Ohio University Faculty Senate is creating a resolution to revise the conflict of interest policy regarding faculty obtaining their terminal degree at Ohio University.
Currently the policy states faculty can obtain a terminal degree --the highest degree that can be obtained within any given field -at OU as long as it is not from the department in which they work.
(Right now) if I wanted to
I would be able to get a degree in dance but I couldn't in sculpting said Fine Arts Faculty Senator Carolyn Cardenas, who teaches sculpting classes. The rule as it stands would allow for conflicts of interest, such as this one, because faculty members now can obtain degrees from faculty with whom they work closely.
The problem came to a head last year when OU Graduate Council received many conflict of interest grievances and asked Faculty Senate to update the policy.
The policy is extremely ambiguous and leave lots of run for interpretation
said Cardenas, who also is head of the Faculty Senate Professional Relations Committee, which wrote the proposal.
According to the new proposal, Group I faculty, including full-time tenured faculty or faculty who are eligible for tenure, are not allowed to pursue a terminal degree from any department in colleges in which they work.
When creating the resolution, the committee looked at other institutions' similar policies, ultimately borrowing language from Penn State University.
At Harvard and Stanford
faculty are not allowed to obtain degrees from any part of the university; they send them down the road to Cambridge and pay for it
Cardenas said. I wish that were something OU was willing to offer. The University of North Carolina's policy states general faculty are not allowed to pursue a degree within the institution, except when the degree is approved by the associate dean and the faculty member can prove it would be of value to the institution. The University of Colorado, however, allows their faculty to apply for their degrees, but the administration manages the degrees and keeps strict records to make sure there are no conflicts of interest.
Several faculty members have differing opinions about the conflict of interest resolution.
I have mixed feelings about the resolution
Health and Human Services Senator Ann Rathbun said. On one hand
I hate to see people excluded from the employee benefit
but on the other hand
I can see when it would cause conflict between not only the students but faculty too. Rathbun said if the faculty uses common sense, they should be able to avoid certain situations.
Faculty Senate Chair Phyllis Bernt said the main goal of the resolution is to clearly define the meaning of conflict of interest.
There has been some confusion of where to draw the line
she said. We're hoping to provide a resolution that makes those distinctions.
