Members attending:

Peter Stearns (Chair), Stephen Nash (IT&E), Jeff Offutt (IT&E), Catherine Rudder (SPP), Mark Goor (GSE), Joseph Maxwell (GSE), Andres Fortino (SOM), Dee Ann Holisky (CAS), Peter Becker (SCS), Ellen Dawson (CNHS)

Special Attendee: Beverly Davis (Director, Graduate Admissions), John Zenelis (GMU Libraries)

I. Call to order

Peter Stearns called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m.

II. Approval of February 2003 minutes

Minutes of the February 26, 2003 meeting were approved as written.

III. Announcements

None

IV. Old Business

None

V. New Business

A. College of Arts and Sciences
New Courses Approved:
BIOD 702, Special Topics in Biodefense Seminar
BIOD 703, Special Topics in Biodefense
BIOD 890, Supervised Internship
BIOD 996, Doctoral Reading and Research
BIOD 998, Doctoral Dissertation Proposal
BIOD 999, Doctoral Dissertation


B. Graduate School of Education
Modified Courses:

EDCD 610, Counseling and Development
EDCD 795, Advanced Counseling Internship
EDCD 626, Principles and Practices of School Counseling

C. School of Computational Sciences
New Courses Approved:

BINF 631, Molecular Cell Biology for Bioinformatics
BINF 796, Directed Reading and Research
BINF 996, Doctoral Reading and Research
BINF 998, Doctoral Dissertation Proposal
BINF 999, Doctoral Dissertation

VI. Discussion Items

Suggested addition to the "Guidelines for Graduate Student Appointments" adopted by the Graduate Council on April 5, 2000.

The discussion emphasized that the Council's primary concern was that students who receive support from the University are both adequately performing their duties as graduate assistants and performing well academically. After making a slight grammatical change, the Council approved the following text. (The entire text is reprinted for clarity. The final paragraph is the approved addition.)

Graduate students will normally be limited to the equivalent of one, 20-hour per week, assistantship. Students may (under exceptional circumstances) be appointed for more than a total of 20 hours per week, but under no circumstances may students be appointed for more than 30 hours per week. This policy applies whether the student is appointed in a single unit or in multiple units across campus. Note that students appointed as adjunct faculty are appointed using FTE, not hours; however, a .25 FTE should normally be considered as equivalent to a 10-hour assistantship.

If the student is hired by another unit, perhaps jointly:

The home unit of the student must approve the appointment.

Tuition remission is split proportionally to the support provided by each unit. Where a unit cannot support full tuition remission to students (within their unit), remission to a student from outside the unit will be supported at the same level as other students within the unit offering support.

Fellowship, assistantship, and adjunct faculty funds may be combined to create a financial aid package for an individual student. However, the maximum compensation for a given student should not exceed the prevailing rates for student compensation in the unit(s) providing support to the student.

Assistantships will normally go to full-time students, and holders of assistantships should not engage in other employment during the semester without explicit approval of the departmental chair, on pain of removal from the assistantship.

The Provost Office will circulate a draft Graduate Assistant Appointment Letter for comment from Graduate Council members.