Graduate Council Meeting

September 16, 2010, 10am-noon, F190

Minutes

Attendance: N. Ansari, M. Bieber, M. Booty, N. Coppola, J. Fjermestad, A. Hill, D. Nassimi, R. Foulds, C. Gonzalez-Lenahan, H. Hsieh, Z. Ji, R. Kane (chair), A. Kubeyinje, E. Lieberman, N. Loney, J. Kettering, A. Kubeyinje, C. Venanzi, H. Wang, J. Wang.

1. Introductions; Membership; Schedule of Meetings; Approval of the Minutes of the May 6, 2010 Graduate Council Meeting; Advisors Lists. There were very few changes in membership of the Graduate Council for 2010-2011 compared to 2009-2010; the e-mail list has been updated to account for changes (Chem et. al., ChE et. al., and Arch et al.). Meetings beyond September 16th will be – from October 16, 2010 on through May 12, 2011 – on the second Thursday of each month. The minutes of the last meeting, May 6, 2010, were approved. A new list of Graduate and Undergraduate Program Advisors has been provided by the Admissions Office.

2. Announcements. - Dr. Altenkirch sent out a note about NJIT’s listing in U. S. News and World Report; Dr. Kane

noted NJIT’s doctoral graduation numbers are at the highest level for small public universities.

- The new Associate Provost is Dr. Judith Redling; the GSO will be meeting with her to go over mutual needs related to on-line catalog updating and other matters.

- Dr. Robert Friedman is the Acting Chair of Humanities. - Dr. Norman Loney is the new chair for ChE et.al. He will be sitting in for Dr. Reginald

Tomkins as the Graduate Council rep in Fall 2010 while Dr. Tomkins is covering a course on an emergency basis.

- Discussions are taking place with the Provost, Deans and others on the replacement for Dean Kane who will be retiring, effective February 1, 2011.

- Dr. Kane reviewed some of the history at NJIT and the circumstances at the time of his arrival at NJIT in 1990; he notes that one of his primary assignments and goals was to establish policies, procedures, and managerial systems for all graduate matters including financial oversight on support monies.

There are many possible structures and leadership titles for graduate education at NJIT and elsewhere. CGS provides a guidance document outlining most of these. Here are some possibilities: 1. Same as now: Asst VP for Academic Affairs/Dean of Graduate Studies. 2. Associate Provost for Graduate Studies. 3. Combine Research and Graduate Education. 4. One recommendation is that whatever position or structure is chosen for NJIT, that the

leadership position be filled by a senior tenured member of the NJIT faculty.

3. A. Graduate Admission Report – A. Kubeyinje.

The fall 2010 numbers show applications slightly up for MS; down for PhDs; but down overall on actual graduate enrollments. There is a new hire in the Graduate Admission Office for processing backlogged PhD applications. Graduate Admission Open House dates have been set up for 2010-2011. The next Open House is October 14th. GRE waivers for PhD applicants can be done only after review and approval by the Dean of Graduate Studies. Requests for GRE waivers are rare and only occasionally approved under unusual circumstances Dr. Kane reported that in 2009-2010, NJIT had 66 PhD completions on its own and 2 more from NJIT faculty supervising doctoral completions at Rutgers-Newark. There are only two or three other public research universities of our size with similar or possibly larger doctoral graduation numbers – we seem to be at the top. Related to our past and current Carnegie Classification among Doctoral/Research Universities – in the High Research category now, NJIT set a Strategic Plan goal of 60+ PhDs in 15 disciplines over three consecutive years. Dr. Kane had evaluated statistics on how many new PhD admits are needed each year based on expected passage rates on exams and NJIT time-to-degree to reach the 60+ goal. The number was in the range of 90-110 in order to keep up. PhD Completion rates are about 65-70%. Our typical time to degree is 5+ years. The national average for Engineering and Applied Sciences is 5.5-6 years. When NJIT PhD admission standards were being established, data was collected on who was most likely to finish. The admission standards were then set to allow the best chance at completion and to assure that support monies were being well spent. The GPA was a better indicator than the GRE. The GPA minimum (UG or MS) was set at 3.5; GPAs lower than that resulted in PhD completion rates below 10%. Only large comparative differences in GRE MATH scores (100 points or more) seem to have any correlation with PhD completion rates. TOEFL scores did have a significant correlation on MS completion, especially if the TOFEL score was below a particular threshold. B. MAC Program demise; AGEP funding limited for 10-11; TA support cuts? The Minority Academic Career Program in NJ has ended after being in place since 1985. The NSF AGEP funding for FY 11 is only $2.2MM over the entire country and the dozen or so consortia. NSF reports they will have a new call for proposals and more substantive funding for FY12. Therefore, as of Oct 1, 2010, neither the CUNY Consortium nor NJIT as one of the CUNY partners will have stipend or tuition support for participating students. NJIT has protected the continuing AGEP doctoral students for FY11. The AGEP program still exists in terms of activities and some travel support but not for FY 11 in terms of traditional financial support Discussions about the allocation of “TA support” monies, and its timing, have been held with the Provost’s Office and the Deans. Under a previous Provost, the monies were distributed by the Provost directly the college Deans only late in August. This was a changed procedure from earlier years when a review of undergraduate enrollment, graduate enrollment, PhD enrollment and graduation rates, need for seed money for new programs and new faculty, and estimated needs for TAs in multiple UG sections, was reviewed by the graduate dean in mid-year in order to develop a distribution plan by February.

With current budgeting issues, there have been cuts in support money budgets and operating budgets. It was recommended that Graduate Council representatives talk to their Chairs about the need to make timely offers to new PhD students. The Dean of Graduate Studies no longer has the type of discretionary funds that could make last –minute offers or “rescue” continuing students. C. ETS Visit; GRE for MGMT; Pearson Test of English. ETS is interested in doing a presentation at NJIT on the new GRE test sometime between November 1st and 3rd, 2010. ETS is also promoting the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT for Management and Business admission decisions. Pearson has now joined TOEFL and IELTS in promoting a new English language proficiency exam. D. Banner Finance and Student systems. Dean Kane has created his own short-cut guide for using Banner Finance to do Purchase Requisitions. The GSO is also creating short-cut user guides for entering comments about students on SPACMNT, a form on INB Student Banner, for doing full-time certifications and for entering BS/MS attributes on SGASADD, and for entering holds on SOAHOLD. The Banner student transcript form does not differentiate between MS and PhD degree programs and does not include the GPA; another form (SHATERM) has the GPA. E. Available Endowed Fellowship Monies; external award opportunities Some Endowed Fellowships for particular departments are still available; Dr. Kane and Ms. Marlene Masi and will be contacting departments about unspent funds. External Award opportunities are being circulated by e-mail as they arise. F. Need for Alternative TA Training. Graduate Catalog Updating. It has been long-established policy and procedure that all new TA s are supposed to get training on teaching methodology. ENG 599, a course in on teaching pedagogy, was approved by the Graduate Council quite some time ago and taught by Michael Kerley for many years. With budget cuts, Michael Kerley and Humanities can no longer offer this course and therefore alternatives must be considered. One possibility is to make use of the course offered at Rutgers-Newark; another would be to develop a course within each college. More discussion is needed and Dr. Kane indicated he would ask for ideas and for each department to identify a likely course. The on-line Graduate catalog needs updating and it is hoped that the new Associate Provost will help on this. The prior procedure was to have all catalog updates vetted within the Provost’s Office and then forwarded to Communications for inclusion of new items or revision.

4. Course and Program Approval. A. IS 689, deferred from 2009-2010.

Dr. Bieber reports this will be tabled indefinitely.

B. BME 684, Medical Device Development.

BME 774, Principles of Neurorehabilitation – courses tabled on May 6, 2010. No-one was in attendance from BME who could present these courses. Dr. Foulds indicated he would be sure that Dr. Roman attends the next meeting.

C. 700 Level Course Requirements for PhDs. The NJIT four 700-level (PhD ) courses requirement for PhD students has sometimes been difficult to meet, except by use of independent Study courses, because insufficient numbers of 700 level doctoral courses were available in particular programs. It was noted that Rutgers does not differentiate between MS and PhD level course. The NJIT requirements may be revisited.

D. CERT Policy Issues. Many odds and ends have come up that go beyond the usual graduate certificate student situations. Courses for graduate certificates are generally taken on a non-matriculated basis but are included in the GPA when the student moves on to matriculated study toward an MS degree.

In order to avoid varying and ad-hoc decisions in similar situations, it was decided to reiterate the Graduate Certificate policy as follows:

- The basic requirement for completion of a graduate certificate is that they complete four graduate courses at NJIT and have a grade of B or better in each of the four courses.

- There is no reduction allowed below four courses at NJIT because of transfer credits from outside of NJIT. If a course or the material was already taken elsewhere, the academic department must assign another course at NJIT.

- BS/MS courses cannot count toward a Graduate Certificate. - Graduate courses cannot be double-counted for two or more certificates. - Graduate Certificates cannot be back-fitted into a completed Master’s Degree after the

student has graduated. Some students had asked to take one or two courses after MS completion to now go back to complete a graduate certificate they had not considered before. A more complete policy statement covering these and other issues will be developed for the next meeting.

E. Generic 600 Level Independent Study Course for Masters Programs. There are generic PhD level courses numbered 725, 726, and 727 but there is no generic number for an Independent Study course at the MS level. Six credits (usually 725 and 726) is the university limit toward satisfaction of the 700 level course requirements for the PhD. The policy statement approved last year that defines the nature of Independent Study courses noted that only one Independent Study course was allowable at the MS level but did not establish a generic number for the MS course. Dr. Kane will try to identify a generic and currently unused 600 level number.

F. MS in Security and Privacy now named Cybersecurity and Privacy after CAA approval. The program title was modified from the title originally approved by the Graduate Council by a vote of the NJIT Committee on Academic Affairs.

G. Others.

CS 734 to 634 Jason Wang A Course Change form to lower the level from Doctoral level to Master’s level was completed and approved. The research portion was eliminated to allow MS students to take the course. The course will have more implementation work instead.

5. Old Business. A. Graduate Faculty resolution and implementation; thesis and dissertation

committees; advising. Review and approval of those proposed to be on the Graduate Faculty according to the October 2008 Faculty resolution is done by the Provost’s office. Graduate Faculty membership is related to the discussion of who should be allowed to supervise a Thesis or Dissertation. Having a Research Faculty member serve as an Advisor for a MS thesis has been subject to question if that Research Professor does not have external funding or does not have a long-range contractual commitment to NJIT. All contracts for Research Professors and other non-tenure track positions are under review and may impact the concept of Graduate Faculty.

B. Affiliated Faculty concept. There is some activity on re-visiting the graduate faculty concept related to the concept of Affiliated Faculty.

C. AFT representation for TAs, RAs, post-docs; GSA status Fact-finding is going on. The GSA is a separate student organization and not directly connected to unionization. Union organization for TAs, RAs, and post-docs is in an early stage.

D. Dr. Gatley to visit and greet on November 11th.

E. Others. The semiannual Thesis and Dissertation workshop presented by Dr. Kane and Ms. Gonzalez-Lenahan and sponsored by the GSA will be held on Wednesday, September 22, 2010. Dr. Kane noted that full-time registration at the graduate level at NJIT is 9 credits and that certification by the Graduate Studies Office for those with less than 9 credits is not pro-forma and cannot be based merely on lack of funding or inability to pay. Certification must be based on sound academic reasons; these are laid out carefully in the on-line catalog. GSA has new leadership for 2010-2011. The GSA General Assembly representation exactly parallels the Graduate Council composition by terms of the GSA Constitution. GSA Travel award applications are available on-line.

Minutes recorded by Clarisa Gonzalez-Lenahan/R. S. Kane.

Minutes Graduate Council, October 14, 2010, 10Am-noon, F190 Attendance: N. Ansari, M. Bieber, M. Booty, J. Daniel, J. Fjermestad, R. Foulds, C. Gonzalez-Lenahan, A. Hill, R. Kane (Chair), Z. Ji, J. Kettering, A. Kubeyinje, E. Lieberman, N. Loney, A. Santos, A. Schuman, S. Subramaniam, M. Tress, C. Venanzi, H. Wang.

1. Approval of the Minutes of September 16, 2010. These were approved without comment. 2. Announcements.

A. The latest NRC ranking of research doctoral programs has, after more than 10 years of NRC planning and data collection over the past 5 years, been released. NJIT is of course listed by the NRC; Dr. Kane will review NJIT’s place among peer institutions with regard to the many data areas listed; such as overall rank by program, student support, time-to-degree, faculty publications, citations, external support, and others.

B. The 6th annual GSA Research Day will be held on November 4th. Graduate students will be invited to do poster presentations. The Provost’s Office sponsors a Research Day in the spring that also includes undergraduates.

C. There are two honor societies at NJIT, Omicron Delta Kappa (UG, G, faculty and staff) and Alpha Epsilon Lambda (graduate students only) that are being re-activated.

D. Dr. Kane reported he reviews the preliminary CV's of faculty applying for promotion and tenure with regard to reporting of graduate student research supervision. That review is intended to assist faculty in having accurate reports prior to finalization of the CV for the P and T committee; he has no input into the decision process.

E. The preliminary stages of the formation of a union to include TAs, RAs, and post-docs at NJIT has been completed and negotiations will begin soon regarding a contract. Rutgers-Newark TAs have been unionized for a long time.

3. Admission Related Items A. The McNair Scholars Directory has been sent from the Graduate Studies Office to

Admissions and the academic departments. B. At the June 2, 2010 AAC meeting, it was reported that MS applications were up 6% but that

has not been reflected in the Fall 2010 enrollment. C. At the first CAA meeting of 2010-2011, Dr. Bloom expressed concern about the PhD pipeline

numbers because of lower number of new PhD enrollments in Fall 2010. Data will be gathered to see the 5 year trend. Dr. Kane reported that some years ago he had done a study of the necessary new PhD enrollments each year to assure our meeting NJIT’s goal of 60 or more PhD graduates per year. While our time-to-degree compares favorably to national data and our completion rates are good, it was concluded that 90 or more new PhD students were required each year to meet the 60 goal. We did not admit 90 new PhD students in Fall 2010.

D. Also, at the CAA meeting, it was reported that all MS admissions activity will be handled completely by the Graduate Admission Office. NJIT is seeking to increase MS enrollment for FY12 by 500 students.

E. The Graduate Studies Office (GSO) reports it (Dr. Kane and Ms. Gonzalez-Lenahan) has been looking at ways to increase the participation of NJIT students in the BS/MS program. There is also a BS/PhD program with increasing participation.

F. The GSO also looked at the BS/MS agreements that existed between NJIT and William Paterson University, NJIT and New Jersey City University, and the history of potential

agreements with Seton Hall. The signed agreements only had a three year life and have expired. Very few students participated.

G. The Dean of NCE is working on a hybrid MS degree concept that combines distance learning over two semesters and on-site courses for at least one semester. This is being worked out for some Indian universities. Some academic issues that have arisen in developing drafts of MOUs include TOEFL need or not (waiver likely), GRE need or not (waiver likely) , and acceptance of courses from the overseas institution for transfer credit (policy waiver for 500 level or equivalent courses). Dr. Kane was working on a draft for review as has Brian Tierney of the NJIT legal office.

H. CPE has a listing of on-line MS programs on its website that can be completed from anywhere in the world.

I. The New Jersey requirements for maintenance of the NJ Professional Engineering license are changing and will require continuing education; CPE is planning for this.

J. The Educational Testing Service will be doing a presentation on the revised TOEFL and GRE at NJIT in Ballroom B on November 3rd.

4. Course and Program Approval. A. BME 684, Medical Device Development; BME 774, Principles of Neurorehabilitation – R.

Foulds. The two courses had been first presented in May 2010 but were tabled for clarification of several items including prerequisites. The clarifications were addressed by Dr. Foulds; the revised course proposals were approved with 11 in favor and 2 opposed.

B. MS in Web Systems – M. Bieber. This new 30 credit program was presented for approval by Dr. Bieber. He reported that there are no programs with this thrust in the United States but several exist overseas. It was endorsed by the IS advisory board. Concerns were expressed about the ability to mount this program as early as Fall 2011 since it was indicated that two new faculty lines are needed. Inability to hire the two new faculty members could put off the program start to Fall 2012. After a full discussion, the program was approved with one abstention.

C. Arch 679, Envisioning Newark – A. Schuman. This had been a Special Topics course and was now being proposed under its own number. It was approved unanimously.

D. CERT Policy Statement – A policy statement summarizing the consensus of the Graduate Council on various questions had been sent out after the September Graduate Council meeting. No comments were received and therefore the statement will be included in the overall graduate certificate policy and included in any updated catalog description.

E. TA Training Courses – no new information was received from the Graduate Council and Dr. Kane reported he will do a review and summary of existing 599 courses and others for the next meeting. Eng 599, as noted at earlier meetings, is not being run because of lack of faculty availability.

F. Generic 600 Level Independent Study course number – Course number 694 was found to be an open number for all programs. That number can now be designated as the number for any program that wishes to establish a master’s level Independent Study course. It was reiterated that Independent Study credits are not “dummy” credits to be used for research or to create artificial full-time loads and artificial satisfaction of the 700 level PhD course requirements. At the MS level, MS Project already exists. At the PhD level, Pre-doctoral Research already exists. An Independent Study course is to be an actual low enrollment course as described in the policy statement approved two years ago.

G. 700 Level course requirements for PhDs – changes?; no proposals have come in.

H. Deletion of MS in International Business; MIS 648 Prerequisite changes - Both items were reportorial and are related only in that they came out of SOM; a pro-forma motion was approved unanimously regarding the program deletion and the course prerequisite changes.

I. History Course – nothing was provided yet by the History program and this item was deferred.

J. Math 763, Generalized Linear Models- S. Subramanian. This course was approved with one abstention.

5. Old Business. A. Affiliated Faculty – This item was not discussed except that Dr. Kane clarified that the

concept of co-advisor for a Thesis or Dissertation means that there are two people considered to have equal status – both are co-advisors; not one advisor and a somehow lesser co-advisor. Approval pages for theses and dissertations have had this error.

B. Banner shortcuts – The GSO is developing shortcut methods and memos to help casual users work with both the Financial and Student Banner systems.

C. Diploma Application deadlines; left as is; UCRC vote; GSA resolution? – last year the Graduate Council reviewed a detailed study done by the GSO as a follow-up to student and faculty complaints about the NJIT early deadlines for applications for May diploma. The result was a resolution by the Graduate Council to move the date from the current November 15th to January or to February 1st. The GSA will include this question on its General Assembly meeting agendas in the Fall 2010.

D. F/T Certification Policy and Issues – It was noted by Dr. Kane that approval of requests for F/T certification of graduate students carrying less than 9 credits cannot be approved merely because someone has made that request. Approval has to be based on sound academic reasons and be in accordance with written policy in the Graduate Catalog. It cannot be based on the inability of the student to pay for a full-time credit load. The many existing academically sound reasons for F/T certification of students with less than 9 credits are described in the Graduate Catalog.

6. New Business. A. The graduate student oriented Provost Workshop Series event and panel discussion: One

Day in the Life of a Professor, Careers in Academe, will be presented again on November 9th. B. The GSA Travel Awards applications will be available soon on the GSA website. C. The long-standing policy of NJIT to avoid multiple financial support awards for individual students was reiterated, regardless of whether or not the service time for the multiple awards adds to less than 20 hours. Equity for students (following numerous student complaints) who have no source of financial support and have no awards was a major consideration in setting this policy as was the idea of avoiding the temptation to do “award-shopping”.

Minutes recorded by C. Gonzalez-Lenahan/R. S. Kane

Minutes Graduate Council Meeting Thursday, November 11, 2010, 10AM-noon, F190 Attendance: M. Bieber, M. Booty, S. Eck, J. Fjermestad, R. Foulds, J. Geller, C. Gonzalez-Lenahan, A. Hill, R. Kane, J. Kettering, E. Lieberman, D. Misra (for N. Ansari), D. Nassimi, T. Tyson (for H. Wang), Z. Wei, M. Xanthos (for N. Loney).

1. Approval of the Minutes of October 14, 2010 – These were approved without comment.

2. Announcements. A. Several members of the Graduate Council could not be at this meeting; several departments

were able to find substitutes to represent them. B. The planned visit by the Provost had to be deferred to the December 9th Graduate Council

meeting because of an off-campus meeting requiring Dr. Gatley’s presence today. C. There is an HR posting for an Associate Provost for Graduate Studies with a full position

summary. A. senior tenured member of the faculty is preferred. Dr. Kane noted he had provided information for the Provost to help develop the description.

D. The Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS) has announced its annual awards program. These include a Doctoral Dissertation award, A Master’s Thesis award, a Graduate Faculty Teaching Award at the Master’s level, A Faculty Teaching Award at the Doctoral Level, and a Faculty Mentoring Award. The field of study for the Dissertation and Thesis awards rotates each year and for 2010-2011 the Dissertation Award fits NJIT as the fields are the Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering. Dr. Kane is chairing the Doctoral Dissertation Awards Committee and is seeking faculty members to work on the review committee with him. Dr. Kane will e-mail the full announcement from NAGS to the Graduate Council membership.

E. There are 36 PhD candidates for the January 31, 2011 diploma listed by the Registrar. Based on the historical record, a little more than half of these are likely to actually complete for the January 31, 2011 diploma. Dr. Kane noted that the NJIT strategic goal of 60 or more PhDs per year in 15 or more disciplines, averaged over three years, is being met. He noted issues with one student who felt that mere passage of the defense constituted degree completion; appropriate registrations, a diploma application, timely submission of the documents in approved format, and payment of fees in a timely manner are also required.

F. The November 4, 2011 GSA Research Day was highly successful with close to 70 poster presentations and a talk by PhD Physicist and cartoonist/ humorist, Jorge Cham ( “piled higher and deeper”).

G. The Workshop, part of the Provost’s Workshop Series, “One Day in the Life of a Professor, Careers in Academe” was held on November 9th and featured a panel discussion with NJIT faculty from four NJIT colleges and was moderated by Dr. Kane. There was a mix-up in publicity for this and for another workshop which impacted attendance for both.

H. The CGS will be doing a study on Master’s Completion and Attrition in STEM fields as they have done before for the Doctorate.

3. A. Graduate Admission Report. Steve Eck noted that there is a Graduate Admission Open

House tonight. Steve also reported on three initiatives (1) video conference-based recruiting using Skype or other interactive software (2) a contract with an Australia-based company to recruit on behalf of NJIT throughout the world for a per-student fee of $2500 with that fee paid

only after a certain number of days enrollment at NJIT by the student (3) a more substantial (using updated software) response to students who chose to send their GRE reports to NJIT. The product used for this is from Sungard and has been used at the UG level. B. The CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey reports that nationally, international graduate student admissions are up 3%, reversing a previous 1% decline. C. PhD Pipeline. In Fall 2010, our intake of less than 90 new PhD students fell below what is needed to assure 60 PhD graduates per year some 5 years from now. The trend of declining new PhD admission numbers over the last few years needs to be reversed. D. Unfilled Endowed Fellowships; External Fellowship Opportunities. The Graduate Council membership is apprised of these by either Dr. Kane or Ms. Gonzalez-Lenahan as they become known. Some are targeted to specific majors. The Cullimore, Class of 58, Ockene, Mills, and Kahng, and Berger Fellowships are to be filled. E. Catalog and Course Inventory Updating. Dr. Kane has discussed this with Dr. Judith Redling in the Provost’s Office. F. Enrollment Initiatives. Dr. Kane and Ms. Gonzalez-Lenahan met with Atam Dhawan of the Honors College and separately with Steve Eck and Kathy Kelly about increasing the number of Honors College students who participate in BS/MS or BS/PhD. The work on hybrid program arrangements and overseas collaborations, using the hybrid feature, continues with the Dean of NCE as the champion for this approach. G. NRC Research Doctorate Study. An example of the type of information that can be abstracted about NJIT compared to a peer group regarding doctoral education and research was shown. The Graduate Studies Office has been abstracting comparative data from the voluminous and recently completed NRC study. Examples of items selected were time to degree, doctoral student support, faculty citations, research funding and others. More on this will be presented at the next and at future Graduate Council meetings. H. Impact on Need-based Loans; F/T Certification Information. New information was received from the Financial Aid Office by the Graduate Studies Office that will help students who hold need-based loans. Apparently, students do not necessarily have to carry at least 6 credits, as previously reported, to avoid having the loans called in by the lending agency. If they can be certified as full-time by the Graduate Studies Office using the published criteria in the NJIT catalog, then less than 6 credits may be acceptable.

4. Course and Program Approval.

A. CPE Initiatives. CPE reports a new contract between NJIT (Civil Engineering Department and CPE) and an external contact management company, Compass Knowledge , for the purpose of recruiting part-time domestic graduate students (largely from out of state) to enroll in the MS in Civil Engineering entirely on-line. The MS CE uses existing courses under a specialization entitled “Management/Leadership Specialization.” Since this not a new degree program nor are the courses new, formal approval by the Graduate Council is not required. CPE is also continuing its work on developing courses in advance of the new requirements in New Jersey for maintenance of Professional Engineering licenses.

B. TA Training Courses. The Graduate Studies Office reviewed the on-line catalog to locate all listed courses related to Teaching Assistant training. These were ChE 599, Chem 599, ECE 599, ENG 599, and Math 599. These are all teaching methods courses. Eng 503 is an ESL course on Advanced English for TAs. Rutgers-Newark also offers TA training courses.

C. Changes to PhD requirements; 700 level courses; joint programs. The ChE department had added some requirements (4 700 level courses) to its MS PhEn program for students who might be considering moving onto the ChE PhD program. There are discussions now about the joint PhD programs that include NJIT and UMDNJ and/or Rutgers-Newark regarding semester dissertation credit requirements for continuance of advanced PhD students prior to the actual dissertation defense. These vary greatly and also vary if the student is not physically on-campus or in residence.

D. i. BNFO 620, Genomic Data Analysis – This new course was presented by Dr. Zhi Wei of CS and was approved unanimously. One issue that was raised was about the number of likely registrants and whether or not it could be offered without assurance of at least 10. ii. CS 639, Computer Implementation of Medical Technologies - This new course was presented by Dr. J. Geller of CS and was approved unanimously. Dr. Geller agreed to revise the title of the course to relate more clearly to the actual course content. He will send out a revised course proposal and new course form. iii. CS 642, Cloud Computing – Consideration of this new course was deferred at the request of Dr. Borcea because his absence for personal reasons and will be considered instead on December 9th. iv. IS 612, Emergency Management Informatics – This new course was presented by Dr. M. Bieber on behalf of the course initiator, Dr. E. Gomez, and was approved unanimously. v. IS 631(updated prerequisites) and IS 735 (updated prerequisites, catalog description, title change) – Minor changes to these existing courses were noted by Dr. Bieber and were summarized on the ½ page Course Change Forms. Formal approval was not required. vi. CS 651 – Dr. Bieber requested that a report regarding changes to this course be deferred to December 9th.

5. Old Business. A. Banner Shortcuts – Dr. Kane noted that he and the GSO office staff had developed shortcut

guides to key operations for Student Banner that were very important for advising. Among the topics were adding anecdotal comments on Form SPACMNT in INB Banner (screen 148 of SIS was the old method) and placing advisor holds on registration on Form SOAHOLD (screen 148 of SIS also had been used for this). A number of questions about Banner were raised but no-one was present from the Registrar’s Office to be able to respond. Also, a shortcut guide for doing Purchase Requisitions on Finance Banner has been developed by Dr. Kane. These can be shared with the members of the Graduate Council after some more modifications.

B. Graduate Faculty/Affiliate Faculty – It was noted that the catalog policy on membership on Thesis and Dissertation committees should still be followed.

Minutes recorded by Clarisa Gonzalez-Lenahan/Ronald S. Kane.

Minutes Graduate Council Meeting Thursday, December 9, 2010, 10AM-noon, F190 Attendance: M. Bieber, M. Booty, N. Coppola, R. Curtmola, J. Daniel, P. Fields, J. Fjermestad, R. Foulds, I. Gatley, C. Gonzalez-Lenahan, A. Hill, E. Hou, W. Hunter, Z. Ji, R. Kane, J. Kettering, A. Kubeyinje, E. Lieberman, N. Loney, D. Nassimi, A. Santos, H. Wang.

1. Approval of the Minutes of November 11, 2010. No comments were received on the draft minutes and therefore the draft minutes sent out on November 30th were considered approved.

2. Announcements. A. Joan Kettering reported she will not be able to attend meetings and represent IT in Spring

2011. B. The position for Associate Provost for Graduate Studies was posted on the HR website on

10/28/10 and a call for applications and nominations was sent out by the Provost on 11/23/10. This position will be the successor position to Dr. Kane’s current position as Dean of Graduate Studies and Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs. The HR posting gives many details. The call for applications and nominations is an abbreviated version.

C. The university is involved in contract talks with a new union formed to represent a variety of student positions (such as Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants) and post-doctoral positions. It was noted that the annual budget submission by NJIT to the State of New Jersey has , for years, included an item regarding parity of health insurance benefits for NJIT TAs as compared to other public research universities in New Jersey.

D. There are 36 listed candidates for the January 31, 2011 PhD diploma on the registrar’s list. E. Dr. Kane is still seeking faculty to help review applications for the 2010-2011 NAGS Doctoral

Dissertation Award.

3. Recruitment, Admission, and Enrollment Reports – Various. A. Graduate Admission Report – A. Kubeyinje.

The latest monthly report for both Spring 2011 and Fall 2011 was provided. B. Remaining Unfilled Fellowships – R. Kane.

Dr. Kane noted the few remaining unfilled Endowed Fellowships, some limited to specific majors. Pending any additional nominations, these will be selected according the NJIT Foundation Agreements in December 2010 or early January 2011 for dispersal in Spring 2011. The following ones were noted: Cullimore, Class of 58, Kahng, Kupfrian, Mills, Ockene, and Berger. Additional nominations should be sent to Dr. Kane. The status of the Gary Thomas Fellowship fund and continuing awards was noted – there are insufficient monies to have these awards come out of the designated account and current awardees are being supported out of another account.

C. The Executive Women of New Jersey Award program is seeking additional nominees from NJIT.

D. Dr. Kane distributed copies of an e-mail from IR showing PhD new and continuing enrollment of PhDs for 2006-2010. The data shows that NJIT has not had a sufficient number of new PhDs arriving in four of the last five years to assure meeting NJIT’s goal of 60 PhD graduates per year in 15 or more disciplines (averaged over 3 years) . That goal has been met in the past but may become difficult to meet in a year or so.

4. Course and Program Approval. A. CS 643, Cloud Computing – R. Curtmola for C. Borcea.

This course was presented by Dr. Curtmola on behalf of Dr. Borcea, who is out of the country, and was approved.

B. CS 651, minor changes – M. Bieber. Dr. Bieber reports that this item may be permanently withdrawn from consideration.

C. Approved Courses, follow-up – Dr. Kane reported that information and forms on all courses approved on November 11, 2010 had been sent to the Registrar’s Office for inclusion in the on-line inventory.

D. The Registrar has noted that Banner and Infosilem do not allow scheduling differently numbered courses at the same time and place.

E. Conversion of (already operating) BME Special Topics courses to regular BME course numbers. BME 654, Cardiovascular Mechanics – This course was presented by Dr. Hunter and was approved. BME 676, Computational Biomechanics – This course was presented by Dr. Foulds and was approved.

F. Graduate Program Review – Middle States. Dr. Kane reported that Deans and Department Chairs had been asked by Institutional Research to answer a series of questions pertaining to graduate programs with regard to Learning Goals and Assessment as a part of preparation for the Middle States report.

5. Conversation with the Provost – Ian Gatley. The Provost had been invited to visit with the Graduate Council by Dr. Kane and this was the first opportunity for his schedule in Fall 2010. The conversation covered a wide variety of topics of mutual interest including learning communities as they might impact graduate education, external funding, choice of a successor to Dr. Kane, academic integrity on campus, and others. Dr. Gatley remained to participate in the discussions under (the next agenda topic) Old Business about BS/MS and the data use from the NRC report on the Research Doctorate, as presented by Associate Director Clarisa Gonzalez-Lenahan.

6. Old Business. A. BS/MS Data report – Clarisa Gonzalez-Lenahan provided a detailed report showing the

increasing impact of the BS/MS opportunity on NJIT graduate enrollment and diversity, especially since 2000 when the program was moved under the umbrella of the Graduate Studies Office with collaboration from the Graduate Admission Office. All the reported data was developed within the Graduate Studies Office where the bulk of the academic monitoring and processing is done.

B. NRC Report, Abstracted Data for NJIT – C. Gonzalez-Lenahan demonstrated the use of the NRC data on the Research Doctorate, using BME as an example, to show how a variety of quantitative measures are available to compare NJIT to other universities. Similar data will be provided separately in spreadsheet form to each of the NJIT doctoral programs.

C. PhD Pipeline Data – covered earlier. D-F. Items to be deferred to January 13, 2011 meeting.

7. New Business – deferred to January 13, 2011.

Minutes recorded by C. Gonzalez-Lenahan/R. S. Kane.

MINUTES Graduate Council, January 13, 2011, 10AM-noon, F190 Attendance: N. Ansari, M. Bieber, M. Booty, N. Coppola, J. Daniel, P. Deess, S. Eck, P. Fields, R. Foulds, C. Gonzalez-Lenahan, J. Fjermestad, A. Hill, Z. Ji, Q. Jones, R. Kane, E. Lieberman, N. Loney, M. Roman, C. Venanzi, H. Wang, M. Xanthos.

1. A. Approval of the Minutes of December 9, 2010; revised November 11, 2010 Minutes. The revised minutes (as now approved) for November 11th were circulated before the meeting. The December 9th minutes were approved but two noted typos are to be corrected. B. Introduction of New Members for Spring 2011 – Dr. Kane noted that the IT representative was unable to attend meetings for Spring 2011 but a new person has not yet been designated. There are two other department representatives that were designated as substitutes for the regular members for Fall 2010 but no information is yet available for Spring 2011; therefore the current representation will be assume to continue as is with 15 voting members (counting IT but not counting the chair who only votes in the event of a tie). The regular invitation list for attendees also includes 4 non-voting resource people. C. Schedule of 2011 Meetings and Events – The remaining 2010-2011 academic year Graduate Council meetings are scheduled for February 10th, March 10th, April 14th, and May 12th. Dr. Kane will be retiring effective February 1st but will have prepared a draft of the February 10th agenda for Dr. Xanthos’ use. Commencement is scheduled for May 16th.

2. Announcements. A. The New Associate Provost for Graduate Studies – Dr. Marino Xanthos.

Dr. Kane introduced his successor, effective on February 1st. The Graduate Council membership then introduced themselves. Dr. Xanthos reported he hopes to have a smooth transition to his new role and looks forward to working with the Graduate Council.

B. CGS Annual Meeting Report – Clarisa Gonzalez-Lenahan reported on the sessions at the CGS Annual Meeting held in Washington, DC in December and also noted the importance of NJIT participation in regional organizations such as NAGS. CGS is now doing a Master’s Time-to-Degree and attrition study as a follower now to the completed study on the Doctorate. Dr. Kane noted he had done similar studies early on to help establish current admissions, retention, and financial support criteria.

C. GSA Travel and Student Achievement Awards – Dr. Kane noted that the GSA has funds budgeted for competitive awards to reimburse expenses of graduate students who attend conferences or present papers at conferences. There are several competitive rounds each year and a new one has just started.

D. The New Jersey Higher Education Task Force (chaired by former Governor Kean) Report was released last week and is available in its entirety on the NJIT President’s website (Dr. Altenkirch had sent out a campus-wide memorandum about the report.) The report seemed to focus mostly on UMDNJ and Rutgers, particularly as regards medical education in New Jersey . The oversight for the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School was mentioned. The report was not heavily focused on direct NJIT matters but did have a wide-ranging commentary on higher education matters throughout the state. Many will therefore impact NJIT.

3. A. Admission, Enrollment, Recruitment Report – S. Eck.

Steve Eck provided a status report on Graduate Admission Office activity and Enrollment Status for both Spring 2011 and Fall 2011. In response to some questions, he also clarified the process for admission of master’s students. New initiatives include Spring 2011 trips to India (Jeff Grundy) and China (Amo Kubeyinje). Lists of admitted students for Spring 2011 can be requested from his office. B. BS/MS Forms updated – Clarisa Gonzalez-Lenahan reviewed the updated form used by

undergraduates who wish to take graduate courses. This is actually a registrar’s office form but it is accessible via a link from the Graduate Studies website. The new form clearly defines if the graduate course is for undergraduate program use only or for graduate program use later or as part of the BS/MS program. A more general discussion about the BS/MS program and required documentation followed. The Graduate Studies website will also be updated.

C. Graduate Recruitment Publications – Dr. Kane circulated an information sheet showing available publications from the NJIT Publications Office. Errors found on fact sheets should be flagged to Jim Robertson.

D. New NJIT Website Tour – The new NJIT homepage was noted as was the link to “MYNJIT” which no longer appears as a home-page button unless one clicks on “Popular Links”.

E. Enrolling Student’s Survey – Dr. Perry Deess presented the results of the Graduate Student Survey (65% response) coordinated by the Institutional Research Office. The report had also been given earlier at a CAA meeting but that report also included an undergraduate student survey. One of the more interesting points was that graduate students reported that the second most popular choice for graduate school was MIT after NJIT among students at NJIT. Interesting information was also provided about what sources of information were used to select NJIT. The most important of these was personal interaction with faculty members. Paper publications ranked very low. Other information was presented about the positive response to and attendance at graduate student orientations and also plans for future PhD study. The full survey results are available from the IR Office.

F. Banner Shortcuts – Dr. Kane distributed memos providing short-cut guides for occasional users such as graduate advisors for doing a Purchase Requisition via Banner Finance and for adding student comments to Student Banner INB using the SPACMNT form. Dr. Kane noted that the switchover to Banner seems to have created roadblocks to manual system changes to allow legitimate special case tuition refunds; he will discuss that with the Provost.

G. Financial Support Guidance – Information about sources of financial support for both full-time and part-time students had been sent out earlier and is available on-line from Graduate Studies and also from CPE, particularly for part-time students.

4. Course and Program Approval. A. BME 677, CAD for Biomechanics and Materials.

BME 686, Introduction to Instrumentation for Physiomeasurements. BME 679, Advanced Design of Orthopedic Implants. All three courses were presented by Drs. Rick Foulds and Max Roman of Biomedical Engineering. All were courses that had previously been offered under the Special Topics course number and were now being proposed for approval under their own course numbers. All were approved. Other former BME Special Topics courses will be presented for approval at the February 10, 2011 meeting.

B. GSA Concerns re Co-op Registrations; Banner, etc. – Dr. Kane reported feedback from the GSA regarding a number of topics. Students (lacking any knowledge of the history of the

co-op course policy) expressed a point a view that the cost of 3 credits of co-op does not reflect the actual service from the CDS office. Dr. Kane reported that the second co-op course for the same employer was now at 0 credits rather than the former 3 credits and that change had been a response to similar GSA comments only about 4 years ago. Graduate students also expressed an opinion that they could have been very useful in helping to develop the Banner system. GSA conducts regular feedback sessions for student to provide concerns or suggestions about NJIT and their own programs.

C. IS 766, Philosophy of Information Science – Dr. Quentin Jones presented this course which was approved unanimously.

D. ChE 626 – Dr. Loney provided a Course Change Form for a minor change in the course description.

5. Unfinished Items from December 9th.

A. UCRC Attendance Policy - Dr. Kane reported on the Attendance Policy proposal developed by the UCRC for undergraduates. There is no comparable policy for graduate students.

B. Reiteration of Policy/Quality Control Items for Theses and Dissertations; Handling Complications; Joint Program Thesis Grades and Procedures – Dr. Kane reported that the Graduate Studies Office had been very busy in November and December and continuing now into January on final details for students completing Master’s Theses and Doctoral Dissertations for the January 31, 2011 diploma date. He reviewed some of the issues surrounding these items. He also reported that modern electronic communication methods such as Skype had been used to handle defenses where committee members could not be physically present – some from overseas. He also noted that grades in joint programs were to follow either a specific agreement about such matters in a signed MOU or the more general practice that uses the grading standards for the institution of record for that course (e.g. NJIT course - NJIT grades; Rutgers course - Rutgers grades apply.) A request to apply Rutgers standards to an NJIT registered Master’s Thesis had been received. Other cases of approval of Theses and Dissertations where a committee member is unavailable to sign an approval page or form have been handled on a case-by–case basis.

C. Sequestering Form - There is a new Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Sequestering Request Form that now must be completed by every student submitting a final Master’s Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation. Clarisa Gonzalez-Lenahan reported that the GSO and NJIT have always had a sequestering option but we have formalized this now with the new form. Sequestering allows filing of patents or protection of proprietary information for some time prior to the library’s placement of the thesis or dissertation on the NJIT website.

D. The registrar has, with the concurrence of several offices, placed restrictions on the ability of international students, already registered for 9 credits, to withdraw from courses that would take them below 9 credits. These withdrawal attempts need to be reviewed by the International Students Office first. The registrar-imposed restrictions on withdrawal do not apply to students who have registered for less than 9 credits initially.

6. Bon Voyage to my friends at NJIT; 20 years plus with the Graduate Council. Since this is his last meeting as NJIT Dean of Graduate Studies, Dr. Kane estimated that he had chaired 185 Graduate Council meetings since his arrival in 1990. He recalled that the first major agenda item in September 1990 was elimination of the old “course deletion” policy and the adoption of the current “course repetition” policy. His new title on February 1st will be Dean Emeritus of Graduate Studies. He expressed his appreciation for all the assistance and good

work on behalf of NJIT done by the members of the Graduate Council over the 20+ years of his tenure at NJIT. The Graduate Council then surprised him with a "Special Delivery" folder containing warm regards and well wishes of its members toward Dr. Kane. Minutes recorded by Ronald S. Kane/Clarisa Gonzalez-Lenahan

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Graduate Council Meeting Minutes

February 10, 2011

Attendance: M. Bieber, M. Booty, J. Daniel, C. Gonzalez-Lenahan, J. Fjermestad, R. Foulds, A. Hill, Z. Ji, A. Kubeyinje, E. Lieberman, N. Loney, D. Misra, D. Nassimi, P. Fields, H. Wang, C. Venanzi, and M. Xanthos (Chair).

1. Minutes of January 13, 2010 approved with no abstentions.

2. Announcements. - Dr. Durga Misra will be representing ECE on the Graduate Council - As of January 2011, there were 11 Masters of Architecture, 12 MBA, and 302 MS degree recipients as well as 23 PhD graduates. - Kupfrian Fellowship is available for candidates for AY 2011-12. - The award for Class of 1958 Fellowship is being debated due to multiple offers. - Executive Women of NJ Fellowship nominations open for 2010-11. Deadline is March 15th but nominations are due to the Office of Graduate Studies by March 1st. - TA Union meetings are taking place: All academic departments have been asked to stop sending offer letters until negotiations have been completed. - GSA assembly – representatives indicated that students have requested a second bus for transporting students to Penn Station in the evening and other stops; they recently have voted for a new secretary and a new treasurer. Elections for a new board are scheduled for mid-April. 3. Recruitment, Admission, and Enrollment Reports – Various.

A. Graduate Admission Report –A. Kubeyinje. - 500 applications received above last year’s count for MS degree but more conversions are in progress. - 31 PhD applications behind last year’s count. Attention is now focused on the doctoral students by a staff member, Nicole Daniels who is handling all PhD applications. - All questions on graduate student applications should be addressed to Amo Kubeyinje. - Scores from ETS (Educational Testing Service) do not arrive on campus usually until one

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week after they arrive to students. - I-20’s for fall 2011 accepts will begin going out next week (week of February 14th). - Jeff Grundy is presently in India on a recruitment trip; NJIT is getting most of the students at the recruitment fairs. - Augustus Kubeyinje will be going to China next month on another recruitment trip. . - Next Open House is scheduled for March 10th. No open house is scheduled for February. - Note: Admissions’ report is sent to all program advisors every Friday. B. Visa Status Restrictions impacting Distance Learning course registrations – C. Gonzalez-Lenahan The following information from the NAFSA on-line advisors manual was presented detailing federal restrictions on F1 students enrolling in more than one on-line graduate course per semester.

3.21.7 Distance education limits

No more than the equivalent of one on-line/distance education class or 3 credits per session may count towards the "full course of study" requirement. If the student's course of study is in a language study program, no on-line or distance education classes may be counted toward the full course of study requirement.

In addition the following information from 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(f)(6)(i)(G) was presented and discussed:

(G) For F-1 students enrolled in classes for credit or classroom hours, no more than the equivalent of one class or three credits per session, term, semester, trimester, or quarter may be counted if taken on-line or through distance education in a course that does not require the student's physical attendance for classes, examination or other purposes integral to completion of the class. An on-line or distance education course is a course that is offered principally through the use of television, audio, or computer transmission including open broadcast, closed circuit, cable, microwave, or satellite, audio conferencing, or computer conferencing. If the F-1 student's course of study is in a language study program, no on-line or distance education classes may be considered to count toward classroom hours or credit.

- Graduate Council members would like Jeff Grundy to visit and elaborate on the above topic. C. Others.

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4. Course Program and Approval

A. BME 655 Advanced Characterization of Biomaterials. Approved.

Course is taught by adjuncts. Friendly amendments were to include a Lab component and Pre-requisite to be changed to graduate standing in appropriate degree programs. Richard Foulds will report on the status of lab component in the next Graduate Council meeting. BME 678 Design of Orthopedic Implants. Approved. This advanced course is taught by an Adjunct experienced in Pro-E; George Makris is an international expert in design. The course proposal was amended to include Pre-requisite 677 or consent of the Instructor. BMED now has 500 graduate students but only 9 full-time faculty. Discussions have been held with the NCE Dean about replacing Adjuncts with Instructors although the cost would be much higher. B. NCE MS (existing) Programs are to be offered overseas, with on-line and on-campus combinations - Dean Saigal would like to transfer courses from some Indian Universities. According to his initiative, 3 courses will be given by the overseas institution, 6 courses to be given online by NJIT faculty and 1 course on the NJIT campus. Details on MOU and Universities needed to verify possibility of transfer of 9 credits. Additional information is required before a structure is approved.

C. Embanet Compass (ECKG) meetings of 1/26/2011 and 1/27/2011 – According to CPE, a contract has been signed to offer at NJIT MS CE on-line to start in summer 2011-

ECKG is a for profit group hired by institutions to recruit new categories of students that we are not reaching by our present efforts. ECKG’s only focus will be on on-line students, domestic or international. Company representatives communicate with students as if they were working at NJIT. They follow up with the students and make sure that they are doing well. Additional information is available on the www.online.njit.edu D. Graduate Catalog Updating Judith Redling has requested that old courses that have not been offered for some time

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are deactivated. It was stated that there is a need for updated programs description. Discussion on the subject was postponed for the March meeting when Judith Redling will be visiting.

5. Old Business.

A. Master’s Thesis grades for History - Proposal by Neil Maher

Federated History dept. proposes that NJIT allows faculty to assign letter grades instead of “S” or “U to conform with national practice and particularly that of Rutgers Newark.

Motion approved unanimously B. BS and MS degrees at almost the same time.

Discussion of multiple undergraduates taking more than the maximum allowed of graduate courses through the BS/MS program and additive graduate credits. Topic to be presented by C. Gonzalez-Lenahan is postponed for the March meeting.

6. New Business (2010-11 Slate for graduate certificates – Gale Spak.) Will be added to March meeting agenda.

Motion to adjourn.

Respectfully submitted by M. Xanthos and C. Gonzalez-Lenahan

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Minutes - Graduate Council Meeting, March 10, 2011

Attendance: M. Bieber, M. Booty, J. Daniel, S. Eck, R. Foulds, C. Gonzalez-Lenahan, A. Hill, Z. Ji, E. Lieberman, D. Misra, R. Russo, R. Tomkins, M. Xanthos (Chair), and C. Venanzi. Guests: D. Desai, J. Grundy, G. Olsen, J. Redling, and G. Spak, H. Wang

Agenda 1. Minutes of February 10, 2011 meeting approved. 2. Announcements

• Faculty encouraged attending and volunteering at Commencement on Monday, May 16, 2011. • Faculty reminded that CO-OP for doctoral students/candidates cannot also involve a simultaneous

research assistantship. • Negotiations with UCAN are on-going and may take up to a couple of months. • Support offers for new PhD students can be made. However, some idea of the amount of the

increase in stipends, cost of health care, and cost of tuition is expected. Graduate Council requested that the Provost’s office gives some guidance for offers to be made for fall 2010.

• Discussion on availability of fellowships

3. Recruitment, Admission, and Enrollment Reports – Various. A. Graduate Admission Report – S. Eck

Weekly reports are always based on Thursday evening reports. Increase of 722 M.S applicants from last year with corresponding increase in accepts of 42%. PhD applications are down; applicants can be accepted without funding while the funding situation is sorted out. This year there are far less PhD applicants from India. China applications are up for MS but not for PhD. There is a graduate open house on March 10th from 5 to 7:30 pm. 150 potential applicants have registered for this event. Amo is currently in China on a tour with IDP. He has a meeting scheduled with the US Education office in China; he will provide a report on his return.

B. Visa Status Restrictions impacting Distance Learning course registrations – Clarifications by J. Grundy

About 7-8 years ago the dept. of Homeland Security made a reduction on the number of courses F1 VISA holders could take. At NJIT, that maximum is one DL course for nine credits or two DL courses if the students are carrying 12 credits. If their only remaining course needed for graduation is only available on-line, the student can get an exemption. In their last semester, if F1 students only require 6 credits to complete, they can take one DL and one face to face course. H1B VISA or J1 scholar VISA holders can take as many or as few DL courses as they want.

C. Recruitment trip in India – J. Grundy Visited major cities and had contact with more than 200 potential students. Common

questions were: am I admissible, are there any internships on campus, are there any jobs available after graduation, can I specialize in my major? Each event had separate tables for all the universities represented. The students asked if NJIT was a top tier university and how NJIT is ranked. IDP advertised the event and students were encouraged to pre-register. IDP will follow up with all prospective students. We are getting e-emails from counselors in Saudi Arabia and others. Their reps came to the

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US recently and stopped at NJIT to meet us. The company is pre-screening students and encouraging them to apply to the universities they are working with. There was considerable interest in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering.

4. Course and Program Approval and related topics. A. New Course BIOL 628 Biology Department “Cell Biology of Disease” – A. Hill,

D. Desai. Seminar style course where students screen publications and present the topics to their peers. Students will be graded on presentations, mid-term and final exam on the diseases that were presented. Background in Biology, Biomedical Engineering, and anatomy needed. Enrollment expected to be 30 students between RU-N and NJIT. Approved with amendment change to the pre-requisites to include background in life sciences or permission of the Instructor. That may involve possible a change of title. Motion was approved unanimously.

B. Graduate Catalog Updating; Inactive programs – J. Redling The graduate catalog is overdue for updating. It is a focus with the Middle States visit coming up. The front matter on policies and procedures are the responsibility of the Provost’s office. Redling will be working with Xanthos. The graduate and undergraduate programs also need to be updated with possible focus on curricula. New courses should be included into the catalog ASAP; in the past, this has not been done in a timely fashion. March 15th is the deadline for depts. to send updates to Assoc Provost Redling. Some programs have been ‘sunset’, some are to be removed, and some are to be retired/Inactive. Some are active but not in the catalog.

Motion to remove the PhD CIS, MS OSHE, approved.

C. BME 655, Advanced Characterization of Biomaterials – Update on Laboratory component- R. Foulds. Tabled until April 14th meeting.

5. Other topics A. 2010-11 Slate for graduate certificates – G. Spak

Design for new slate of graduate certificates has been streamlined. Faculty has come forward to suggest four courses that could become a graduate certificate after Chair and Dean approval. Using the course change form, CPE can update its records. New graduate certificates can be proposed and go through an approval process. Since 1995, 847 students have completed a graduate certificate; 54% of those have continued on to MS degrees. A report was circulated. Brand new opportunity exists to provide $10K stipends to faculty to create on-line degree programs. If depts. incur additional cost in order for a faculty member to oversee a DL course, they can use the money to hire an adjunct to teach the face to face courses or for other duties. Programs can start as graduate certificates and then be updated to include more DL courses.

B. A proposal: “Visiting graduate student research collaborator” - J. Grundy. Proposal is related to priority indicated by the Provost on visiting researchers in his e-mail sent on September 20, 2010. These scholars were invited to NJIT but without clearly defined duties, office location, salary issues, etc. OIS has had similar issues with five students invited by faculty to do research on campus. They have requested access to NJIT computer network and to laboratory facilities. To do this has become very cumbersome. There were conversations on the topic with colleagues at Princeton U and other universities. Domestic students as well as students in F1 status who come to NJIT may need to take

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courses related to their research. F1 status is only for students within a single degree program. NJIT OIS was required to provide specific emphasis on research but perhaps the document can be amended to include some additional coursework. Provost has a visiting scholar form; the question was raised why produce a different form/for students? This form is currently in use for J1 scholars; J1 requires a two-year residency back in their country after they return home. Students come to the University to participate in particular research on topics mutually agreed upon by faculty at NJIT and other institutions; students would enroll in an Independent study course which will allow them to access the NJIT facilities. The students would be admitted as non-matriculated status who pay their own tuition and fees. Lack of financial support may be an impediment. Students should have some support from the depts. and also pay some fees for computer, library and other facilities use.

C. BS and MS degrees at almost the same time. –C. Gonzalez-Lenahan Tabled until April 2011 meeting.

6. New Business.

Meeting adjourned at Noon.

Graduate Council Meeting

April 14, 2011

Minutes

Attendance: M. Bieber, M. Booty, J. Daniel, C. Gonzalez-Lenahan, P. Fields, J. Fjermestad, A. Hill, Z. Ji, A. Kubeyinje, E. Lieberman, D. Misra, G. Olsen (for D. Nassimi), M. Roman (for R. Foulds), R. Tomkins (for N. Loney), C. Venanzi, M. Xanthos (Chair), and H. Wang. Guest: S. Saigal.

Absent: N. Coppola.

1. Minutes of March 10, 2011 approved

2. Announcements – M. Xanthos May 12, 2011 meeting confirmed. At least five courses will be discussed: 2 for MATH; 2 for USYS; 2 for CS and 2 for ECE. GSA President was reelected, but there is a brand new board. Students’ issues that have been presented to the Provost and are awaiting action are a) shuttle service expansion; b) May graduation deadline too early; and c) required CO-OP registration too expensive. Deadlines for theses and dissertations as well as graduation – C. Gonzalez-Lenahan There are three graduation dates: (August, January and May) at NJIT, but there is only one Commencement ceremony in May each year. While the official graduation date for August and January is the 31st of the month, the date for May is earlier. Deadlines for the commencement brochure (due on May 3rd) and the ceremony on May 16th force the completion deadline for May doctoral candidates by May 2nd. Only PhD Candidates who have completed all the requirements for the degree and added to the brochure are permitted to participate in the Commencement. This results in more flexibility for MS thesis than PhD dissertation students.

3. Recruitment

• According to CGS data, an international students admissions survey indicated a 9% increase this year; students particularly from China are up by 18%.

• A. Kubeyinje - Total MS applications up by 25% vs. last YTD . Total PhD applications down by 2% vs. last YTD. Graduate Admissions is working hard to get accept letters out to students; there are over 400 incomplete applications so follow up e-mails are being sent to these potential students; I-20s are being sent out, but there is a backlog; Open House scheduled today; 100 students are registered. Trip to China visiting several cities. NJIT is behind in recruiting students; spoke to 200+ students; problem: instead of recruitment the government wants collaborations with U.S. universities. Report has been submitted to VP for Enrollment and Admissions; to be shared with Graduate Council.

• Dean Saigal traveled to India with Dr. Henry Ross. This visit was the result of 8-9 months of communications between NCE faculty and 9 institutions in India. There were several programs being discussed with Indian Universities. Some would be NJIT degrees and some joint degrees. Although more institutions are involved in the dialogue, only 9 were visited. Most students/parents are interested in engineering and management. If agreement is moved fast enough, we could have 100+ students by fall 2011. Electrical engineering in all its facets was the most popular; large interest in Computer Science; some interest in Mechanical/Industrial Engineering, and Architecture interest is growing. Having added management component to engineering degrees as at UPenn and Lehigh U is very popular. There is a huge interest in on-line programs. Huge caveat – India accreditation agency requires DL designation for on-line degrees. NJIT is considered as a premier university due to its longevity and proximity to NYC. A full report by Dean Saigal is attached to these minutes.

4. Course and Program Approval

A. MATH 604, Mathematical Finance and MATH 609 Projects in Mathematical and Computational Finance. – M. Booty and A. Pole Both courses presented simultaneously. Courses were offered before in the School of Management (SOM); began as part of a new program that started with 6 students. SOM wanted to start a program in Finance but had difficulty finding SOM faculty to teach. Math dept took courses over and SOM will not be offering them anymore. SOM intends to delete the courses from the catalog and will allow its students to take Math courses as potential electives. Unless four courses are approved by Graduate Council by the May 2011 meeting, program will have to be cancelled. Motion to approve the MATH 604 and 609 courses with a friendly amendment to make the approval contingent on archiving or deleting the equivalent finance courses. Motion passed with one abstention. After consulting with administrators in SOM, representative, Jerry Fjermestad later confirmed that the courses will be deleted.

B. Proposal for two Urban Systems courses – J. Russo USYS XXX Architectural perspectives in urban research teaching research skill and applications USYS XXX Urban Systems I Evolution of the American Metropolis Discussion that courses must have numbers to be presented at Graduate Council. Since it seems that the courses were previously approved and are only being renumbered, course change form and reporting to Graduate Council is all that is needed. Course approval request withdrawn.

C. BME 655, Advanced Characterization of Biomaterials – Update on Laboratory component – R. Foulds, M. Roman It is not possible to add a laboratory component at this time. Motion was to approve course as is with no laboratory component. Motion approved. D. Biol 628 was earlier approved with a friendly amendment; new course forms were submitted in the present meeting with changes as requested. Documents available for review as needed.

5. Other topics A. Discussion of the modified proposal: “Visiting graduate student research collaborator” –

J. Grundy Modifications include

• Student will pay the tuition and fees for the 3 credit class and other fees as deemed required.

• Research monies will not be used to support the above tuition and fees.

• Students should be allowed to take additional courses at their own expense.

• All discoveries will be the intellectual property of NJIT.

• Students will be allowed to enroll in additional courses up to maximum (for non-matriculated students) of 9 credits total.

Recommendation that this modified proposal be presented to the Provost for his approval. Motion approved with 7 approvals and 2 abstentions.

Meeting adjourned at 12:11 pm.

Graduate Council Meeting - May 12, 2011

Minutes

Minutes of April 14, 2011 approved unanimously. Announcements. - Commencement scheduled for Monday May 16, 2011. - There were too many late submissions of MS theses and extensions were given. - GSO will propose to the GC methods to simplify the process of submission in September

2011. - There may be a need to meet with MS Thesis advisors in early fall. Often MS Thesis

Committees are not formed until a few weeks before the defense. Due to Dr. Xanthos’ editing background, he has been correcting not only English but also technical errors.

- Copies of the report on India trip for recruitment from Dean Sunil Saigal were sent to the Graduate Council.

• Recruitment, Admission, and Enrollment reports – Various A. Graduate Admissions Report – A. Kubeyinje

As of May 8th, we were 24% ahead of MS applications from last year. More MS students have been accepted than last year. PhD applications are behind vs. last year. Growth is primarily in Electrical and Pharmaceutical engineering and Computer Science MS applicants. SOM has also shown an increase. Academic departments need to let Admissions know when advisors will not be available due to summer schedules and vacations. Faculty and staff should forward all admission inquiries to Augustus Kubeyinje. Amo is reaching out to students, even using Facebook to encourage students to come to NJIT. Students must complete acceptance forms on-line. It was reminded that it takes 7 days for mailed acceptances to reach India and China.

• Course and Program Approval and related topics. A. Proposal for EPS – New course EPS 623, EPS 622 prerequisite – M. Cohen EPS 622 change in course title The GC had many questions regarding these courses. However, due to the absence of Prof. Cohen the discussion of these courses was tabled until fall 2011.

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B. Proposal for changing descriptions of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering courses – MNE 601, MNE 602 – S. Das The equipment for these hands-on courses has changed over time but the course descriptions have not reflected these changes. Motion approved unanimously. Patrick Fields to check on length permitted in Banner for course titles and catalog descriptions. C. Proposal for Urban Systems courses – F. Little, D. Sollohub These courses have been taught either as Special topics or need a change in course number. The six courses for changes are: URB 725 to USYS 725; URB 792 to USYS 792; URB 790B, 790C, 790D, 790E to USYS 790B, 790C, 790D, 790E; and URB 788 to USYS 701 “The Evolution of the American Metropolis”. Change in course number approved unanimously. One new course, USYS 721, “Architectural Perspectives in Urban Research”. was proposed This course will be offered in fall 2011. It has been taught previously as a special topics course, Motion passed unanimously. D. Proposal for new Math graduate courses, MATH 606, MATH 607 – M. Booty MATH 606 “Term Structure Models” and MATH 607 “Credit Risk Models” were discussed. Motion passed unanimously. E. Proposal for new CS courses, CS 683, CS 684, CS 685 – D. Nassimi CS 683 “Software Project Management “ Motion passed unanimously CS 684 “Software Testing and Quality Assurance” Courses were previously taught as special topics. Degree requirements must clearly indicate requirement of these courses for MS SE degree. Motion approved unanimously. CS 685 “Software Architecture” Prerequisite could have understanding of programming and project management. References seem outdated. 10-15 years old; an updated list is needed. Motion passed unanimously with references updated. F. Proposal for ECE 641 – revised catalog description – D. Misra Based on new equipment received and changes to update course, current name and description need to be updated. New name: “Laboratory for High Performance Digital Signal Processing”. Motion passed unanimously.

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• Other topics A. Update on BS/MS program – C. Gonzalez-Lenahan There has been an increase in both BS/MS and BS/PhD participants. Number of students has resulted in follow up sessions needed for 15 – 20 students at a time to code them on the Banner Student forms, SPACMNT and SGASADD. Review with undergraduate and graduate advisors is needed on the process for undergraduates registering for graduate credits.

Meeting adjourned 12:12 pm.