Meeting Date: 
January 11, 2020
Date: 
01/11/2020 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Location: 
Zoom Meeting
Agenda: 
  1. Review and approve minutes from November meeting
  1. Announcement of upcoming winter term Honors College events – Toni Doolen
    • Winter term research showcase
    • State of the College
  1. Review and discuss Standing Rules (below)
  1. Identify topics from membership for discussion/work this year
  1. Scheduling winter term meeting(s)
  1. New Business
  1. Adjourn

 

Standing Rules

The Honors College Council has jurisdiction over the policies and procedures of the Honors College and advises the Honors College Dean. The Honors College Council is responsible for admission and other academic requirements including degree requirements; criteria for selection of the members of the Honors Faculty; maintenance and regular assessment of program quality; and the curricular structure and content of the Honors College.

The Honors College Council consists of at least six current or former Honors College Faculty members and at least two Students, the students appointed from among the Honors College students.

Administration of the Honors College rests with the Dean, who shall be an ex-officio, non-voting member of the Honors College Council.

Minutes: 

Voting members present: Elizabeth Barstow, Viktor Bovbjerg, Angelika Buchanan, Nya Buckner, Tiah Edmunson-Morton, Alex Grejuc, Matt Johnston, Bob Mason
Ex-officio members present: Toni Doolen – Honors College Council
Guests present: Susan Jackson Rodgers

Review and approve minutes from November meeting

  • We reviewed and approved the Minutes from the November 12, 2020 meeting.

Announcement of upcoming winter term Honors College (HC) events – Toni Doolen

  • Winter term research showcase
  • State of the College

Review and discuss Standing Rules

  • Not discussed

Identify topics from membership for discussion/work this year

  • Most of the meeting was devoted to identifying and discussing work the Honors College Council (HCC) could take on for the rest of the year that would be both productive and useful to the HC. A question was asked that sought to understand what the role of the HCC was as compared to other advisory groups to the HC. Toni gave a very informative overview of the different groups and how they may intersect, but do not significantly overlap.  Briefly, there is an Honors College Board of Regents and they have a primary role in helping guide the Dean on development (fund raising and external engagement) work.  They also provide an external voice and are consulted on broad overarching initiatives, like the new strategic plan. The Parents Leadership Circle seeks the engagement of families in supporting the current HC students. The Alumni Leadership Circle engages the alumni in helping the current HC students in networking, internships, and other professional skills to aid in their career development. The HC also has its own Curriculum Committee which provides guidance on curriculum and assessment. The Honors College Council is mostly concerned with academic policies, admissions and degree requirements.
  • This lead to a question of what are some issues that the HCC can work on that would be helpful in terms of HC planning? The rest of the hour was spent with a discussion of several ideas proposed by both Toni and Susan that would benefit from input from the HCC. Some examples include:
  • Should the policy on appointing instructors to the HC be reviewed since the landscape of faculty has changed significantly since they were adopted 25 years ago. For example, the other “type” of common third committee member are external professionals, e.g. doctors, practicing engineers, researchers from other universities, researchers from state/federal agencies, etc.  Should we rethink the requirements for what type of OSU appointments are considered to be “core” faculty and who can serve as mentors and the second committee member?
  • Following on in this vein, is a review of the petition process in order? Sue and Toni provided some thinking on this to prime the conversation.
  • How necessary is the 2/3 rule? (see attachment for explanation of this rule) Do we and the HCC want to change, modify, or eliminate it?
  • It’s important that instructors’ workloads are protected, so I would recommend that we keep the supervisor approval as a requirement.  But do we need two faculty members and the Associate Dean reviewing these petitioners’ qualifications?  Might we reduce this to just the AD and a curriculum committee member, trusting the AD to confer with a faculty member in the field, should she be unsure about what counts as “qualified” in a particular discipline?
  • Do we want to say anything about Professors of Practice, Clinical Faculty, Faculty Research Assistants, post-docs, PhD students/GTAs, etc., as either OK to serve as mentors/committee members, or not?
  • Are the number of HC credits appropriate?
  • Do the graduation requirements need to be reviewed? Currently a thesis is required of all graduates, yet in some disciplines capstone projects are more the norm.
  • With the new Student Evaluation of Teaching instrument forthcoming sometime this year, this could be a good time to review the HC survey instrument.
  • Should the HC initiate an entirely Ecampus Honors degree in some of the entirely on-line degree programs?

Scheduling winter term meeting(s)

  • Time was running short so we agreed that at the next meeting in February we could narrow down some of these projects and identify the projects to be pursued. Toni indicated that Judy would work with the HCC to identify a meeting in February and one in March.

New Business

  • None

Adjourned at 3:00 PM