Minutes of the Steering Committee Meeting
June 22, 2009
3:30 p.m. 208 Samford Hall
(by Russ Muntifering, Secretary-Elect)
Present:  Kathryn Flynn, Mary Ellen Mazey, Ruth Crocker, Russ Muntifering, Bill Hames, Larry Crowley, Joe Molnar, Bob Locy, Claire Crutchley                           

Absent: Dennis DeVries, Emmett Winn

--The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m.

--Minutes from the June 1 meeting of the Steering Committee was approved without change.

--The committee heard from Dr. George Flowers, Dean of the Graduate School, on tuition charges in external grants and contracts as proposed by the Graduate Student Issues Committee of the University Research Council. The proposal calls for updating of the university’s Graduate Tuition Fellowship program, which will continue to provide tuition fellowships for eligible graduate teaching and research assistants, and begin capturing revenue for graduate tuition from externally funded grants and contracts that is not currently being received and could be invested to enhance graduate programs. We discussed the need to protect small grants from excessive tuition charges, including the option of setting tuition charges in proportion to student stipend level. Most universities do not currently capture nonresident tuition, and so the focus would be on in-state, resident tuition. A consensus emerged that recovered tuition should be re-invested into graduate programs. The Huron Consulting Group is studying the feasibility of capturing revenue for graduate tuition in the form of a graduate fringe benefit. After receiving the report from Huron, Dr. Flowers will be asked to bring the proposal to the University Senate for discussion.

--The committee heard from Dr. Patricia Duffy, Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Studies, on a recommendation that responsibility for approval/disapproval of all college, school and department requests to establish additional standards for admission in individual programs or curricula be shifted from the Academic Standards Committee to the University Curriculum Committee. The committee discussed and supported the recommendation, given the familiarity of University Curriculum Committee with degree requirements and the fact that the committee is already reviewing such requests because they are generally tied to pre-requisites. Dr. Duffy also presented another recommendation from the Office of Undergraduate Studies that membership of the Core Curriculum Oversight Committee be modified in response to the General Education Task Force (GETF) report. The composition of a newly constituted Core Curriculum and General Education Committee would be one representative from each school/college, excluding the Graduate School, and one representative from University Libraries. Also, the charge of the committee would be expanded to include monitoring and assessment of student learning in the Core and alignment of specific courses with student learning outcomes described in the GETF report. These items will be brought to the Rules Committee, and eventually come before the Senate for discussion and action in the very near future.

--The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.