Degree programs undergo changes

Some university degree programs are experiencing revisions.

At the March 1 Board of Trustees Meeting, several degree programs were proposed to undergo changes or be terminated.

Criminal Justice

The Executive Master’s Degree Program in Criminal Justice was recently dropped after lacking the necessary progress to become a specialized-degree offering for graduate students.

“The EMA was a program that never really got off the ground – it has been dormant for many years at this point,” Associate Professor and Graduate Chair Kate Auerhahn said in an e-mail.  “It’s being ‘terminated’ in the same way that [courses] that haven’t been taught in a long time periodically get wiped off the books.”

Currently the department offers a traditional master’s program in criminal justice, which is designed for full-time and part-time students who plan to enroll in graduate school or continue professional careers.

According to the department’s website, every member of the Ph.D. graduating classes of May 2010 and January 2011 left the program with a job placement.

Assistant Professor Frank Butler at La Salle University said when he graduated from the criminal justice doctoral program in 2005, the EMA program had not yet been offered.

“[The EMA] had been in the very slow planning stages for a number of years prior to 2005. There seemed to be a reluctance to get it started,” Butler said in an e-mail. “I don’t know the reasons, since I wasn’t involved with the program at all.”

The criminal justice graduate program recently was ranked as the top program among Philadelphia institutions and No. 11 nationally, according to U.S. News & World Report: 2010 Edition.

Graduate History

According to the department, the Master’s Program of History will be undergoing changes to make the program more rigorous for future graduate students.

Previously, there was a major and minor concentration, which students were required to take for the master’s program. Now, there will only be a major concentration.

“In an effort to make the program more rigorous, we have added a requirement that the students take a methods course,” said Richard Immerman, the director of graduate studies and a history professor at Temple. “Previously, that had been reserved for Ph.D. students, but now, MA students are required to take it, as well.”

“[The changes] will be in effect for students entering in the fall,” Beth Bailey, the department chair of the history program, said in an e-mail. “Students who are already enrolled will have a choice of which plan to follow.”

Along with the changes, students in the program are now required to take a minimum of 27 credits to graduate the program – previously they could graduate with 26.

The master’s program needs to be completed in three years, unless an extension is requested.

“The most important change is the elimination of the non-thesis option for the degree,” MA Coordinator and Associate Professor of History Jonathan Wells said in an e-mail. “Until now, incoming students had the option of completing a thesis of about 50-100 [pages] or doing the non-thesis option and taking extra classes and an exam.”

“The faculty felt that students really needed to write a thesis based upon original research to qualify for the degree,” Wells added. “We’ve agreed that the non-thesis option is no longer appropriate.”

Now students will need to write a 40 to 50 page master’s thesis to graduate.

Minor changes will also be made to the master’s in public history program to make the curriculum more challenging.

Other Terminations

The Fox School of Business is terminating the dual degree in Healthcare Management/Healthcare Financial Management because no one signed up for the program.

Curriculum changes and terminations will also be made to concentrations in urban studies for the doctorate program in anthropology, political science and sociology and the master’s of science in professional accounting.

Maura Lieberman and Connor Showalter can be reached at news@temple-news.com.