Minutes of the Graduate Committee

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FRESNO

5240 N. JACKSON AVENUE, M/S UC43
Fresno, California 93740–8023

Office of the Academic Senate Ext. 8–2743

November 13, 2007

Members Present: M. Perez (Chair), S. Brown­Welty D. Dickerson,
T. Dull, G. Kriehn, N Mahalik, Z. Wang,
R. Yazdipour.

Members Absent: T. Skeen (excused), C. Barnes (Student).

The meeting was called to order by Chair Perez at 2:05 p.m. in the
University Center, Room #203.

  1. Minutes: MSC to approve the Minutes of 11/6/07.
  2. Agenda: MSC to approve the Agenda as amended to add item
    5 – Task force on Graduate Culture.
  3. Communications and Announcements.
    a. Chair Perez announced that the Provost Scholarships have
    been awarded and departments have been notified of their
    awards.
    b. Member N.P. Mahalik noted he represented the committee at
    a training session for program reviews.
  4. International English Language Testing System (IELTS).
    Caroline Williams discussed the benefits of accepting the
    scores from both the TOEFL and the IELTS for International
    Students. She stated they would like to see both accepted
    for graduate student admissions as it is easier for students
    to access test taking sites for the IELTS in some countries.
    Many prestigious colleges and universities are accepting the
    scores for their graduate programs as well as their undergraduate
    programs. Admissions already accepts it for undergraduate
    students and they have seen no difference in the caliber of
    students when comparing the TOEFL and IELTS scores.
    MSC to recommend that the International English Language
    Testing System (IELTS) be accepted for international
    graduate student admissions.
  5. Graduate Culture.
    a. The committee discussed forming a Task Force to enhance the
    Graduate Culture on our campus. The committee agreed
    the following issues should be addressed by the Task Force:
    · Define Graduate Culture.
    · Identify and document benchmark campuses that we should
    emulate.
    · Define what a Graduate Culture should look like on our
    campus.
    · Prepare a proposal (including action strategies) for
    enhancing our graduate culture.
    b. The committee also discussed membership on the task force
    and recommended the following representation on that
    committee:
    · A graduate faculty member from each school or college.
    · A Graduate Program Coordinator.
    · A representative from the Graduate Division.
    · A graduate student.
    c. A proposed timeline was discussed by the committee with
    the following timeline emerging from that discussion:
    · Recommendation that the Task Force have its work
    completed in one year.
    · Progress report of the committee to the Graduate Committee
    in May 2008.

MSC to adjourn at 2:35 p.m.

The next scheduled meeting of the Graduate Committee is Tuesday,
November 27, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. in the University Center, Room #203.

Agenda.

  1. Approval of Minutes 11/13/07.
  2. Approval of the Agenda.
  3. Communications and Announcements.
  4. Department of Plant Science Graduate Review.
    Time Certain 2:25 p.m.

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