by Sarah Kostecki and Kristofer Petersen-Overton

Overview:

I. Approval of minutes of December 12, 2012
II. Opening comments
III. Granting of Degrees and Certificates to February 2013 Phd, DMA, MA, M.Phil, DPT candidates (only faculty voted on this item)
IV. Nominations for two faculty to serve on the the Student Complaint Appeals Committee for 2013 – 2014
V. Committee on Curriculum and Degree requirements
VI. Structure Committee
VII. University Faculty Senate – Report
VIII. New Business

——-

I. President Bill Kelly and the Council approved the minutes from December 12, 2012

II. President Kelly then made his opening comments:

a) Budget – nothing to report. The current 5 yr. agreement will continue as planned for the next 3 years
b) Sequester – President Kelly and others are “maintaining consciousness” of the current sequester at the federal level. There is always the potential that cuts could make their way to the state and city level. No planned changes due to the sequester at present.
c) Update on 2012 – 2016 Strategic Plan – 3 Main Goals:
1) Enhance finance support – He gave a recap of the incremental rise in PhD financial support since 2006 and has noted that support has gradually become more generous (as we all know). In 2006 the university first began tuition remission. In 2009 – out of state/international ECF’s became available. NYSHIP was also extended to adjuncts and other ECF’s. 2011 – the opening of the first residential facility.
2013 –
New students:
-New ECF’s will go into effect, value of 25K and 1/1 teaching load.
-All incoming students without an ECF will receive 5 year full tuition fellowships and will be placed into teaching positions as they become available
-Goal is that in 5 years all PhD students will be fully funded
-In total 52 million was added to financial aid roles for Fall 2013
Continuing students:
-University has expanded en route support to current PhD students (no further details)
-Expansion of dissertation fellowships – in 2013 70 fellowships were awarded totaling 1.2 million. In 2014 the goal is to expand dissertation funding and award 85 fellowships totaling 1.5 million.
Fellowships will also include full tuition.
-ARC (Advanced Research Initiative), The Demography Program, and Digital Initiatives expansion will also provide more funding opportunities to students
-Harrison Fellowships (based on academic merit and need) – funding has increase almost 96% over the past few years
Teaching disparities between current and incoming GTFs
-President Kelly said this issue will be addressed in 2014. They are identifying resources and partnerships that will help decrease the work load of current GTFs (no further detail was given)

2) Expand professional development
-As already communicated, Jennifer Furlong of Penn, NYU and the Chronicle of Higher Ed began as the head of the new Office of Career Planning and Professional development earlier this year.
She will speak at a future Grad Council Meeting.
The office was put into place as a direct result of the Spring 2012 student survey. While 88 percent of students stated they were satisfied with Grad Center resources, lack of professional
development was a concern.
3) Deepen the culture of collaborative research
-The GC’s goal is to identify important topics of increased academic interest, ie. – globalization and inequality – and provide opportunities for faculty, students, and outside scholars to work together
on collaborative research initiatives that focus on these topics. The Provost will address this more during the next Grad Council meeting.

Other topics:
1) The rooftop project will get underway this summer. A glass pavilion will be installed on the roof of 34th and 5th that will hold GC events. New artwork and a stairway will be installed.
2) Glass canopies. The glass canopies over the doors to the GC are finally being fixed. Apparently it took a while to find someone to fabricate the lost and broken pieces to match what was already there.

II. Granting of Degrees – Provost Robinson then took the floor to announcing the granting of degrees (Approved by faculty only).

III. Polly Thistlewaite announced the 2 nominations to the Student Complaint Appeals Committee; Victoria Pitts Taylor (Sociology) and David Gordon (History) (both approved). No additional nominations were made.

IV.  Our own Joe Rollins announced curriculum and degree changes. 16 changes total. Kris and I voted for all of them.

a. Major items
1) DNS – Nursing Science – Change in Admissions requirements (Approved).
2) Doctor of Physical Therapy program – CSI – Change to degree program – PHT 80000 to summer program new course – PHT – 80000, Revised Course – PHT 80500 – Reduction in credits from 3 to 2
3) PhD Music – Change to Degree Program – Revisions to First examination and Course requirements (Approved).
4) Doctor of Public Health – Creating a New Concentration in Maternal, Child, Reproductive, and Sexual Health and New Courses – PUBH 870 – Maternal Child, Reproductive and Sexual Health in Context, and PUBH 871 – Maternal, Child, Reproductive and Sexual Health – A life course (Approved).
5) PhD program in Clinical Psychology at Queens college – Increase in credits from 81 to 90. ****Discrepancy here on the voting ballots. Ballots said a decrease in credits from 90 – 81 instead of an increase in credits from 81 to 90. This was noted and approved under the condition the ballot would be re-worded (Approved).
New Courses – Psych 85408 – Supervision and Consultation, Psych 82908 – systems of Psychotherapy. Changes in existing courses – Name Changes: Psych 71000 – Advanced Physiological Psychology is now Sensory and Motor Systems. Psych 82908 – Psychodiagnostics 1: Interviewing and Assessment of Intelligence and Personality is now Psychodiagnostics 1: Intelligence Testing. Psych 766 – Psychodiagnostics II: Applied Assessment, Consultation and Supervision is now Psychodiagnostics II: Personality Assessment (Approved).
6) PhD program in Behavior Analysis – Program reduction in credits from 72 to 60 (Approved).

VI. Governance Structures and Bylaws – Professor Barbara Weinstein then walked us through a few changes to governance structures and bylaws.

a. Africana Studies – New Governance structure (Approved)
b. Change to Graduate School Governance – Section 4.2 E – Change to certificate program language (Approved)
c. Change to Graduate Council Bylaws – Addition of “one elected representative from among the Library Faculty” to section 2.1F  – Members Ex Officio and Appointed Members of Graduate Council (Approved)

VII. University Faculty Senate (UFS) –  Professor Stefan Baumrin then gave us a report on the UFS
1) The Chancellor spoke yesterday regarding putting more resources behind interdisciplinary masters degree programs at CUNY Campuses. Many were closed in the 70/80’s and need to be recreated. Faculty are invited to share their suggestions.
2) John Jay/Brooklyn College/School of Professional Studies – the names of students and faculty were made public on a site called Inyourclass.com<https://inyourclass.com/>, with no way of requesting removal of your name. Prof. Baumrin said this invasion of privacy did not go through review boards and doesn’t anticipate something like this happening at the GC.
3) Kroll Report – A report by private security company Kroll on the protest that took place at Baruch College on November 21st, 2011 was published in January. For those of us who were there and witnessed the violence unleashed against protesters, the report is a white-wash. It’s available online here: https://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/chancellor/Kroll-Report2013.pdf Check out Occupy CUNY’s response here: https://occupycunynews.org/2013/01/25/12-things-to-know-about-the-kroll-report/
4) CUNY Portal – 800 more Pathways Initiatives are now a part of university curriculum
5) Cuny 2020 – 50 million dollars worth of grant money has been set aside for grant competitions. CUNY colleges will be able to propose and compete for resources that foster economic development and employment opportunities. See a statement of this initiative here: https://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2013/01/22/statement-by-chancellor-matthew-goldstein-on-governor-andrew-cuomo’s-2013-14-executive-budget-proposal/<https://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2013/01/22/statement-by-chancellor-matthew-goldstein-on-governor-andrew-cuomo%E2%80%99s-2013-14-executive-budget-proposal/>
6) UFS will be moving to 42nd street from 80th street on the 15th of March

VIII. New Business – President Kelly then closed out the session with new business. A few things to note here:
1) Someone asked if CUNY would be able to take over the SIBL and OUP space once these partners leave the building.
President Kelly answer: NO. Capital funds would need to pay for this and it won’t happen.
2) Someone else asked if the main elevators now go up to the 10th floor pavilion.
President Kelly answer: NO. This can’t happen because CUNY would have to make all elevators handicap accessible. There will be separate (handicap accessible) elevator access to the roof.
3) A student asked if CUNY would be adding NYSHIP healthcare to the dissertation fellowships.
President Kelly answer: The GC can only offer NYSHIP to students if they are employed by one of the campuses. Pres. Kelly and others are working on an arrangement where dissertation fellowships will be attached with an appointment at the GC or another CUNY campus so that students can continue to receive healthcare while they are writing their dissertation. He didn’t offer any detail as to what these appointment might be, or how many hours a week students would be required to work.