Cal State Fullerton could update its posthumous degree policy, making it easier for families to receive their deceased student’s degree, the Faculty Senate was told.
A posthumous degree is typically awarded to students who have completed a substantial portion of their degree at the time of their death. Cal State Fullerton’s current policy requires students to be in their last semester in order to receive the degree.
Dr. Sarah Hill, committee chair in College of Humanities and Social Science, and the academic standards committee presented this topic at the Academic Senate meeting on March 11.
“This is a difficult policy to discuss, I think especially after a year of collective loss, and it actually has been very meaningful to me even personally, to talk with so many people about this,” Hill said. “Everyone has shown a lot of care and consideration in wanting to take care of the Titan family.”
Hill said that the academic standards committee was asked to consider the previous disagree policy and look at whether it was time to update it.
The academic standards committee has taken into consideration other Cal State Universities that also have similar requirements where students must have been an undergraduate in their last semester or have completed at least 75% of their coursework in order to receive a posthumous degree, Hill said.
“Overwhelmingly, these policies are set up so that the requirement is that the student must have been for undergrad a senior or even in their last semester,” Hill said. “They are overwhelmingly very clear that it’s geared to seniors and for graduate students, it would similarly be very close to completing their degree.”
The committee also found that other universities also offer certificates of achievement or recognition instead of a degree, which Hill said is something Cal State Fullerton could consider as a way to be more compassionate to the families of the students.
“There's an opportunity to really be innovative and progressive and that we could change the requirements, so that any student regardless of their status — sophomore or freshman — would be eligible for a posthumous degree,” Hill said. “I've not yet seen a school that does that. I've been looking at this for a while. That would be very innovative and progressive if we were to move in that direction.”
Kristi Kanel, senator and professor of human services, said that awarding a posthumous degree would put into question what a degree from CSUF represents, but agreed that this policy would alleviate the families of deceased students.
“The degree is for the grieving family and a memory, and perhaps it'll be something that could motivate the other members of the family like to go to college, to come to Cal State Fullerton, we have so many first-gen students, so the degree would almost be more symbolic,” Kanel said.
Department chair and senator Merri Casem, who has been following the policy closely after a family reached out to her, said that updating the policy would not lower CSUF’s standards but rather show the university’s compassion for its students.
Casem, however, raised some concerns about the process the policy would require, since the previous version required the records office to be a part of it. In past attempts, this has slowed the approval process while families are also attempting to get other elements approved like family members walking the stage in place of the deceased student.
“Making sure that the records office, which is the group that ended up being very
involved, helps instead of slows down the process because that became a frustration and a sticking point for the activities that we had to do,” Casem said.
Other senators echoed Casem’s concerns with many encouraging the idea of giving the university president the ability to approve a posthumous degree on the recommendation of the department chair.
“I think we need to scrap all these ideas about where they stand in the university. If they're part of the Titan family, let's give the president the ability to make a decision on the recommendation of a department chair and keep it simple and swift,” said Eileen Walsh, the senator and department of sociology vice chair.
Hill said she hopes that the senate will change the current policy and set a precedent for receiving a posthumous degree by allowing any student, regardless of class standing, to be eligible to receive a posthumous degree.
“I think we need to scrap the idea that anyone in the right mind thinks a posthumous degree from Cal State Fullerton is the same as a regular degree it just isn't. It's not used in the same way, so I really am on board with making this as compassionate and as easy for the family to get complete degree as soon as possible,” Walsh said.
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March 15, 2021 at 02:00PM
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