COORDINATING BOARD APPROVES TWO DEGREES FOR TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-KINGSVILLE
(KINGSVILLE, October 18, 1996) - Two Texas A&M University-Kingsville degree programs, a master of science in gerontology and a bachelor of science in criminology, were approved Friday by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in Austin.
The gerontology degree, one of the first of its kind offered in South Texas, is an applied program that will train practitioners to provide services to elderly persons and their families rather than preparing students for doctoral degree work, explained Program Director Dr. Trudy Anderson, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Sociology.
Emphasis will be on the social and behavioral aspects of aging rather than health aspects, with a special focus on the unique needs of Hispanic and minority elders as well as those who live in rural areas. Specifically, the gerontology program will prepare graduates to assume leadership positions in the education of older people and their service providers. It will also focus on the delivery of services to older people and their families and the planning and evaluation of services targeted to meeting the needs of older people.
The interdisciplinary program will build upon existing campus offerings in gerontology and will involve courses in psychology and sociology, biology, human sciences, adult education, and health and kinesiology. One new faculty position -- a sociologist with a background in gerontology -- will be added to the teaching staff.
South Texas is currently experiencing a significant increase in the population age 65 and older. In addition the Rio Grande Valley is being perceived as a retirement area.
"The population is growing and we expect it to grow into the 21st century," Anderson said. "Many professionals already working in this region hold only certificates and bachelor level degrees in a social science discipline. . . Increasingly we're going to need professionals trained in the field of gerontology."
It is recognized, she added, that professionals trained in gerontology provide a better quality of service to older persons and their families.
The program core curriculum will include psychosocial, biology/health and research methods courses that will provide students with background in theory, research and practice. Students will be able to take prescribed elective courses along with the courses in their area of concentration which will enable them to tailor the program to specific career goals.
The program will also include an internship requirement providing students with "hands-on" experience in working with elders and their family members, as well as a research requirement which will provide students with experience in carrying out applied basic research.
Students will be able to select from four fields, including adult education, human sciences, psychology or sociology, for an area of concentration or minor. Which field they choose, Anderson said, will depend on which career area they want to pursue.
Twenty students will be selected to participate in the master's program. One of the primary attributes program coordinators will be looking for in potential students, Anderson said, is commitment to working with elderly people and their family members.
Students from a wide variety of backgrounds, such as psychology, nursing and sociology, will be eligible to enroll in the gerontology master's degree program.
The second degree program approved Friday by the Coordinating Board was a bachelor of science in criminology.
Criminology is an interdisciplinary social-behavioral science which includes systematic study in the theory of crime, social foundations of criminal behavior, theories of punishment and social structural components of the legal and criminal justice systems.
The program uses a social-psychological model to focus on the etiology of crime, criminal behavior and societal reaction to crime. This, together with a more interdisciplinary and theoretical perspective, differentiates the bachelor's degree in criminology from protective service programs such as criminal justice, law enforcement administration and criminal justice administration programs which focus on the principles and procedures for conducting and supervising law enforcement, corrections and security services.
The new interdisciplinary program, to be initiated in the fall of 1997, will build on and integrate existing A&M-Kingsville criminology courses which already provide two-thirds of the semester hours required for the major. The indisciplinary mix of psychology, sociology and political science will serve to enrich, substantively and methodologically, the study of crime and the treatment of criminal behavior.
Existing courses to be included are constitutional law, criminology, juvenile delinquency, sociology of corrections, methods of social research, the American judicial process and substance abuse. Added to the base curriculum will be new courses in psychology of criminal behavior, criminological theory, victimology, law and society, and social deviants.
One full-time faculty member and one adjunct professor will be hired to support the expanded curriculum, and will join existing faculty members from the departments of psychology, sociology and political science in offering the program.
Implementation of the bachelor's degree program in criminology will help meet a great demand for such a major at A&M-Kingsville, according to Program Director Dr. Joseph Domino, professor with the Department of Psychology and Sociology.
Domino also noted that A&M-Kingsville has a long tradition within sociology of preparing people for employment in criminal justice. From 1975 to 1984, the Department of Psychology and Sociology was the recipient of grant funds necessary to finance an intern program in the field. The demand for internships far exceeded the program's limited capacity, according to reports. Inquiries as to the present status of the university's efforts to offer a degree program have been routinely received by departmental faculty.
Graduates of the criminology program will be qualified to seek entry-level employment opportunities with all federal, state and local agencies involved in the prevention, control and treatment of criminal offenders. These include law enforcement agencies, border patrol, various investigative services, the correctional system and Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
"Many of them (graduates) will be hired to go into probation and parole work," Domino said.
One of the major needs in the entire criminal justice enterprise, he added, is for people who are bilingual, as well as those who are Hispanic.
Implementation of the program will be phased in over a two year period, Domino said.
'As we implement the program we'll have to respond to student needs,' he said. 'The first year we will use our existing faculty and courses. The second year we will have our new faculty and total implementation of the program."
-TAMUK-
-Mary McAdam