Welcome to the Start of the 2022 Fall Semester!
The past year has been a journey of many emotions for us all. We have slowly begun to shift our teams, classes, and everyday work to in-person interactions and that has certainly been a great feeling. After many months of virtual meetings and virtual conversations, we are all ready to get back into the swing of being on campus more, and working face-to-face with our Pirate Nation.
Graduate School Administration
Dean Paul Gemperline, who served as Dean of the Graduate School since 2008, retired on June 30th. I am honored to follow in his footsteps as Interim Dean. As a long-time member of Pirate Nation (since 1996), I am committed to ensuring the strength of our graduate programs continues while also supporting program innovation, adaptations to best practices, and facilitating student success. As Associate Dean of the Graduate School for the past seven years, I have become familiar with our enrollment challenges. We are already well-equipped to face them together to ensure we sustain our strong graduate programs. I'm highly motivated to lead us through the challenges and look forward to taking the voyage with our faculty, staff, and students.
Graduate Admissions Team Update
The Graduate School has been fortunate to have Dr. James Coker serving as the Interim Assistant Dean for Graduate Admissions and Enrollment Management since October 2021. James is a proud Pirate, earning his Doctorate of Education in 2019 from our Department of Educational Leadership. James has brought a wealth of excellent knowledge and experience to help us continue to lead our graduate student admissions processes.
We have benefited from his extensive experience with the undergraduate population, and his educational leadership skills will continue benefiting our graduate admissions endeavors. James has served as Interim Assistant Dean for Graduate Admissions and Enrollment Management through the most challenging times - overseeing the implementation of our new admissions software, TargetX. While the transition to a new system is always arduous, Dr. Coker has helped the Graduate School staff, Graduate Program Directors, and all others involved to progress through the on-boarding as smoothly as possible. We look forward to new advances in admissions efficiency that TargetX affords us all. Dr. Coker will continue in the interim role until a new permanent hire occurs which is expected early in the Fall semester.
Graduate Student Orientation
Over the summer, the Graduate School hosted several opportunities for new graduate students to acclimate to ECU and graduate school. All newly admitted students were able to access orientation information in our Canvas course within a week or so after being admitted and registered for their first semester. During July and August, a series of four virtual events were held that included panel discussions with current students, general orientation information, and information specifically for online-only students. Each virtual session was attended by over 70 students with the recordings being available afterwards as well. Our campus orientation event on August 17th was attended by 130 students who heard from a variety of campus resources. Through all these options, the Graduate School provided our new students with the tools they will need to navigate a smooth transition into Graduate School. Below are a few example links to some helpful resources we provided our students with during the 2022 Fall Graduate Student Orientation.
Graduate Enrollment Goals
We continue to focus energy towards sustaining our graduate enrollment and facilitating growth where we can. Changes in the economic situation in the country have impacted individuals' ability to choose to seek graduate education and we are still continuing to see the effects of the pandemic throughout all aspects of higher education. With these and other challenges, the Graduate School continues to work diligently to ensure we support a robust graduate student enrollment. Throughout the year, faculty and staff throughout all of the Colleges held admissions events, counseled prospective students, and helped us understand how better to reach their applicants and newly admitted students. We believe the implementation of TargetX will increase our ability to communicate with prospective and newly admitted students and we hope this contributes to an increase in new students going forward. The Graduate School is highly appreciative of the Graduate Program Directors, the Associate Deans, and the administrative assistants who support graduate education. Together we are making a difference.
With the collaborative work of our Marketing and Creative Services staff along with graduate student assistants who serve as "graduate admissions ambassadors," we have improved our social media presence and plan to continue using this medium to reach not only prospective students, but our current students as well. We continue to advertise admissions deadlines and events related to admissions, but we have become more intentional in using social media to help advertise current student information such as add/drop deadlines, thesis/dissertation submission deadlines, and professional development events. We hope you will "follow" our social media accounts to help us spread the word!
The Graduate School processes and reviews all of the master's theses and doctoral dissertations received each semester. Typically 80+ documents are received each semester and they are reviewed for formatting by our staff member Marquerite Bond and then reviewed for final approval by Dr. Michelle Eble, our new Graduate School Faculty Fellow. It is a privilege to read our students' work - it's diverse, inspirational, and fascinating. We hope to spotlight a few of our outstanding submissions in this newsletter going forward and begin with 2 submissions that impacted us this past summer.
Dissertation Spotlight
The Impact of COVID-19 on the Work System’s Influence on Care Processes and Ambulation Outcomes
By Christa Jones-Hooker, PhD in Nursing
Director: Deborah Tyndall, PhD, RN, CNE
Christa Jones-Hooker’s dissertation project explored the effects of hospital system changes on outcomes related to patients getting up and moving in a medical center during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to visitor restrictions, family members, who often provide informal movement and walking assistance as part of the hospital system of care, were no longer part of the system. Dr. Jones-Hooker’s project concludes that healthcare providers need to account for the informal resources necessary for in-hospital patient ambulation when evaluating system-level ambulation policies within the work environment.
From Dr. Tyndall—"Students enrolled in nursing, physical therapy, and other allied health programs were also restricted during this time. Christa’s research highlights the need to rethink classifying students as “visitors” in a time of crisis as students often provide support for ambulatory care and may offer some relief for organizations experiencing staff shortages.
Thesis Spotlight
Influence of Permeable Interlocking Concrete Paver Performance on Infiltration and Temperature in an Urban Watershed
By Lori Farley, MS in Geology
Director: Michael O’Driscoll, PhD
Lori Farley’s thesis project evaluated the use of Permeable Interlocking Concrete Pavers (PICP) by testing infiltration rates and ambient temperatures on ECU’s campus by comparing PICPs to asphalt, forested areas, and lawns. The results of the study indicate that PICPs are effective in sandy soils for the management of stormwater runoff in urban settings as an alternative to concrete sidewalks and asphalt parking lots, or in addition to traditional stormwater management practices. PICPs also have the potential to minimize the effects of heat by maintaining lower nighttime temperatures and shorter periods of peak temperatures.
From Dr. O’Driscoll-- “In urban watersheds, impervious surfaces can increase stormwater inputs to streams. Increases in stormwater can cause problems like stream channel erosion, water quality and aquatic habitat impairment, and flooding. Over the last decade, ECU has been installing permeable interlocking pavement and other forms of green stormwater infrastructure around campus to reduce urban stormwater runoff. Lori’s research showed that those surfaces can act like sponges that soak up rainwater at rates that were several orders of magnitude quicker than the surrounding soils and impervious surfaces. Replacing impervious surfaces with permeable pavement can help to reduce urban stormwater impacts on local streams.”
Graduate Council and Committees
We would like to share with you the Graduate School Organization and governance. The policies related to the governance of graduate education are housed in two publications: Part II, Section IV of the Faculty Manual and the Graduate Catalog. The Faculty Manual describes the policies related to the Graduate Council and the procedures for its membership. The meetings held by the Graduate Council (GC) and the Graduate Council Executive Committee (GCEC) are open meetings. Any faculty, staff, or student is welcome to attend. For the 2022-2023 year, we will hold these meetings virtually except for the April 2023 meeting which will be in person. Meeting dates and times are always posted to the University's Event Calendar, but are also on the Graduate School website on the Council and Committees page. The Graduate School also holds monthly meetings to help educate those involved in all aspects of graduate education. Our Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators (GPDC) meetings are all open meetings as well and are held virtually. Times, dates, and Teams links are available on the Council & Committees page but also by contacting Tania Alvarez in the Graduate School (alvarezt@ecu.edu). Each of these three groups is responsible for handling vital components of our graduate policies, procedures, curriculum, and instruction. Below is a summary of the work performed by each of these committees.
Graduate Council (GC)
The Graduate Council meets once a month to consider, debate, and vote on all graduate academic policies and recommendations of the GCC, graduate curriculum, and degree programs. Any member of the graduate faculty may recommend agenda items concerning graduate educational policy to the Graduate Council Executive Committee for inclusion on the Graduate Council agenda.
The Graduate Council is responsible for:
- Approving the membership of the Graduate Curriculum Committee.
- Approving Graduate Curriculum Committees (GCC) recommendations.
- Participating in the review of all existing graduate programs.
- Reviewing all unit appeals of negative decisions made by the Dean of the Graduate School regarding graduate faculty appointments.
- Reviewing and developing Graduate School policy including requirements for admission, retention of students, permissible course loads, transfer credit, grading, thesis and dissertation requirements and examinations, and standards for graduate faculty appointment.
- Making recommendations relating to graduate education to the Dean, Academic Council, and the Chancellor.
- Reporting its actions to the coordinators of graduate programs, graduate faculty, and Faculty Senate.
Graduate Council Executive Committee (GCEC)
The GCEC will meet at least once a month to:
- Review and approve all admissions by exception, requests for exceptions to transfer credit policy, and requests for exceptions to the time to degree requirements.
- Review and approve all admissions by exception, requests for exceptions to transfer credit policy, and requests for exceptions to the time to degree requirements.
- Set the Graduate Council agenda.
- Prepare draft policies for consideration by the Graduate Council.
- Review the Graduate Council meeting minutes for presentation to the Graduate Council.
- Exercise delegated authority from the Graduate Council to consider and make decisions regarding urgent business matters of the Graduate Council during summer months when the full Graduate Council is not in session, with a full written report of any such actions provided to the Graduate Council at its first meeting of the Fall term.
The GCEC meeting is an open meeting and welcomes any member of the ECU Campus Community with a valid Pirate ID to attend if they wish to do so, excluding the exception request items discussed under closed session to protect confidential student information (FERPA).
Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators (GPDC)
The GPDC meets at least twice per regular academic term to provide a forum where Graduate Program Directors and Coordinators may provide input to the Graduate School, the Graduate Council and the Graduate Curriculum Committee on any matters related to policies, practices, implementation, and administration of graduate education. These meetings are also open to any faculty or staff member and are held virtually.