November 30, 2005: Graduate Council Minutes

Graduate Council Minutes
HUC Board Room
Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Members present: Bryan Noe, Susan Rich, Richard Turpen, Heather McPherson, Thomas Ryan, Richard Gray, Mark Beasley, James Collawn, Victor Skrinska, Amanda Brown, Harald Sontheimer, Jonathan Amsbary, John Johnstone, Kathryn Morgan, Charles Calhoun, Tom Jannett, Kyles Grimes, Melinda Lalor, Jason Linville, Patricia Sawyer, Stephen O’Connor, David Macrina, Lucy Annang, Helmuth Orthner, Coral Lamartiniere, Barry Andrews, Gregg Janowski, Yulia Karpeshina, Pat Bucy, Ada Elgavish, Peter Burrows, Anne Theibert, Paul Gamlin, Carol Dashiff, Tim Nagy, Penelope Moyers, Scott Ballinger, Sharon Shaw, Yogesh Vohra, Lisa Schwiebert, Alan Randich, Karlene Ball, Jesse Milby, Akhlaque Haque, Kent Keyser

Staff: Julie Bryant, Thomas Harris

Guest: Kimberly Fort, Director, Parking and Transportation Services

Dr. McClintock opened the meeting by introducing Dr. Bryan Noe as new Dean of the Graduate School.

1. Dean Noe turned floor over to Kim Fort to discuss Graduate Student Parking. A brief summary is below.

Currently, we have 30+ spaces open in the 10th Avenue parking deck, and 40+ spaces in the 5th Avenue parking deck. A map of this area can be viewed at www.parking.uab.edu. Deck student parking is $160 per year, or $85 per term. Lot 15 permits can be upgraded to the deck permit for the difference in the costs.

Below I have summarized other parking information that graduate students may find useful:

• All student deck permits automatically have access to the University Boulevard deck and the 5th Avenue parking deck from 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays, and all day on weekends.
  
  
• Students opting to stay in the Lot 15 student parking system can purchase a night access card for the decks listed above. The cost is $5 to cover the expense of the card.
  
  
• The Escort service operates from 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. weeknights, with a Security officer escort after 10:30 p.m. The Security officer escort is available after 5:00 p.m. on weekends as well. The number for both services is 934-8772. Pick up is available from any building on campus, as well as the parking decks.
  
  
• The Motorist Assistance Roadside Service (MARS) is a free program that operates from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. weekdays. They assist with dead batteries, locked cars, flat tires, and gas. The number is 975-6277.
  
• A student carpool program is available for two or more students who ride together three days a week or more. Benefits include a free ride home program, reserved parking space, and emergency passes. For more information, call 934-3513.

Our office hours are Monday – Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Our phone is 934-3513.

2. Dean Noe announced a new focus in proactive recruitment efforts. Graduate School will get perspective student applications into the hands of the programs faster. Graduate admission applications will gradually make a shift to 100% online submission. Implement a new web system that will work with Banner. In the interim Graduate School will pay to obtain a Record Access Account for Apply Yourself and distribute to each Graduate Program. This will allow each program exclusive access to its own applicant files on the web. Each program should provide the Graduate School (sjohnson@provost.uab.edu) with a contact name, email address and mailing address. Students will be required to prepare two copies of paper applications with one being sent directly to the program and the other to Graduate School. Letter(s) of reference will only be sent to a designated recipient at the department/program level. The department/program contact information will also be posted to the Graduate School’s website. The Graduate School’s admission office will no longer calculate GPA averages. Everyone at the meeting agreed that the information necessary (including GPAs) to make informed admissions decisions is already available on the transcripts.
   
3. Dean Noe proposes a new fellowship program which would supplement funding to attract top applicants to UAB. Advisory Committee members were charged with the task of setting up a review process. Top off amount to be determined. Fellowship will be available to PhD students only. Fellowships will possibly be structured to be more than one year to reduce a pay cut factor for the student. This will be a topic of discussion for the Advisory Committee in the process of developing the parameters for these awards.
   
   
4. Dean Noe makes new student orientation a mandatory policy for all incoming students for the fall of 2006. For departments who offer there own orientation, a half day or online orientation will be available. The orientation will discuss:
   • GS Policies and procedures
   • Email access
   • UAB Services
   • Campus card
   • Vehicle Registration and parking
   • Counseling center
   • Recreation Center, etc.
     
     
5. Dean Noe addresses new incentive for students to apply for outside fellowships. Any student who is successful in garnering an outside fellowship that pays more than half of his/her current stipend amount will receive the current cohort stipend, or the fellowship stipend (whichever is greater) plus a supplement of $2,000. Exception; NSF predoctoral stipends. Special arrangements for NSF fellowship recipients will be proposed.
   
6. Dean Noe discusses the upcoming NRC assessment of Doctoral Programs; data collection begins in spring 2006.

The meeting adjourned at 5:15 p.m.