The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education voted in October to suspend OSU’s certificates in gerontology and leadership, but OSU officials said the suspension is a good thing.
Curriculum is being altered to better meet students’ wants and needs.
Coordinator of Leadership Development Stephen Haseley said the certificate is not needed because students are more interested in the leadership minor. Gerontology Institute Director Whitney Brosi said the graduate gerontology certificate is being revised to “align more closely with the needs of graduate students across campus and the improvements in graduate curriculum in gerontology.”
Gerontology is the study of aging.
OSU has three years to reinstate or delete the suspended programs. However, the gerontology certificate will be reevaluated in August 2010, and the leadership certificate will be reevaluated in May 2011.
No student was enrolled in either program at the time of suspension, and no student can be recruited or admitted to either suspended program. The suspension does not affect OSU’s other leadership and gerontology programs.
Brosi said the Department of Human Development and Family Science and the gerontology faculty initiated the request for suspension in the summer and fall of 2007. She said the suspension is not an elimination of the program.
Brosi said the gerontology certificate requires 21 hours of coursework, but most certificates across campus require about 12 or 15 hours. She said the new certificate will require fewer hours and be “more focused and aligned with other certificates on campus.”
Brosi said the courses required for the certificate will be changed to reflect new gerontology research. She said four gerontology faculty members have been hired in the past five years, and they are looking at how to make courses better and make students more competitive in the job market.
Alex Bishop is the gerontology program coordinator. Bishop said the certificate needed to be updated because the gerontology graduate program was moved from natural and applied sciences to human development and family science about two years ago. He said they have had to “adjust curriculum to match HDFS standards.”
Bishop said the certificate is similar to an undergraduate degree and adds “concentration on top of a degree.” The certificate is open to any OSU graduate student.
Other gerontology programs not affected by the suspension include an undergraduate minor in gerontology, an undergraduate degree in human development and family science with a specialization in gerontology, and a Master of Science with a specialization in gerontology.
Laura Hubbs-Tait is the graduate coordinator for the Department of Human Development and Family Science and is the person who wrote and approved the request for suspension.
“In addition to the move of the program from [the department of] Natural and Applied Sciences to HDFS and the resulting need to revise the curriculum, the absence of a Gerontology Institute director and gerontology program coordinator in HDFS for the 10 years prior to 2007, and the need to revise the strategic plan for the Gerontology Program led the HDFS department to request to suspend the program,” Hubbs-Tait said.
However, Hubbs-Tait said that in the 16 months since the suspension request was submitted, Brosi has become Gerontology Institute director and Bishop has become program coordinator. She also said the faculty have modified the gerontology curriculum to be congruent with other programs in department and the Gerontology program has a new strategic plan.
Sara DeStefano graduated from OSU in August with a master’s degree with emphasis in gerontology. DeStefano works as an AdVantage case manager for Life Senior Services, a company that provides “information, education, and services that encourage continued independence, quality of life and dignity” to the elderly, according to the Web site.
DeStefano said it is important for every person to learn about aging.
“Our society is aging, and every discipline will encounter more and more older adults,” she said.
DeStefano said she believes earning the certificate makes a person more well rounded and marketable to employers.
While the gerontology minor is being changed, Haseley said the leadership minor will probably not be reinstated.
“The minor is a more traditional view of having expertise in a certain area, and that’s how it’s perceived outside,” Haseley said.
Haseley said the minor program teaches moral theories and “how to lead people from an ethical framework.”
Haseley said the Board of Regents approved the leadership minor about two and a half years ago and since then, the certificate program has been dormant.
“The mission of the OSU Leadership Minor is to help develop students’ knowledge about ethical leadership and practices for the common good in a pluralistic society,” according to the brochure.
The leadership minor is 18 credit hours. Students take courses such as Foundations of Ethical Theory and Leadership and Leadership for the Common Good. Six credit hours of independent study and six credit hours of electives are also required. However, Haseley said the minor only costs students 12 hours worth of tuition and fees because the independent study is completed though a contract between Haseley and the student.
Erica Curry is a film studies senior pursuing a minor in leadership. Curry said she chose the minor over the certificate because the minor is “more distinguishing and holds a little more clout,” she said.
Curry said the minor will show future employers that she knows how to be a leader in the workplace.
“The minor is something other than my GPA to show what I did in college,” Curry said.
Curry said the minor courses offer a lot of flexibility because leadership is sometimes “hard to define.” She said she earned credit for her minor this summer when she studied abroad in Greece and Italy where she learned about ancient leadership.
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