1. This proceeding was initiated on January 8, 2001 when Bernard B. Beegle ("Beegle") filed correspondence with the Natural Resources Commission (the "Commission") seeking administrative review of a determination by the Board of Licensure for Professional Geologists (the "Board") denying Beegle a license to engage in activities regulated in Indiana under IC 25-17.6 and 305 IAC 1. The activities are those that can be performed lawfully only by a licensed professional geologist or by a person who is exempted from the law.
2. The proceeding is governed by IC 4-21.5 (sometimes referred to as the "administrative orders and procedures act" or "AOPA") and 312 IAC 3-1, rules adopted to assist in the implemention of AOPA by the Commission and by the Board. In addition, IC 25-17.6-9 applies.
3. Stephen L. Lucas was appointed by the Commission to serve as the administrative law judge for this proceeding. Pursuant to IC 25-17.6-9, the administrative law judge is the "ultimate authority" under AOPA.
4. A single issue is in dispute: whether Beegle has established experience in professional geological work consisting of five years of geological work performed under the supervision of, or in collaboration with, a licensed professional geologist. IC 25-17.6-4-1(2)(D). Beegle meets all other Indiana requirements needed to qualify for licensure as a professional geologist.
5. The facts are not in material dispute. Beegle demonstrated he worked with a licensed professional geologist from May 1992 through October 2000, a period in excess of eight years. He obtained a bachelors degree relating to geology from West Chester University in Pennsylvania in December 1997. The Board credited Beegle with experience obtained subsequent to December 1997, but it did not credit experience before December 1997 because Beegle had not yet received his bachelors degree.
[VOLUME 9, PAGE 15] As a result, Beegle is credited with fewer than the requisite five years needed to satisfy IC 25-17.6-4-1(2)(D).6. Because the purpose of any professional licensing statute is to protect the public by insuring only those practitioners who meet minimum standards of competence are licensed, "it is reasonable to conclude the legislature intended" an experience requirement sufficient to render "an applicant minimally competent to perform services for the public." A licensing board has reasonable discretion in its implementation of the pertinent act. Indiana State Bd. of Registration of Architects v. Meier, 489 N.E.2d 966, 971 (Ind. App. 1986).
7. A qualification imposed by a professional licensing board as a condition to practice must be consistent with the statute and have a rational connection with the applicant's capacity and fitness to practice the profession. Indiana State Bd. of Registration and Edu. For Health Facility Adminstrators v. Cummings, 387 N.E.2d 491 (Ind. App. 1979).
8. The Board urges in its April 30, 2001 brief that it knows "of no Indiana law or, for that matter, any licensing law in any state that recognizes, as professional experience, any experience gained prior to having completed the academic requirements for licensure." [Emphasis supplied by the Board.]
9. Beegle cites no authority to authorize the consideration of experience, obtained before he obtained a bachelors degree in geology, in satisfying his professional qualifications to practice geology. As the license applicant, the burden of persuasion rests with him to show his qualification for the license. Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources v. Krantz Bros. Const. Corp., 581 N.E.2d 935 (Ind. App. 1991) and IC 4-21.5-3-14.
10. The Board also urges that verifying minimum professional experience is "difficult enough" when limiting the qualified experience to those with bachelors degrees in the geological sciences. To allow "work experience prior to being degreed could certainly bring into question the Board's credibility."
11. Neither party cites a reported Indiana decision directly on point, and none has been identified by the administrative law judge following extensive research. An Illinois decision is, however, seen as analogous. In Hansell v. Ill. Dept. of Reg. & Educ., 448 N.E.2d 1, 2 (Ill. App. 1983), a statutory experience requirement for registration as a professional engineer was found to anticipate experience "after the degree has been obtained." The court reasoned that "until the applicant obtains the degree, he would not be likely to be in a position to do 'engineering work of a grade and character which indicates that he may be competent to practice engineering.'" The court affirmed a determination by the licensing board that only experience obtained following the receipt of a
[VOLUME 9, PAGE 16] degree should be considered, and it rejected the applicant's contention he should be credited with experience obtained before receiving the degree.12. The Board here has demonstrated a rational basis for its interpretation of the experience provisions in the Indiana geologist licensure statute. The interpretation urged by Beegle could compromise the integrity of the statute and render the statute ineffective in the purpose to assure the public that geologists meet minimum standards of competence. The reasoning in Hansell is persuasive. Only experience received subsequent to the receipt of a degree should properly be considered in evaluating the qualifications of an applicant for licensure as a professional geologist.