Minutes of the EEE Graduate Committee – 4/29/05

Present: Ng, Colinge, Heedley, Kumar, Matthews, Oldenburg

1. Matthews requested a correction to the minutes of the previous meeting. Part II.D.1. relating to the decision of the oral comprehensive exam committee should include the clarification that, “The decision on passing should be based only upon the student’s performance in the oral examination”.

2. The EEE 230, EEE 296K, EEE 296L, and EEE 296M course proposals have all passed through Academic Council. EEE 299 will be used as a “placeholder” for EEE 296L registration for Fall 2005 until the latter is approved at the university level. Students will then be administratively transferred to EEE 296L. One section of EEE 238 will be replaced by EEE 296K as soon as that course is approved at the university level. EEE 235 will remain as EEE 235 in the schedule until its conversion to EEE 230 is approved at the university level. Kumar will with discuss with Ramesh the possibility of substituting EEE 296F for EEE 213 in the schedule. Heedley was requested to provide information about the EEE 299/296L offering on his web site which will be linked on our Graduate Program web page.

3. Oldenburg presented information concerning projected enrollment for Fall 2005, and the status of graduate applications. The EEE Graduate Program continues to be the largest of the College’s graduate programs. The projections show a continuing slow decline in headcount enrollment to 210, and in FTES to 50, for Fall 2005. The full-time/part-time student ratio is now near its lowest point in the past 5 years, probably reflecting a good job market and a large number of students near the end of their programs of study. The Graduate Center informed us that, as of April 6, there were 159 completed EEE graduate applications for Fall 2005 that were still awaiting processing by Graduate Admissions. Both Ramesh and M.J. Lee have expressed their concern to Graduate Admissions that these applications need to be processed A.S.A.P. if we expect these students (particularly the international ones) to be able to register and obtain visas before the Fall Semester begins.

4. All faculty were urged to respond to Oldenburg’s memo requesting documentation of completed projects and theses during this past academic year. New workload policy passed by the ECS Administrative Council has created an assigned time category that will provide WTU credit for completed projects and theses. Such credit can be accumulated (“banked”) and used, with approvals, to obtain instructional workload reduction.

5. After some discussion, it was agreed that the Plan C program of study should continue to include a total of 10 courses and not include EEE 201 or EEE 500. This decision may need to be revisited in the future if the Plan C workload increases substantially.

6. Kumar will present the Communications Systems EEE 211, 212, 213 course restructuring plan at the May meeting of the Committee.

7. The issue of the development of specific department guidelines for projects and theses received considerable discussion at this meeting. Most attendees felt that a set of department guidelines for what is expected in a project or thesis would be helpful for quality control. Colinge shared a Project Guidelines document that she uses with her students, and agreed to send this out to the rest of us in electronic format. The coordinator is soliciting comment on this guideline, and will try to draft something of a general nature that may be considered for adoption by the Graduate Committee.

8. Agenda items for the May 13 meeting of the Committee will include presentation of a project/thesis guideline draft, and the report on the restructuring of the three Communication Systems courses.