School/College:
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
New Academic Program Proposal:
Academic Program Proposal Status:
Approved through unit curricular process
Institutional Themes:
Provide Civic Leadership through Partnerships
Achieve Global Excellence
Enhance Educational Opportunities
Expand Resources and Improve Effectiveness
Institutional Academic Initiatives:
Increase externally sponsored activities/industry start ups/intellectual property management
Increase externally sponsored research related to sustainability and increase enrollment in sustainability courses
Increase domestic non-resident & international enrollment
Increase enrollment in community based learning courses
Unit initiative Description:
The proposed Masters will engage students in analysis of global social, cultural, economic and political issues and in community-based internships pertaining to sustainable environmental and human development. It is designed as an interdisciplinary program of study and will complement and draw on resources of existing Masters degree curricula in CLAS (Anth, Econ, Soc, School of the Environment), the Graduate School of Education, Urban and Public Affairs and the School of Business (and potentially Engineering). It will have a comparative orientation, but initially focus on the regions where current International Studies faculty have the greatest expertise: Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.
This proposal requires the creation of a fixed-term position (including rolling up some adjunct slots), normalizing a variable .7 to 1.0 tenure line and adding a tenure-line with expertise in international development, ideally in Africa.
Desired outcomes:
Learning goals are aligned with findings of the International Commission on Education for Sustainable Development Practice. The authors of this MacArthur Foundation study concluded that meeting UN Millennium Development Goals will require "generalist professionals trained across fields of public health, agronomy, engineering, economics and environmental science [who] can recognize...interrelated challenges and know how to address them, drawing from specialist expertise as needed.” Participants may select an extended service-based internship and study program facilitated by an external partner, the International Partnership for Service Learning and Leadership (IPSL) with university partners in Jamaica and Guadalajara, Mexico.
How initiative supports overall unit or school/college plans:
CLAS is encouraging programs that contribute to the enhancement of resources and scholarly excellence and that prepare students for professional employment.
Measure of progress and success for this unit initiative:
CLAS approval of the Masters Proposal in fall, 2009.
PSU approval by June 2010.
OUS Board approval by winter 2011 to inaugurate the program in 2011-2012. Application to partner with Peace Corps.
On-going: Consolidation of personnel, identification of research agendas, and appropriate sources for external funding, creation of an Advisory Board for the Masters.