Graduate Council

Voting members present: Bill Bogley, Pat Chappell, Ryan Contreras, Rebekah Elliott, Theresa Filtz, Lisa Ganio, Claire Gibbons, Marie Harvey, George Waldbusser
Voting members absent: Sourabh Apte, Jim Coakley, Lisa Price
Ex-Officio members present: Graduate School – Stephanie Bernell, Jennifer Brown
Guests present: Maureen Childers, Rosemary Garagnani

Update on Coalition of Graduate Employees Negotiation Points Relevant to Graduate Policy – Vice Provost Jennifer Brown

• The Coalition of Graduate Employees (CGE) bargaining team is composed of six members representing OSU administration and six members representing the CGE. Jennifer will determine how each side was chosen and report back to the Council.
  • Following the meeting, Jennifer determined that the OSU administration bargaining team is selected by the Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School; while Viki Dimick Jackson is the Employee and Labor Relations representative that leads negotiations. CGE leadership and members are responsible to select the union’s members. 
• Per state law, the bargaining teams must negotiate for 150 days; in Winter Term the teams will negotiate weekly for an hour. Beginning in Spring Term, and through the remaining days of bargaining, the teams will meet every other week for two-hour sessions.
• Interest based bargaining has occurred in the past, which means that the CGE may have testimony related to issues which they want administration to better understand. In past bargaining rounds and reopeners, CGE has presented their positions later in the process; during the 2018 contract re-opener, the administration has asked that the CGE present their positions earlier in this process. If there is no agreement after the 150-day bargaining time period, either team can seek support to gain resolutions from a state mediator. Each side is allowed to open four articles and may agree to jointly open two additional articles.
• After one Council member shared an area of concern, Jennifer encouraged Council members to contact her or Stephanie Bernell with other concerns that could potentially be related to bargaining.

Discussion of Graduate Certificate Reviews – Lisa Ganio 

1. Request by APA to Review the Certificate Programs
2. OSU Policy Statement on Certificate Programs
3. OSU Revised Policy Statement on Certificate Programs – As revised by the Graduate Council on January 26, 2018
4. Summary of Existing Certificate Programs as of January 2018

• The existing programs award from 1 to 12 certificates per year; some are online only.
• Do any programs submit annual reports that briefly summarize the program status and provide statistics on enrollment and student progress?
• What if a student is concurrently enrolled in a degree program and certificate? ‘Transfer credits’ refer to credits earned outside of OSU. Rosemary noted that some programs want to count all of the earned credits but, if there is no Master’s program of study, it’s difficult to determine the intent of the student. There are PhD candidates also concurrently enrolled in certificate programs, but these are fewer numbers. If there are 48 credits in a Master’s program and 18 in a certificate program, there are 30 unduplicated credits. If there are 30 Masters credits and 12 credits for a certificate, it’s difficult to know when the courses were taken or if they’re duplicated. If a student leaves and returns to OSU, the Graduate School allows a total of 15 incoming credits that may be credited to the student. Students must apply and be approved for a certificate program, but it’s not a full application for admission, and it must be approved by the program.
• It was noted that the catalog indicates 6 SCH, and the Graduate Council agreed to 6 SCH in 2003; the ‘Certificates – Graduate’ policy indicating 8 quarter credits needs to be revised to 6.
• Concurrent degrees/certificates are missing from the policy.
• Does the Graduate School receive a report from all certificate programs? Steph Bernell responded that the Graduate School does not receive a Graduate Learning Outcomes assessment report from certificate programs. Going forward, programs will submit a biennial evaluation report for the certificate programs. In addition, programs will include graduate certificate programs in the 10-year program review.
• Should certificates contain learning outcomes? They currently don’t. Certificates are a collection of coursework or objectives around a common theme.
• What is the value of the certificates? Proposals indicate labor market need.
• Some units award a separate document suitable for framing. There were concerns that any unit can print a document which can then be signed by anyone.
• It’s not clear that certificates are reviewed by an oversight group (other than the offering unit).
• There could be a yearly report required asking: Are there students in the program, are they progressing, are the courses still being offered, and has the curriculum been reviewed?

Actions:

• Stephanie will draft some concise verbiage related to a status report – perhaps one-third of the certificates could be reviewed each year – and determine how the responses will be used.
• Lisa Ganio will revise the policy, as discussed, and return to Academic Programs and Assessment.

10-year Program Review – Sustainable Forest Management – Lisa Price, Primary Reviewer

• Report  
• Self-Study Report
• Self-Study Appendices
• Self-Study Tables  
• One felt the review was thorough and not problematic. Theresa sat in on a 5-year review of combined programs, at which time it was decided that, because neither program had undergone a 10-year review, the combined program should go through a 10-year review.
• Concern was expressed with the recommendation to leave in place a specific individual until the dean is fully able to resume on-campus activities.

Action items:

• To address the staffing concern, the following addendum will be added to the report: Regarding the final recommendation, it is not the place of the Graduate Program Review to make specific recommendations for administrative staffing in a unit.
  • Theresa moved to accept the addendum; motion seconded and passed.
  • It was moved to accept the report with the addendum; motion seconded and passed.

Graduate School Dean Report

• INTO – Regarding the 15/24 hour rule for graduate applicants who are ineligible for graduate admission – Jennifer met with Bob Gilmour and she asked that INTO work with graduate programs with pathways, and strongly advised INTO to look into courses that will get students to 15 graduate credit hours prior to admission into graduate programs.  Currently some INTO graduate pathways do not result in 15 graduate credits.
• Undergraduate ILEA Approval – Rosemary thought that it was approved via a conversation in the Admissions Office.

New Business

Need to discuss whether double counting of a concurrent Master’s degree and certificate should be allowed. Some students are allowed to double-count, while others are not – it depends on whether one first applied for the Masters or certificate.

Minutes provided by Vickie Nunnemaker, Faculty Senate staff