Editor’s note: 

In the “New grad policy” article in the Sept. 26 issue of The State Hornet, the physical therapy professional organization that mandated changing the entry level degree to a doctoral degree is incorrect. The “Commis- sion on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education” mandated the changes, not the “nationwide physical therapy industry.”

The article also incorrectly states graduate students are in the program for two and a half years, but it only refers to graduate students in the recreation, parks and tourism administration pro- gram at Sacramento State. The current DPT lasts three years.

The Education Doctorate Program (EdD) at Sacramento State was formally connected with UC Santa Barbara, but now is a standalone program with no ties to the university.

 

The Faculty Senate passed a policy in spring 2012 allowing departments to decide whether graduates earning master’s degrees can receive a C and maintain a 3.0 GPA, while C grades do not count toward a doctoral degree.

History professor Mona Siegel said marginal students who are barely making the required GPA benefit because the policy states it is acceptable for master’s students to have C’s if they get A’s on their transcripts as well to maintain a 3.0 GPA.

“We have great (graduate) programs on campus and a C on a graduate’s transcript is unsatisfactory,” said Siegel.

The Faculty Senate’s website states in Title V, a California law which defines what a master’s degree includes, how many units a course is and who gets to teach it, plus and minus grades are not referenced, therefore no such distinctions are made.

Mathematics professor Tracy Hamilton, current chair of the Graduate Studies Policy Committee (a standing committee of the Faculty Senate), said the initial stages for this policy started when the nationwide physical therapy industry brought forward to all California State Universities that the master’s program did not match the industry’s changed standards.

“A master’s in physical therapy was a waste of money and time. The standards increased and so a master’s degree was like getting a bachelor’s degree. A master’s was no better than getting a bachelor’s,” said Hamilton. “The legislature passed a policy to create the doctoral in physical therapy (DPT) program.”

Anthony Sheppard, a recreation, parks and tourism administration professor, said continuing graduates must complete their master’s, but incoming graduates began their two-and-half-year doctoral program this fall.

“Students just can’t stop in the middle of their master’s and begin their doctoral,” said Sheppard.

While reviewing the grading policies for undergraduates, Faculty Senate members noticed the conflicting language of a master’s and doctoral.

According to the Faculty Senate’s website, the former policy for obtaining a master’s was that a C letter grade does not imply satisfactory achievement at the graduate level.

Communications studies professor Christine Miller, former chair of GSPC, said students did not understand if the policy meant getting a C was equivalent to retaking the course or whether they had no chance of graduating.

However, not every department makes the exception to let students slide with a C if they still maintain a 3.0 by getting A’s in other courses-such as communications studies.

Some faculty in other departments, such as history, are unsure about the position on whether it should opt out of the policy like the sociology department since the rule is fairly new.

According to Sheppard, unlike the doctoral of education, the doctoral of physical therapy is the first self-supporting doctrinal financial because of the high tuition doctrinal students pay.

Now that the Faculty Senate has clarified the grading policy, a doctoral in nursing and speech pathology and audiology has also been discussed, but has not moved to the legislature for approval.

Kiran Kaur can be reached at [email protected]