February 16, 2026 – Graduate Faculty Committee (GFC) – Minutes

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Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Hybrid – Mitchell 245 and virtual via Microsoft Teams

Present: Brian Schermer, Amy Kalkbrenner, Jerald Thomas, Itziar Lazkano (chair), Winson Chu, Joshua Mersky (GPRC), Jeb Willenbring, Taylor Mathewson Levandoski, Emily Middleton, Timothy O’Brien (GCC), Hamid Ouali (vice chair), Peninnah Kako, Mohammad Rahman, Reed Heintzkill, Oluwaseyi Ambrose, Pamela Bermender, Erin Flynn (ex-officio), Riley Harrison (admin support), Cynthia Marifke, Shane Haensgen

  1. Meeting called to order at 3:02p.m.
  2. Automatic Consent
    Minutes of December 8, 2025, approved as distributed.
  3. New Business
    1. Update on Policy 3320 on credits for prior learning – Shane Haensgen
      1. Working with other departments to get these revisions ready for review by the GFC, revisions will go to APCC for a vote next month
    2. Updated Revisions to Faculty Doc. No. 3197R1 Graduate Program Reviews (Procedures for Qualitative Reviews of Graduate Programs) – Josh Mersky
      1. A third policy revision option was presented to GPRC for a vote; approved by the GPRC, will be coming to GFC for a vote in March
      2. Committee also voted to remove the appendices from the policy so that these documents can be easily modified in the future
    3. Introduction to Graduate course forgiveness discussion – John Boyland
      1. Moved to March GFC meeting
    4. Discussion of potential ‘systemic issues’ in graduate programs – Chair
      1. Opportunity to bring up issues in their departments that might be relevant to other departments too
      2. Topics discussed included: enrollment issues, TA workloads and decreasing the number of TA appointments due to funding, meeting international students’ needs, cohort environments, teaching vs. Mentoring workload
  4. Continuing Business – None.
  5. Reports
    1. Physical Environment Committee: Tour of campus was taken to examine changes needed for pedestrian safety and accessibility
      Facilities updated committee on renovations of the Northwest Quad.
    2. Research Policy and Advisory Committee: The Committee discussed the idea of shifting how indirect funds are distributed.
  6. Other business – None.
  7. Meeting adjourned at 3:45p.m.