. John Jay had provided the funding, and they elected to no longer spend the money. Current students shall be supported.
C. PhD Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages Changes to Admission and Requirements. Two new core courses as well.
D. PhD program in Nursing- Changes First Examination: “State of the Science” paper.
E. New MALS track in Childhood and Youth Studies and two new courses, Introduction to Childhood and Youth Studies, Childhood and Youth Studies. Potential link with the Brooklyn BA program, no MA exists like this yet in CUNY.
F. 0 credit course on prospectus and dissertation seminar for Philosophy department
G. The department of Public Health is trying to make the tracks more distinct in accordance with their accrediting body. They are changing the credits and also adding new courses.
IX. Minor Items
A. Change to 2 HLBLL courses
B. Computer Science is changing credit hours for 3-4, and then the Seminar “Research at CUNY” is now the “Research Survey”
X. Committee on Structure:
A. Changes to the Bylaws and the governance of the Graduate School from the governance. Get rid of preferential voting, instead going with plurality voting. That was not voted on in the session, the “Committee on Committees” gets the final say in how the voting would take place.
1. Chase points out that the arcane elements of preferential voting are not fully appreciated. Many people will not know “how to compare a candidate that we do not know well with a candidate that we do not know at all.”
2. The Committee on Structure is most concerned about disenfranchisement. Proper filling out of paperwork
3. Polly is also worried about the distribution of candidates, and the large number of candidates for committees such as Research
4. In the end, preferential voting was eliminated from the bylaws and the governance.
C. New governance for the Masters in Middle Eastern Studies.
D. Revised governance for the Women’s Studies Program.
XI. Presentation of the Standing Committees
XII. Professor Burke gave a report from the university faculty senate.
A. Still short on alternates for the Faculty Senate
B. Project for a larger institutional repository program is still in process, it is hoped this will be tied to the CUNY commons. It should be voluntary, not mandatory.

 

9/20 Executive Committee meeting notes

Notes taken by Joanna Tice.
John McMahon was also in attendance.
Executive Committee Meeting Notes 9/20/13:
EO Report:
CUNY First is coming to the GC
– This may affect purchasing of things like wine and cheese in that it will be a bigger deal (more annoying) for faculty to sign off on these purchases.
– CUNY First will also eventually be used for faculty recruiting
– So far, just as on the campuses, everyone is complaining about CUNY First
Faculty Membership Report:
– Discussion of Prof. Petchesky’s emeritus status will occur between this meeting and the beginning of 2014.
– A question was raised by John Wallach as to what responsibilities and privileges come with that status
– Prof. Rollins explained that there are no responsibilities, but there are continued privileges (teaching classes, attending events, attending committee meetings if they so choose, library card, etc)
Funding:
– The EO is pleased that the department is now providing some sort of funding for all POLSC students and that they actually have extra UF money to spare (~ $20,000).
– That money will go to a Summer 2014 Pre-Dissertation Travel Award.
– These applications will be due by October 14th and decisions will be announced by the end of October.
– Margaret sent out an email last week regarding how to apply.
Exams:
– 65% pass rate overall (a 13 to 7 split)
– Pass rate for August Exams by subfield:
– American: 66%
– Comparative: 66%
– IR: 62%
– Theory: 50%
– Public Policy: 100%
-According to the EO, no appeals will be necessary this semester, but if anyone is interested, the sequence for appeals is provided by the GC bylaws as follows:
1) EO
2) Executive Committee
3) Provost’s Office
– The bylaws require only 2 readers on each exam committee. If there is a split, the EO will ask a 3rd to step in.
– The Committee desires to change the perception that the exams are a weeding out mechanism by explaining that it is very difficult for the EO or the Executive committee to actually remove a student based on failure of an exam. There are very few historical examples of such attempts, and it is next to impossible.
– However, the EO encouraged the faculty to be faster and more complete in producing their comments, as they comments are “of the utmost importance” in processing the exam results. This has been an ongoing issue for at least the last 4 years (since Joanna has been in the program) and is one that the students should continue to push back on in the future. Hold your exam committees and the EO responsible when results are not prompt. There is too much at stake, especially for students who need to pass on to the next level for reduced tuition.
– He claims he has only terminated one student in his tenure and it was “the ethical thing to do” in the circumstance.
– SatProgs and failed exams do not go on a permanent record in the sense that they do not show up on your transcript that you might send to an employer, but there will be a note of it in your file. (The only people who have access to those files are the current EO, Margaret, and the student owner of the file.)
Update to 2008 Program Self-Study:
– EO is in the process of writing an evaluation of the work the program has done since the 2008 self-study
Admissions:
– Last year was the first year of a 3-year cycle of reducing class size (to support new GC fellowship), but POLSC is already basically at the level we need to be at.
Readmission requests:
– Policy: students attempting to re-enter to write their dissertation should re-take their first exam if they are out for more than a decade.
-But because we are a state school, everything can be appealed
– We need to devise mechanisms/policies to prevent these absurd readmissions (for example, a request by someone from the 1990’s who FAILED 5 out of 7 of there classes and is now asking for readmission)
-A new policy is being drafted to deal with cases a certain number of years out
– Such a policy exists in the admissions committee, but it is not in handbook or bylaws
– The EO will show this new policy to the committee at the next meeting
– “Readmission suppresses the quality of our program”
Department Website student page (brought up by student reps):
Please see John McMahon’s email yesterday for more info addressing the implementation of student website content.
Subfield Pages: Need some editing (brought up by student reps):
Margaret will send an email to current subfield chairs to ask for renewal/possible resubmission of information on subfield pages
– Students and faculty are asked to email Margaret if you notice an error on the site (as it is controlled by the GC, things sometimes go haywire without anyone in POLSC touching anything.
Subfield Chairs have also been asked to review their exam reading lists and there was discussion of whether or not to establish a rule about how often these lists are updated.
Marshall Berman Memorial Student Award (brought up by student reps):
-EO response: there is concern (in regards to a memorial service and/or award) of eclipsing or stepping on the toes of people at City College
– We obviously want to go forward with both a memorial service and an award, but that is the political context that needs to be worked out.
– Given how recent Marshall’s passing was, the seemingly sensitive politics around it with City College, and the general commitment to the topic from both students and faculty, it is something to address once more time has passed
Open Defenses (raised by student reps):
For various reasons, faculty do not think that open defenses are a good idea, instead they propose a two-pronged approach.
1) a required job talk (to practice for job market) could be a public event
2) Non-public defense (but student is allowed to bring a small number of guests (close family and friends).

4/26 Executive Committee notes

EO Report

  • Dissertation Fellowships
    • Students in program received 3 Dissertation Year Fellowships, 1 Ralph Bunche fellowship, 1 Center for Place Culture and Politics fellowship
    • 7 Doctoral Student Research Grants
    • administration working on providing health insurance in dissertation fellowships
      • problem is that must be employment line to receive health insurance, but fellowships usually come without any service obligation
    • GC-wide, 70 fellowships
  • Will be attempt to expand program funding of sending students to do research
    • Would come with requirement to present research in some form to program/GC (perhaps expansion of student conference)
  • Admissions and Fall cohort
    • Impressionistically, R.Petchesky thinks this is the highest quality pool yet; J.Rollins – got 92% of first-tier candidates to come
      • J.Rollins ascribes this to new fellowship
      • Received 1 Magnet Fellowship
    • Theory = 3, Comparative = 3, IR = 3, American = 2, Policy = 2
    • Special shout-out by Petchesky and Woodward to Mike Miller and Jamie Aroosi for their work on the admissions committee
    • Thanks to students who talked to prospective students
    • Will be some kind of Orientation on August 27
  • Grad Student Conference successful
    • Also used as recruitment, some prospective students came
    • Alumni Awards Night is May 9, everyone should come
      • 5:30 reception in lounge; 6:30 Awards in Segal Theatre

Faculty Membership

Advisement

  • there will be some kind of formalized procedure for advisement in incoming students’ first few years before they develop closer relationships and before finding a dissertation sponsor
  • likely to be assigned to central line faculty in identified subfield of incoming student

‘Pass With Distinction’ on 2nd Exam and Defense

  • There is a “Pass With Distinction” option on the 2nd Exam currently which applies only within department (in student’s department file, but does not go to registrar, etc.)
    • There was some talk of doing away with the option
    • Questions over whether it’s actually useful for funding applications, job letters, etc.
    • Ultimately decided to keep status quo
  • Will be exploration of adding a Distinction option to the Dissertation Defense as well
    • Will be some research on what other programs do
    • Potentially helpful for job letters, for communications with publishers

 

 

Executive Committee Minutes, 9/21 Meeting

*Submitted by Joanna Tice, on behalf of your student representatives to the Executive Committee: John McMahon, Aleta Styers and Joanna Tice

1) New Graduate Center Fellowships: Announces major shift in the fellowship funding/structure, coming into effect for students entering in the 2013-14 school year
– The Enhanced Chancellors Fellowship will be replaced by a new fellowship (Probably called the Graduate Center Fellowship)
– Stipend increased to $25,000 annually + tuition remission
– Same 5 years guaranteed funding with 1 year RA position, 3 years teaching (reduced to a 1-1 teaching load, potentially transferable to a 0-2 or 2-0) and 5th year writing fellowship
– Purpose: to make GC fellowships competitive with other institutions.
– All PhD students NOT receiving a fellowship WILL be receiving a tuition waiver
– MA funding possibilities will remain the same (i.e., limited)
– This was accomplished by requiring a 25% reduction in funded PhD students, institution-wide. However, our department already accomplished that reduction in the last few years, so it will mean a reduction of only 1 or 2 PhD students at most for PS. This does not apply to MAs (if anything, MAs may be increased).
– THIS DOES NOT CHANGE THE FELLOWSHIP FUNDING AND STRUCTURE FOR ALREADY MATRICULATED STUDENTS

2) Composition of Entering Class this Fall: a substantial majority are Theory and IR students, followed by Comparative, American, very few in Public Policy, but those few appear very focused with research objectives already clear.

3) 1st Exam results: This year was one of the most successful years on record for successful completion of the first exam
– 25 out of 30 students passed their respective exams
– 13 students changed levels
– more people taking exams earlier
– faculty from two of the fieds commented upon relatively weak responses in some of the passing exams.

4) The Gittell Chair/Samuel’s Center Faculty Search: This search has been adjusted over the summer and the position would no longer be housed in the Samuel’s Center
– The Search is somewhat up in the air, as a permanent position has been offered but most likely this scholar will not accept (based on family situation) and thus the position will be offered to a number of visiting scholars until a match is found
– The Faculty Membership Committee is still actively pursuing an IPE line

5) Budget: Budget for the department seems stable – there will be no reduction in courses or entrenchment on hiring

6) Professional Development Workshop Planning: DEO (Rosalind Petchesky) announcement about planning process of student professional development workshop.
– Several students on the list serve have expressed interest in a workshop about the 2nd and 3rd exams. We brought this up with Professor Petchesky and she suggested that students interested in those topics suggest them on the Questionnaire sent out by the department last week (sent by Margaret on the 14th).
– If you are interested in a workshop on the 2nd or 3rd exams, please submit the questionnaire ASAP and write-in that request in the “other topics” section of the form.

7) Department Website Improvement: Joe is proposing to launch a committee to overhaul the website in the coming months. He will most likely need student volunteers to participate in that committee, if anyone has particular interest, you might let him know.

8. Changing of the Guard: Just FYI, Joe will probably be taking a sabbatical for half of next year and for half of the year after that. Apropos this, he spoke of the need to identify and train new a new EO and a new DEO to replace Ros