The Graduate Council for the academic year 2004-2005 met on September 9 at 12:15pm.

The chair Dave McShaffrey open the meeting with discussion of meeting times for the rest of the year. It was decided my majority agreement that meetings will be held as needed but no more than twice a month on Thursdays at 12pm with a backup time designated as Wednesdays at 5pm .

The Topics presented to be covered this year are as follows in the order they are to be addressed:

• Explore creating a requirement to register for one hour of thesis credit for each semester beyond the end of their program until the student finishes.

• Discuss encouraging open meetings for the defense of their final projects/theses and explore the prospect of awarding honors in the graduate program.

• Explore creating an application for graduation fee that will cover the cost of hoods (probably about $30) to be presented to them at graduation. The provost will continue to sponsor a brunch for graduating graduate students of the day of graduation. Each program will explore developing some sort of pin for each graduate.

• Explore the addition of enhanced classes for the MALL program.

• Explore the possibility of electronic submission of theses, address the  prospect of starting new graduate programs with no new resources and look into streamlining the composition of the graduate council.