Date: 
12/04/2015 2:15 pm
Location: 
442 Austin Hall
Event Description: 

A PDF of the Minutes can be found here.

Agenda: 
  1. Review and Approval of November 20, 2015 Meeting Minutes
  2. Review of the MAT Degree and New Options #93866
  3. Community College Leadership Program (CCLP) Three-year Follow-up – Andreas Schmittner
  4. Data Analytics Curriculum Proposal #93153
  5. Discussion of "The Graduate School Mess” article from The Chronicle of Higher Education – time permitting
Minutes: 

Voting members present: Sourabh Apte, Stephanie Bernell, Jim Coakley, Ryan Contreras, Lisa Ganio, Kokmun Ng, Lisa Price, Andreas Schmittner, Stacy Semevolos

Voting members absent: Theresa Filtz, David Finch, Drew Hatlen

Guests: Jennifer Bachman, Rosemary Garagnani, Julie Gess-Newsome (via phone), Sue Helback, Virginia Lesser, Charlotte Wickham

 

Review and Approval of November 20, 2015 Meeting Minutes

Action: The November 20 minutes were approved with no revisions.

  1. Review of the MAT degree and new options. Sue Helback and Jennifer Bachman are invited at 2:05 PM to explain the degree changes and new options. Please see the email below from Sue Helback describing the attachments related to the program and the new options.
  • Terminating 20 major codes and replacing with option codes under one major; five at OSU-Cascades (re: students obtaining licensure for teaching) – OSU-Cascades has created a new major format with options instead of separate majors. Music Education is now an option in Corvallis – in CLA, but Education oversees as a licensure body. There will be a total of seven options.
  • Sue – commonality of options – accredited by CAEP (Council for Accreditation of Educator Program) every seven years – all have key assessments – the content is the difference between options. Each option has an alignment of their courses with 10 Standards; OSU-Cascades will develop a program based on these Standards. They have CAEP accreditation and OSU program assessment – try to dovetail together. Exit requirements? Final exam currently has two end-of-program assessments – students write a written portfolio – reflection of understanding of Standards, growth in program, and all complete a two-hour oral defense.
  • OSU-Cascades is fully an in-residence program, but there is also a hybrid program in the Portland Metro area.

Action: Lisa G moved to approve; motion seconded and passed with no dissenting votes and two abstentions.

CCLP program three-year follow-up discussion with Andreas Schmittner; report attached.

  • Met with three program leaders; Community College Leadership Program – hybrid – two face-to-face meetings at Wilsonville – successfully changed location from Silver Falls – changes suggested and implementation were well received.

Action: Stephanie moved to accept the CCLP three-year follow up report; motion seconded and approved with one abstention.

Continuing discussion of the Data Analytics proposal at 3 PM. The response from Statistics to the Curriculum Council on the Data Analytics proposal is attached. It may answer some of our concerns. Virginia Lesser from statistics will join the Council at 3 PM. The questions that the Grad Council sent to Dr. Lesser are also attached.

  • Jim – lack of faculty is an issue – the unit recognizes the challenge
  • David – many questions have been addressed;
    • Didn’t see where there is discussion of training of ethical aspects, which is required for a graduate degree. Dr. Lesser – quite a bit coming through in the core courses (data security) – felt ethical aspects are covered in accessing data sets and in the capstone projects, but there is no particular course. Jim requested they specifically
    • Amplify response on diversity of recruitment – will ask for help from COS – aimed at already professional clientele – are there other plans to reach a diverse group of people? Dr. Lesser - Julie Greenwood is actively recruiting underrepresented minorities. As far as a way to get into business, but they’ve approached Nike and Amazon – will explore options so that the information goes to all employees at these companies.
      • There are underrepresented organizations that could be included in the proposal.
    • In regards to specifics, still concerned whether they need nothing more than college algebra – correct? They feel they are developing the programs based on algebra. MS in Data Analytics is not as strong in math as Statistics
    • Questions related to computational resources – would think that if students will eventually be analyzing large data sets, they will be working in a cloud environment – but this is not mentioned in the proposal. Dr. Lesser talked with T. Fiez who recognized the need for training in the cloud environment, but courses have not yet been developed.
    • Wondering whether students in class will use the COSINE cluster from educational side which is three old machines. If bought with RERF funds, it should only be used for research. Dr. Lesser – not all RERF funds.
    • Concerned that so many courses are in development. Update of status of courses. Would it be ready to go next fall? Dr. Lesser -516 is ready to go; 517 ready by the end of SP16; 518 is online; multi-varied statistics has a rough draft. 1st year must take 516, 517, and 518. She has everyone in the unit signed up for the classes. Ecampus money distribution is committed. If program isn’t ready to launch F2016, 516 will go online regardless.
    • Mentioned possible overlap with OHSU programs – OHSU also has a Masters in BioStatistics, which includes biosurvival (unsure whether it’s online). Dr. Lesser is not aware that they have anything similar online.
  • Expecting 10 students the first year, and then increasing in future years. Will students from other programs be allowed in the courses? Dr. Lesser – yes, in particular Fisheries & Wildlife students are interested. There are no plans to close any of the courses; they are trying to meet the needs of the Oregon workforce.
  • Will students in other graduate courses create a tier of mathematical skills? Dr. Lesser– they have the option of a statistical program which is more math oriented.
  • Encouraged to consider the ethics issue – would be important for students to understand the level of responsibility that comes with these skills. Dr. Lesser made a note to include ethics in every class.
  • Category II proposals have been submitted and the first two are approved. It was suggested that ethics could be included in the learning outcomes.
  • There are two new projected faculty hires this year and an additional two have already been hired. Assuming this is successful, 516 would be opened up for additional sections in both Winter and Spring rather than just offering the course in Fall.
  • Add cloud to the CS 512 – if it’s in the description of the topics, it’s expected to be in the learning outcomes.
  • Jim Coakley will advise Theresa Filtz that the unit is expected to make changes, and it will be ready to move forward.

Discussion of "The Grad School Mess” article from the Chronicle of Higher Ed, attached, time permitting. 

  • Discussion was postponed until Graduate School staff is present.

Next agenda item: Related to the movement of the CSSA degree program from College of Ed to CLA, should CLA be awarding an EdM or EdD; are there alternatives to an MS? Jim will suggest they contact Larry Roper and ask them to determine an appropriate degree title, other than MS.

New business item: Review of five CLA split courses, some new, some number changes. CLA dean wants to use 400/500 level split courses, rather than separate, If a 400-level course, why are 3rd year students (juniors) allowed in the course?

In response that it was noted that the 50% rule which requires 50% non-slash content, thus 50% of courses are allowed to be split level. Graduate students complain about the quality of the split courses but they are allowed.

In reviewing split level courses it is important to determine if there are appropriate learning outcomes for each level.

The scheduled December 11, 2015 Graduate Council meeting is canceled.

Minutes recorded by Vickie Nunnemaker, Faculty Senate staff