Graduate Council

Voting members present: John Becker-Blease, Brian Dolan, Cass Dykeman, Kim Halsey, Ricardo Letelier, Mark Needham, Liz Schroeder, John Schuna
Voting members absent: Matt Johnston, Chrissa Kioussi
Ex-officio members present: Graduate School - Steph Bernell
Guests: Hilary Boudet, Karen Hanson, Marit Legler, Brent Steel

Program Proposal: Public Policy Graduate Major (EMPP, MPP, PhD) – Hilary Boudet, Brent Steel

• Public Policy Graduate Major (EMPP, MPP, PhD) – Key #259 – Liberal Arts – Change
• Hilary explained that the proposal would add a thesis option to the MPP. In the past there has been a capstone; however,  since thinking about the Alternative/Summative Assessment, they would like to add an MPP thesis option. Additionally, they are adding a diversity, equity and inclusion 1-credit course to all programs; they are accredited nationally, and this topic is a requirement; one course will be removed from the EMPP program; and a course table was added which previously did not exist.
• Ricardo confirmed from Hilary that just the thesis option is being added and there are no changes to the other options.
  • Hilary indicated that an alternative/summative assessment will be added with individualized committees for each student.
    • Hilary noted that the effective date is, ideally, Fall 2022.
• Kim questioned the timing of the current thesis vs. non-thesis option. It sounded like the same program except one committee has a Graduate Council Representative (GCR) and the other doesn’t. Seems like it would make sense to have the alternative/summative assessment come through first.
  • Hilary felt that some students would appreciate the thesis appearing more officially on the transcript since about 20% of students go on to graduate education.
• In thinking about moving to the alternative/summative assessment, Hilary explained that there is currently a two-hour oral exam for each student; other institutions do more of a capstone project. They would like to take advantage of how the coursework ties to program Learning Outcomes and their national programming body. They are moving toward a capstone project.
• Brent shared that the EMPP is growing quickly. There is a new workload policy in Liberal Arts that does not recognize working with Masters students in the workflow and also increases the workload.
• Mark encouraged Council members to pay attention to this issue as he felt that there will be more proposals such as this.
• John Becker-Blease encouraged members to contact him, Hilary or Brent with concerns related to this proposal prior to next week.
• Kim was concerned that both Masters and PhD students are doing the same work – the only difference is that there is a Graduate Council Representative present for the PhD; apparently has been occurring for some time.
  • Mark noted that the non-thesis is the difference – it consists of a small capstone that doesn’t involve research.
  • Ricardo felt it would be good to distinguish the difference so it’s not open to interpretation.
  • Kim requested refinement between a thesis Masters and non-thesis Masters degree.
  • Ricardo requested clarification of the end product between the two. If there is no clarification, the only difference is the presence of a GCR.
  • Mark agreed that the difference is not clear in CIM; the difference needs to be explicit for perspective students.

Action: John Becker-Blease interpreted the above concerns as a friendly amendment, and he will reach out to Hilary and Brent

Course Proposals

• HHS 421 : ^REPORTING OF PUBLIC HEALTH DATA – Key #21185 – Public Health & Human Sciences – New
  • John Schuna noted that this is a complicated proposal consisting of both slash and undergraduate WIC courses, the syllabus is nearly 10 pages, there are different assessments, etc.
  • No concerns expressed.
• HST 427 : TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST – Key #10977 – Liberal Arts – Change
  • Liz noted that both Graduate Learning Outcomes (GLOs) are summarized and questioned how the members feel about this.
    • John Becker-Blease would prefer a higher level.
    • Brian noted course relationships.

Action: John Becker-Blease felt that notes to action are better GLOs. He will ask the originator to explicitly add GLOs for those to be reported as GLOs. He will also inquire whether the originator will allow him to cut and paste the GLOs, then he can approve when accomplished.

• ST 436 : R PROGRAMMING FOR DATA – Key #21328 – Science – New

Action: Becker-Blease indicated that this course is online only and noted that, because some faculty are under the impression that a course must first be approved on-campus before being offered online, he will check into that so the Council has an appropriate response ready, if asked. It was noted that many courses are online only.

• VMB 675 : PERSONALIZED NUTRITION FOR DISEASE MANAGEMENT – Key #21329 – Veterinary Medicine – New
  • No concerns expressed.
• VMB 725 : VETERINARY APPLIED ANATOMY – Key #21334 – Veterinary Medicine – New
  • No concerns expressed.
• NSE 451 : NEUTRONIC ANALYSIS I – Key #14068 – Engineering – Change
  • No concerns expressed.
• EMGT 530 : LEAN FOR ENGINEERING MANAGERS – Key #21323 – Engineering – New
  • No concerns expressed.

Action: John Schuna moved to approve all above proposals, with the exception of HST 427 which is subject to a friendly amendment; motion seconded and passed with 8 votes in favor and no objections or abstentions.

Comments from the Chair – John Becker-Blease

• A room in Austin Hall has been reserved December 6 for an in-person meeting – food will be available.
• The Council will not meet the week of Thanksgiving.

Matters Arising

• Use of Acronyms
  • Ricardo noted that, for some descriptions, acronyms are used that are not understood by the broader community.
  • John Becker-Blease suggested that these incidents could be referred to Curriculum Management and request that a guidance for CIM documents be created.
  • John Becker-Blease suggested that the Council could start rolling back proposals to request elimination of acronyms.
    • Steph didn’t think the Council could pre-emptively do that.

• Fully Remote PhD Programs
  • Steph Bernell received an inquiry about a fully remote Ecampus PhD program; there currently is no fully remote PhD program at OSU. She was asked about barriers. She felt that the Graduate Council needs to think through the ramifications of a fully remote PhD – how to rotate through labs or get acquainted with labs, how to get acquainted with professors and select a major professor, etc. Steph felt that this issue deserves much more thought than just asking a unit to submit a proposal for a fully remote PhD. She noted that some institutions have allowed a fully remote Ecampus PhD program and, subsequently, pulled back this type of approval.

Minutes prepared by Vickie Nunnemaker, Faculty Senate staff