ITEM 110-2002-R0301 ATTACHMENT������������������������������������������������������������� March
22-23, 2001
ABSTRACT FORM
Abstract Form
Program Title:� The Option in Family Financial Planning
under the Master of Science Degree in Health and Human Development
Program Duration:�� Permanent 2 to 4 year program.
Program Description:� The Great Plains-Interactive Distance
Education Alliance (known as the Great Plains-IDEA), a consortium of six land
grant universities, including Montana State University, Bozeman, developed an
on-line family financial� planning curriculum
leading to a master�s degree in family financial planning with sufficient
course work included to allow students to take the examination to become a
Certified Financial Planner.� At MSU,
the degree is a new option under the existing MS degree in Health and Human
Development.� The program consists of 42
semester credit hours.� The reason for
establishing this option as a consortium program is that no single university in
the region (Mid-West or West) has enough appropriately trained PhD faculty to
conduct a high quality� masters level
program in this specialty.� By joining
together, the consortium has available approximately 12 PhD-prepared faculty
who are trained in family and consumer economics and who can teach the courses
and provide advising to the masters level graduate students.� This program represents the first time at
Montana State University that an entire masters degree has been delivered under
a consortium arrangement and using distance delivery technology.
Statement of Need for the Program:� The national demand for family financial
planning professionals is estimated to be well above average, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, a
publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( downloaded October 21,
2000).� The Handbook identifies the following jobs available for workers with a
background in financial planning:
In conversations with other Consortium
faculty teaching in the family financial planning curriculum, one faculty
member reported that a major insurance company approached him with the request
for the� enrollment of 500 of
their employees in the program.� The
company was planning to pay for all of the expenses of the 500 potential
students.� In another conversation, it
was learned that a major bank with branches open in Montana is planning to
establish a financial planning department in each bank.� This bank chain is interested in having our
program serve its need for employee training, especially in helping bank
employees gain the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) credential.
Similar Programs (In-state, Regional):� No degree program that combines a master�s
degree plus the course work to allow the student to take the Certified Financial
Planner (CFP) exam exists in the U.S. except for this Consortium program.
Master�s degree programs in family
economics exist a larger land grant institutions such as:
A non-degree
program consisting of courses to enable the student to take the exam to
become a Certified Financial Planner exists at more than 80 colleges in the
U.S. and Canada.� Some of the
competition is listed below, especially those with on-line offerings.
Faculty/Staff/Space Needs:� No new faculty will be needed to offer this
new option.� The fact that the program
will be offered through Extended Studies allows revenue to be generated to hire
adjunct instructors for undergraduate courses, which will enable tenured
faculty to teach the FFP masters level courses.� Money will also be generated with which to hire graduate students
to assist in teaching undergraduate courses.�
In four or five years, it will likely be necessary to hire another
tenure-track faculty member in order to allow the program to grow.� Each faculty member will need to have access
to a personal computer, scanner, printer, modem, and Internet access.� These items are already in faculty offices.� The software program, WebCT, will be used
for course delivery and is included in the Burns Telecommunication Center
budget, both for the software and for the technical support in using the
software.� The facilities needed for the
program are faculty offices, which are already provided.� This program does not use physical
facilities; it uses Internet access and communication resources.
Capital Outlay, Operating Expenditures,
Physical Facilities Needed:�
The operating expenses are expected to include course support from the
Burns Communication Center at approximately $1,500 per course.� This support includes advertising, software
installation and assistance and troubleshooting technical problems during the
course operation.� Approximately $1,400
is budgeted per three-credit course (less for practicum and professional paper
courses) to cover postage, phone calls, etc.��
Approximately $1,000 is allowed for a program director to oversee the
functioning of Montana State within the Consortium (including travel to
Consortium faculty meetings) and for general administrative functions.� The library resources are adequate, but the
option will require the addition of one or two new journals.� These journals are already subscribed to by
faculty teaching in the program and can be made available through electronic reserve.� The library is moving toward using
electronic reserves which means that students having a computer account with
the university can access journal articles and other materials through the
Internet.� Further, many journals are
already available only in electronic form.�
The instructors will make use of the electronic library resources and
the library reserve service extensively in this program.� To help the library offset the cost of the
additional use of their electronic resources, the budget includes a $1,000 per
year library cost.
Evaluation of Proposed Program:�
MSU Department of Health and Human
Development � Approved, Spring, 2000
MSU Graduate Council � Approved,
November 9, 2000.
The Great Plains-IDEA group.� See Appendices C and D
The National Board of Standards for
Certified Financial Planning
Starting Date:�� Autumn Semester, 2001
Option in Family Financial Planning
under the MS Degree in Health and Human
Development
Department of Health and Human Development
College of Education, Health and Human Development
Montana State University, Bozeman
1.
Briefly
describe the proposed new program.�
Please indicate if it is an expansion of an existing program; a new
program; a cooperative effort with another institution, business, or industry;
an on-campus or off-campus program.�
Attach any formal agreements established for cooperative efforts.
The Great Plains-Interactive Distance
Education Alliance (known as the Great Plains-IDEA), a consortium of six land
grant universities, including Montana State University, Bozeman, developed an
on-line family financial� planning
curriculum leading to a master�s degree in family financial planning with
sufficient course work included to allow students to take the examination to
become a Certified Financial Planner.�
At MSU, the degree is a new option under the existing MS degree in
Health and Human Development.� The
program consists of 42 semester credit hours.�
Please see Evaluation of
Proposed Program, item 2 for a short explanation of the Great
Plains-IDEA group.
The reason for establishing this option
as a consortium program is that no single university in the region (Mid-West or
West) has enough appropriately trained PhD faculty to conduct a high
quality� masters level program in this
specialty.� By joining together, the
consortium has available approximately 12 PhD-prepared faculty who are trained
in family and consumer economics and who can teach the courses and provide
advising to the masters level graduate students.�
Montana citizens, especially, will
benefit by having access to courses and faculty in the consortium universities
for this degree and these students will be able to access this high-quality
curriculum without leaving home since the entire program will be offered via
the Web.� While the courses will run on
the same schedule as the semesters at the various schools for any given week of
classes, the students can access the course materials for that week any time during the week.� This asynchronous delivery allows students
who are working full time to be able to complete a the degree over a three year
period.�
This program represents the first time
at Montana State University that an entire masters degree has been delivered
under a consortium arrangement and using distance delivery technology. MSU
students will access the courses through Extended Studies and will study with
tenured faculty for the MSU portion of the program.� Extended Studies will offer the program to allow students to pay
a flat cost-per-credit that will cover the costs of the program, allow easy
registration using an on-line registration system that is not currently used
for in-load registration, and because the nature of the program (e.g., entirely
distance delivered) blurs the traditional definition of resident or
non-resident.� Further, students are not
required to pay for on-campus services and for other resident fees when
Extended Studies offers the program.�
Since all students will take their graduate courses off-campus,
requiring the same fees as on-campus students would not be reasonable.
2.
Summarize
a needs assessment conducted to justify the proposal.� Please include how the assessment plan was developed or executed
and the data derived from this effort.
The national demand
for family financial planning professionals is estimated to be well above
average, according to the Occupational
Outlook Handbook, a publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( downloaded
October 21, 2000).� The Handbook identifies the following jobs
available for workers with a background in financial planning:
�
Securities and commodities sales representatives
�
Financial sales representatives
�
Fee-only financial planners
�
Financial planners working for insurance, brokerage,
banking, or other financial services companies
�
Company human resources divisions working with pension
plans, retirement plans
In conversations with other Consortium
faculty teaching in the family financial planning curriculum, one faculty
member reported that a major insurance company approached him with the request
for the� enrollment of 500 of
their employees in the program.� The
company was planning to pay for all of the expenses of the 500 potential
students.� In another conversation, it
was learned that a major bank with branches open in Montana is planning to establish
a financial planning department in each bank.�
This bank chain is interested in having our program serve its need for
employee training, especially in helping bank employees gain the Certified
Financial Planner (CFP) credential.�� A
survey was made by the Consortium deans to determine what companies have jobs
for which a CFP credential and/or master�s degree is either required or
preferred.� The following companies were
identified as having opportunities for financial planning professionals:
The ACACIA Group������������������������������������������� John Hancock/Signator
American Express Financial Advisors����������������� Money Minds
Arthur Andersen������������������������������������ ����������� Phoenix
Home Life
AXA Advisors���������������������������������������������������� Sagemark
Consulting Inc.
Ernst & Young LLP������������������������������������������� Vanguard
Group
Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America��������������� Waddell & Reed
In Montana, some demand for the degree
is expected for Extension agents, high school teachers and university and
community college teachers.� This is due
to increased interest on the part of the citizens and the Montana Board of
Regents for raising the level of personal finance knowledge for students.� In fact, one of the driving reasons for
establishing this masters level option is to ensure the supply of teachers in
higher education that provide family financial planning educational services
for Montana�s 20,000+ college students.
Further evidence of need for this type
of training has been gained by examining the requests for information for this
program.� Up until November 2000, no
advertising has been done because of the need for Board of Regents approval for
the program.� However, based on word of
mouth advertising, approximately 20 inquiries have been received in the last
two months.� The Consortium is accepting
a maximum of 48� students per year
(eight students per university) at this moment until the courses are completely
tested.� In short, nearly three times
the number of inquiries have been received in two months than the number of
students that can accepted at MSU for Fall 2001.�
Since the program can accept any
English-speaking student anywhere on earth who has an adequate background and
who has Internet access, the potential audience for this degree is
immense.� The worry of the faculty
members in the Consortium is that there will be a deluge of demand that cannot
be satisfied with the resources we presently command.
3.
Explain
how the program relates to the Role and Scope of the institution as established
by the Board of Regents.
Montana State University is a
comprehensive public university charged with providing high quality
undergraduate and graduate instructional programs.� Further, Montana State is the land grant institution in the state
with the accompanying charge of providing instruction, research and outreach in
areas that have been part of the traditional land grant mission, including agriculture
and home economics.� The option in
family financial planning under the Health and Human Development masters is in
the general area of family and consumer sciences.� Money is one of the main resources families use to achieve goals
and provide for family well-being.� The
Department of Health and Human Development historically known as the Home
Economics Department (which was merged into the new HHD Department in 1987) has
had a history of teaching in the area of family finance and economics since the
inception of the program in the 1920s.�
This new option in family financial planning combines resident
instruction with outreach since the program is delivered any place at any time.� The program also upholds the charge of
providing high quality graduate programs through the joining of expert faculty
from the six universities (all of which have a land grant mission).
4.
Please
state what effect the proposed program will have on the administrative
structure of the institution, if any.�
Also, indicate the potential involvement of other departments,
divisions, schools, or colleges.
����������� The
program will have an impact on the following departments:
�
The Department of Health and Human Development and the
College of Education, Health and Human Development: These entities
will be the department and college responsible for continuing support and
providing faculty for two of the courses (six credits per academic year), three
credits of practicum and three credits of a professional paper for the students
receiving this masters degree option at MSU .�
Currently, three MSU faculty have PhDs in family and consumer economics
and will be major advisors and/or faculty teaching in the program.
�
The Department of Agricultural Economics/Economics in the
College of Agriculture: One faculty member, Marsha Goetting, who is currently an
Extension specialist in family and consumer economics, will be team-teaching
Estate Planning with Deborah Haynes, Associate Professor in the Department of
Health and Human Development.� Goetting
has nationally recognized expertise in estate planning and is well suited to
co-teaching this course.
�
The Graduate College: The responsibility of the
Graduate College will be to evaluate and process applications of prospective
students applying to graduate school.� A
Memorandum of Understanding has been written between the Graduate College and
the HHD Department that outlines how the students will be accepted and how
courses from the consortium universities will be recognized as part of the
overall program of study.� This is
important because many of the Graduate College policies, such as the
requirement for taking 2/3 of the course work at MSU, need to be revised in
order to make an entirely distance delivered program operational.
�
The Burns Telecommunications Center: The
resources and technology for supporting the on-line delivery will be supplied
by the Burns Telecommunications Center (BTC).�
These resources will be contracted using some of the income from
students enrolled in the courses taught by MSU.
�
Extended Studies: This is the unit through which the
program is being offered in order to allow students to register and participate
on-line and pay credit costs at a rate that is competitive with other
universities in the Consortium.� The BTC
staff will also aid the MSU faculty in course design and delivery.
5.
Describe
the extent to which similar programs are offered in Montana, the Pacific
Northwest, and states bordering Montana.�
How similar are these programs to the one herein proposed?
No degree
program that combines a master�s degree plus the course work to allow the
student to take the Certified Financial Planner exam exists in the U.S. except
for this Consortium program.
Master�s
degree programs in family economics exist a larger land grant institutions such
as:
�
Utah State University
�
University of Utah
�
Oregon State University
A non-degree program consisting of courses
to enable the student to take the exam to become a Certified Financial Planner
exists at more than 80 colleges in the U.S. and Canada.� Some of the competition is listed below,
especially those with on-line offerings.��
University of
California at Davis��������������� New
York University (on-line offering)
Metro-State
College, Denver, CO ����������� American College (on-line offering)
California
State University, Chico ����������� Florida
State University (on-line offering)
6.
Please
name any accrediting agency(ies) or learned society(ies) that would be
concerned with the particular program herein proposed.� How has this program been developed in
accordance with the criteria developed by said accrediting body(ies) or learned
society(ies)?
The national
Board of Standards for the Certified Financial Planning credential has been and
will continue to be very involved in recommending the course content of the six
courses offered that prepare students to take the CFP exam.� The Board of Standards has identified 106
competencies that must be covered in order to have students prepared for the
CFP exam.� Consortium faculty have
submitted course syllabi, reading lists and a full description of how the 106
competencies will be covered in the courses.�
Every two years, the program will be re-examined for adherence to the
standards.
The faculty
involved in teaching the courses in the program meet twice each year to review
curriculum, review program assessment, and review student progress.� This faculty serves as an ad hoc department
in that the functions of faculty in a single department are taken on by the
faculty from the six departments across the various Consortium
universities.�
7.
Prepare
an outline of the proposed curriculum showing course titles and credits.� Please include any plans for expansion of
the program during its first three years.
Vitae for
faculty from Montana State University who will be instructing in the program
are available on request.
Table 1
indicates the curriculum offered in the next three years by the �Consortium
school�.
General Points/Policies
�
The curriculum requires 42 credits if a student desires to
sit for the CFP examination.
�
The curriculum has been established to require all of the
courses listed in the schedule of classes offered above, which is 14, 3-credit
courses.� They are as follows:
o
Family Systems
o
Family Economics
o
Financial Counseling
o
Fundamentals of Family Financial Planning������
o
Insurance Planning for Families
o
Estate Planning for Families���
o
Housing/Real Estate��
o
Retirement Planning, Employee Benefits and the Family
o
Professional Practices in Family Financial Planning������
o
Personal Income Taxation
o
Financial Planning Case Studies
o
Practicum
o
Professional Paper
Table 1.
Curriculum Offered in Family Financial Planning by
the Consortium Universities for Years 2000-2003
|
FALL |
SPRING |
SUMMER |
2000-2001 |
CDFS
781 Family Systems 3
credits North
Dakota State Instructor:
Sanders |
CA
620 Family Economics 3
credits South
Dakota State Instructor:
Enevoldsen |
CDFS
677 Financial Counseling 3
credits North
Dakota State Instructor:
Fitzgerald |
2001-2002 |
FSHS
624 Fundamentals of Financial
Planning 3
credits Kansas
State Instructor:
Grable |
FACS
821 Insurance Planning for Families 3
credits University
of Nebraska Instructor:
Davis |
HDFS
541 Housing/Real Estate 3
credits Iowa
State Instructor:
Crull |
|
HDFS
583 Investing for the Family�s
Future 3
credits Iowa
State Instructor:
Hatcher |
HDCF
???? Estate Planning for Families 3
credits Montana
State Instructors:
Goetting, D. Haynes |
CDFS
677 Financial Counseling 3
credits North
Dakota State Instructor:
Fitzgerald |
|
CDFS
781 Family Systems 3
credits North
Dakota State Instructor:
Sanders |
CA
620 Family Economics 3
credits South
Dakota State Instructor:
Enevoldsen |
|
2002-2003 |
FACS
828 Retirement Planning, Employee
Benefits and the Family 3
credits University
of Nebraska Instructor:
Cramer |
HDCF
??? Personal Income Taxation 3
credits Montana
State Instructor:
G. Haynes |
FSHS
836: Financial Planning Case Studies 3
credits Kansas
State Instructor:
Grable |
|
FSHS
835 Professional Practices in
Family Financial Planning Kansas
State Instructor:
Grable |
HDCF
???? Practicum 3
credits Montana
State Instructor:
D. Haynes |
|
|
HDCF
???? Professional
Paper 3
credits Montana
State Instructor:
D. Haynes |
|
|
FSHS
624 Fundamentals of Financial
Planning 3
credits Kansas
State Instructor:
Grable |
FACS
821 Insurance Planning for Families 3
credits University
of Nebraska Instructor:
Davis |
HDFS
541 Housing/Real Estate 3
credits Iowa
State Instructor:
Crull |
|
|
HDFS
583 Investing for the Family�s
Future 3
credits Iowa
State Instructor:
Hatcher |
HDCF
???? Estate Planning for Families 3
credits Montana
State Instructors:
Goetting, D. Haynes |
|
|
CDFS
781 Family Systems 3
credits North
Dakota State Instructor:
Sanders |
CA
620 Family Economics 3
credits South
Dakota State Instructor:
Enevoldsen |
CDFS
677 Financial Counseling 3
credits North
Dakota State Instructor:
Fitzgerald |
Succeeding years will be a replication
of the year 2002-2003 in that the total curriculum will be offered each year
from 2002-2003 on.
�
It is anticipated that students will be working full or
part-time and working on their masters degree as part-time students.� The program is designed to have students
complete the degree in three years.�
However, faculty understand that some students cannot handle more than
one course at a time, in which case it would take a student 14 semesters or
about four and one-half years to complete the program.� Montana State�s time limitation for course
currency occurs after the sixth year of a masters level graduate program, so
students will be strongly encouraged to complete the degree in six years as a
maximum.
�
Potentially, there could be 48 students enrolled each year
in the program, with a maximum of eight students allowed for each of the six
universities currently involved in the Consortium.� The reason for this cap is that three cohorts of students will be
enrolled at any given time, after the first three years, which means that 144
students could be taking these courses.�
Any single university could have up to twenty four graduate
students.� All of the MSU faculty serve
as graduate faculty but have teaching responsibilities at the undergraduate
level as well.� It is a simple fact that
three faculty advising twenty four graduate students is an upper limit in terms
of faculty time and energy.� Therefore a
cap of 48 students has been set in order to maintain quality in the courses and
in advising.� More demand than 48
students per year is expected but further faculty resources will be required to
meet a greater demand.
�
All of the faculty involved in teaching this Consortium
program have Ph.D.s in family and consumer economics.�
�
Candidates seeking admission to the program are required to
apply for admission into the Graduate School of choice within the
six-university Consortium.� Students
applying at Montana State University, Bozeman are required to have completed a
bachelor�s degree, to submit GRE scores, to provide three letters of
recommendation and to submit a brief resume and a goal statement.
�����������������������������������
�
The courses are offered on the Internet and may require
supplementary materials such as videos and CDs.� All the courses have required textbooks.� Interactivity between students and professors
is accomplished through e-mail, phone conferencing, and Internet communication.
FACULTY
AND STAFF REQUIREMENTS
1.
Please
indicate by name and rank current faculty who will be involved with the program
proposed herein.
����������� Marsha Goetting, Professor,
Agricultural Economics/Economics
����������� George W. Haynes, Associate
Professor, Health and Human Development
����������� Deborah C. Haynes, Associate
Professor, Health and Human Development
Vitae
for MSU faculty members and faculty members in the other five universities participating
in the program are available upon request.
2.
Please
project the need for new faculty over the first five-year program.� Include special qualifications or
training.� If present faculty are to
conduct the new program, please explain how they will be relieved from present
duties.
No new faculty will be needed to offer
this new option.� The fact that the
program will be offered through Extended Studies allows revenue to be generated
to hire adjunct instructors for undergraduate courses, which will enable
tenured faculty to teach the FFP masters level courses.� Money will also be generated with which to
hire graduate students to assist in teaching undergraduate courses.� In four or five years, it will likely be
necessary to hire another tenure-track faculty member in order to allow the
program to grow.�
Because the program is being offered
through the Consortium, each university offers 1/6th of the courses so that no
one university has to generate the total resources required for the
program.�
3.
Please
explain the need and cost for support personnel or other required personnel
expenditures.
The funding stream can be found on
Table 2 in this document.� With a
tuition rate of $235 per credit for all student, the program pays for itself
and allows some indirect costs to be returned to the College, Department and
Graduate College.
CAPITAL OUTLAY, OPERATING EXPENDITURES & PHYSICAL FACILITIES
1. Please summarize operating expenditure needs.
Please see the spreadsheet, Table 2,
found on the next two pages that summarizes the operating budget for the next
three years.
The operating expenses are expected to
include course support from the Burns Communication Center at approximately
$1,500 per course.� This support
includes advertising, software installation and assistance and troubleshooting
technical problems during the course operation.� Approximately $1,400 is budgeted per three-credit course (less
for practicum and professional paper courses) to cover postage, phone calls,
etc.�� Approximately $1,000 is allowed
for a program director to oversee the functioning of Montana State within the
Consortium (including travel to Consortium faculty meetings) and for general
administrative functions.� The
Departmental indirect costs will help provide software and computer equipment
to faculty teaching the distance courses.�
The advantage, of course, with a distance delivered course is that no
facility is necessary since students do not meet in or otherwise use campus
facilities.
2.
Please
evaluate library resources.� Are they
adequate for operation of the proposed programs?� If not, how will the library need to be strengthened during the
next three years?
The library resources are adequate, but
the option will require the addition of one or two new journals.� These journals are already subscribed to by
faculty teaching in the program and can be made available through electronic
reserve.� The library is moving toward
using electronic reserves which means that students having a computer account
with the university can access journal articles and other materials through the
Internet.� Further, many journals are
already available only in electronic form.�
The instructors will make use of the electronic library resources and
the library reserve service extensively in this program.� To help the library offset the cost of the
additional use of their electronic resources, the budget includes a $1,000 per
year library cost.
3.
Please
indicate special clinical, laboratory and/or computer equipment that will be
needed.� List those pieces of equipment
or computer hardware presently available in the department.
Each faculty member will need to have
access to a personal computer, scanner, printer, modem, and Internet
access.� These items are already in
faculty offices.� The software program,
WebCT, will be used for course delivery and is included in the Burns
Telecommunication Center budget, both for the software and for the technical
support in using the software.
4.
Please
describe the facilities and space required for the proposed program.� Are current facilities adequate for the
program.� If not, how does the
institution propose to provide new facilities?
The facilities needed for the program
are faculty offices, which are already provided.� This program does not use physical facilities; it uses Internet
access and communication resources.
EVALUATION OF PROPOSED PROGRAM
1.
Please
name faculty committees or councils that have reviewed and approved the program
herein proposed.
MSU
Department of Health and Human Development � Approved Spring, 2000
MSU
Graduate Council � Approved, November 9, 2000.
The
Great Plains-IDEA group.�
The
National Board of Standards for Certified Financial Planning
2.
If
outside councils have been employed, please list the names of these
consultants, their current positions and titles.� Append copies of their written reports.� (Required of new doctoral programs.)
The Great Plains-IDEA, which is a group
of deans from colleges of human ecology, family and consumer sciences or human
sciences in the mid-West, was the group that originally met to write grants and
fund meetings to initiate the Consortium graduate study idea.� This group has been in operation for over
five years. They instigated the idea of the family financial planning master�s
degree, found money to pay for meetings of the dean and faculty groups, and
helped design the program operation and curriculum.� As a part of this program, the Great Plains-IDEA wrote a grant to
the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education, Learning Anytime Any
Place (FIPSE LAAP program).� This grant
was designed to bring deans, graduate deans, registrars, continuing education
directors, financial officers and faculty together from each of the six
universities in a central meeting place twice each year in order to hammer out
policy changes and procedural issues with regard to both the Consortium
operation and the distance learning program delivery.� The grant was funded for over $1 million for the time period
2000-2003.� Montana State will
participate in this grant.� The policies
and procedures developed by these university faculty and staff will be used as
a national model for Consortium arrangements and for distance learning program
delivery.��