Pending approval from the Chancellor’s Office, the sociology department will offer a new master’s program in applied sociology beginning fall 2009.
“We have one more step before we are officially approved,” said Betsy McEneaney, an associate professor in the sociology department and chairwoman of the master’s program planning committee.
The committee went through a number of steps before getting its proposal to the Chancellor’s Office. After getting the sociology department’s approval and support for the program, the committee had to get the program’s curriculum approved by the College of Liberal Arts. The final task was to get it through the university and show that enough students would be interested in the program, if offered.
McEneaney predicted that everything at the Chancellor’s Office should run smoothly. A proposal was sent to sociology experts to help form a quality program and make a decision from the responses.
“It’s not easy, but we have checked it thoroughly,” McEneaney said, adding that she is “99 percent sure” the program will be approved.
Professor Carole Campbell, a member of the planning committee, said this is a project they have intensely worked on for the past four years.
“We had to demonstrate a need [for the program], that we were filling a niche and that it was different from other programs,” Campbell said.
Other California State Universities offer master’s programs in sociology, but what will set CSULB’s apart is that it will offer it in applied sociology, which is something no other CSU has, according to Campbell. Applied sociology is research-focused, and the program plans to have two concentrations: health and medicine; and community development and social change.
“We think we can train people to get good jobs,” McEneaney said.
About the health and medicine concentration, McEneaney said there needs to be an understanding of how to deliver health care and its cost.
“There are lots and lots of jobs [in that area],” she said.
For community development and social change, McEneaney said, “It’s for people who want to go out there and organize in a community.” They may go to government agencies and be able to “articulate the needs so the government will respond,” she said.
As a place of social change and diverse populations, the CSULB campus needs to do research on itself, McEneaney said, adding that such an endeavor is something students of the program might be able to do as course tasks.
Campbell said the skills taught can help bring CSULB closer to the community. Prospective students of the new program include current undergraduates.
Both Campbell and McEneaney said graduating seniors who have been surveyed about the new program have shown significant interest. They are already promoting the program to their growing number of undergraduate students, and soon will be sending information to other campuses in the region.
“Bottom line, there is a lot of interest. It will help us enroll full classes,” McEneaney said.
Amazing