BACHELOR
OF ARTS IN INTEGRATIVE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Overview
The Bachelor of Arts in Integrative and Professional Studies (BAIPS) is the third
baccalaureate degree program to be developed. Designed to provide a broad interdisciplinary
and multidisciplinary education in the social and natural sciences, the program
began accepting students in Spring 2002.
Following the beginning
of the first baccalaureate program, Elementary Education, in Fall 1999, the
initial program framework for the BA in Integrative Studies was developed. This
program framework was endorsed by the GBC Curriculum and Articulation Committee
and the Faculty Senate in May 2000. Then the Faculty Senate approved a revised,
more detailed proposal in December 2000, after a series of community meetings
and additional committee work. This degree program was presented to UCCSN Academic
Affairs Council (consisting of the chief academic affairs officers from Nevada’s
colleges and universities) in January 2001 and forwarded to the UCCSN Board
of Regents. In March 2001, the Board approved the proposal for the Bachelor
of Arts in Integrative and Professional Studies program.
A substantive change prospectus
was submitted to the Commission in October 2001. In November, the Northwest
Association’s Executive Director wrote that in her judgment “the
Commission would approve the proposal as a minor change for the College.”
In November 2002, GBC submitted a progress report to the Commission on Colleges
and Universities covering curriculum and curricular goals, enrollment, library
and information resources, qualifications of faculty, and the impact of the
program on the College as a whole. (Exhibit 2.27)
The focus on multidisciplinary
and interdisciplinary coursework in the BAIPS is designed to provide a broad
and flexible educational experience. The program will give students the analytic
and creative skills useful for employment in a changing contemporary economy.
In addition, the program supplies an educational foundation for success in arts
and sciences graduate programs and professional schools.
The Bachelor of Arts in
Integrative and Professional Studies degree program represents a shift away
from a narrow-focused approach. A number of courses are team taught across disciplines,
and students from different degree programs are drawn together in a number of
courses, especially the integrative seminars.
The program contains two
concentration areas: social sciences and resource management. Both concentration
areas build on the general education requirements embedded in Associate of Arts
and Associate of Science degrees. In addition, students take a course in statistics,
and both concentration areas share a core set of junior and senior level requirements.
This upper-division core consists of courses in English, ethics, ecology, technology,
and research methods. Students also take three junior level integrative seminars,
an internship, and a capstone course. Beyond this core, the social science concentration
area requires 24 semester credit hours of social science courses distributed
across three topical areas (history/archaeology, culture and society, and individuals
and institutions).
In the resource management
concentration, students take at least 12 semester credit hours of social science
courses (primarily focused on social science approaches to policy and resources)
and 20 semester credit hours of natural science (including courses in botany,
zoology and geology). The overall curriculum is designed to accommodate the
addition of new courses that will fulfill categorical requirements. The goal
is to provide a common educational foundation for students with some opportunity
for student choice among a few specific courses fulfilling the categorical requirements.
The baccalaureate program
in integrative studies has begun slowly with fourteen students admitted in Spring
2002, six the following semester, and eleven for the Spring 2003 semester. The
first graduates are expected in December 2003. Thirty-one students are enrolled
in courses during the Spring 2003 semester.
Faculty.
The full-time faculty, with the occasional assistance of adjunct faculty, offer
all of the coursework for the core courses and the concentration areas developed
so far. At present, at least two dozen faculty members are actively involved
or plan to be involved in teaching courses supporting the BA in Integrative
Studies program. Faculty from most academic disciplines at Great Basin College
have been involved in the integrative seminars and in offering upper division
classes geared toward the needs of the students enrolling in baccalaureate programs.
Dr. Eric Henderson, anthropology and geography professor, is the lead faculty
for the program.
Great Basin College’s
faculty is composed of an experienced core of teachers with strong academic
credentials. The core curriculum draws upon these strengths. The social sciences
and history faculty includes four tenured or tenure-track faculty with PhDs,
a tenured ABD, and a department chair with over 25 years of teaching experience
(and an MS in psychology). The background of the social sciences and history
faculty members, and their involvement with the elementary education program,
helps to explain the distribution of upper-division history and social science
courses already developed and taught at GBC.
The credentials and experience
of science faculty are equally sound. Three hold tenure, and two are tenure
track. Two hold PhDs; another (with an MS in biology) has taught at several
institutions and is involved in a long-term research project. A second biologist
(MS) has taught at GBC for nearly twenty years and is also recognized as an
authority in the fields in which he is actively engaged in research. A third
MS-prepared biologist was hired in Fall 2002 and teaches at the Winnemucca campus,
where he is actively developing field-based courses. The conjunction of expertise
in the natural and social sciences partially explains GBC’s development
of the Resource Management concentration area. The Resource Management area,
which began in Fall 2002, is an interdisciplinary program drawing on the faculty
from two strong departments.
Students.
In its proposal to the UCCSN Board of Regents and its prospectus to the Commission,
GBC had estimated that 50 students would enter the program in the first year.
Fourteen students were admitted to the program in Spring 2002. At the beginning
of Spring Semester 2003, there were 31 active students admitted to the program.
Although the program has not met the objective of 50 students in the first year,
the actual FTE enrollment for the first year at 25.4 is only slightly below
the projected 30 FTE.
Students
Admitted by Semester |
| Semester |
Number of
Students |
| Spring 2002 |
14 |
| Fall 2002 |
6 |
| Spring 2003 |
11 |
| Total Students |
31 |
Enrolled
Credit Hours of All 31 Students* |
|
Semester |
Number
enrolled in any course |
Total |
Upper
Division |
FTE
Total |
FTE
Undeclared |
Fall
2001 |
19 |
155 |
33 |
103 |
22 |
Spring
2002 |
25 |
226 |
105 |
15.1 |
7.0 |
Fall
2002 |
29 |
279 |
153 |
18.6 |
10.2 |
Spring
2003 |
|
|
|
|
|
(*Includes
those not enrolled in any courses for the specified semesters)
After the first two semesters, faculty are impressed that, on the whole, the
students in the program are performing quite well. The best of the students
clearly rank among the top ten to twenty percent of students previously taught
at other state colleges and universities. The program expects to graduate its
first three students in December 2003, each with the potential to succeed well
in graduate studies. Several more students are expected to graduate the following
semester.
The following table provides a breakdown of students admitted and enrolled in
Integrative Studies program as of January 21, 2003:
Site |
Students |
| Elko |
19 |
| Ely |
6 |
| Winnemucca |
5 |
| Battel Mountain |
1 |
| TOTAL STUDENTS |
31 |
Resources. The resources of the college are currently sufficient
to meet the needs of the two concentration areas within the integrative studies
program. Both concentration areas require few resources other than faculty and
classroom space. The library holdings have been expanded to meet the needs of
the courses added to the curriculum. In addition, the library subscribes to
several online databases that support upper-division coursework in the social
sciences and, to a lesser degree, the natural sciences.
There has been increased demand for the distance delivery of courses via interactive
video. Consequently, programs occasionally find themselves competing for the
prime time slots. GBC’s commitment to providing access to all students
within our service area is a continual challenge and is beginning to tax the
College’s technological capability. This increased demand comes at a time
when the economy of our service area has taken a downturn, and communities are
experiencing emigration.
Analysis. In some ways, failure to meet the enrollment goal
(previously discussed) have actually benefitted the goals of the program in
a time of budget reductions and fiscal instability. This is the case because
it has allowed faculty to nurture the program and closely monitor the development
of student skills while providing a small number of academically rigorous courses
and individualized academic advisement.
The program has benefitted from the experiences of the elementary education
program which, with larger enrollments than expected and great diversity in
the academic preparation of students, had to make numerous scheduling adjustments
and policy changes. Although the integrative studies committee has made some
such adjustments and changes, these have been comparatively fewer. Given the
smaller number of students, the committee has felt less pressure to adjust and
accommodate.
As with the BA in Education Program, the size of the BA in Integrative Studies
Program “enables the faculty to know each student and provides for individualized
student attention. Individual faculty advising has contributed to student achievement
and success through a better understanding of individual student academic and
professional endeavors.” (Quoting the elementary education study).
Some junior and senior level courses are offered to relatively low enrollments
(a dozen or fewer students), especially when first offered. Limited experience
indicates, however, that enrollments should increase with subsequent offerings
of the same course. For example, in Spring 2000 only seven students enrolled
in SOC 352, Juvenile Delinquency. When next offered in Fall 2001, 20 students
enrolled in the course. In Spring 2003, enrollment is at 21 students. Such junior-level
courses also attract some sophomore students. Academic advisers report that
an increasing number of lower-division students are considering the option of
remaining at GBC to complete their undergraduate education, and in addition
to the 31 students formally admitted to the program about 80 additional students
have declared an intention to pursue the BA in Integrative Studies.
In sum, a well-qualified and experienced faculty has provided students with
a strong interdisciplinary education with open and extensive student-teacher
communication. With a preponderant majority of the students developing into
committed active learners in small classes, primarily seminars, students—in
the judgment of faculty—have generally demonstrated substantial gains
in analytic and communicative skills, technological competency, awareness of
ethical issues, and an understanding of social and cultural issues.
In large measure, the initial success of the program’s offerings is a
result of faculty efforts to develop and deliver courses beyond contractual
obligations for nominal compensation. Although a small number of faculty disagreed
with the decision to expand the mission of GBC to offer select baccalaureate
degrees, these faculty members have not been obstructive. However, to the extent
that they do not actively support the curriculum development or teach courses
in their fields relevant to the program, students are exposed to a smaller number
of course offerings and a limited range of teaching styles. To partially address
this problem, the departmental chairs proposed, and the administration supported
through incorporation in the Academic Master Plan 2002-2003 Addendum, the dedication
of one faculty position as a visiting professorship, designated as a “Faculty-in-Residence
(Rotating).”
Another way in which the faculty have addressed the issue of exposing students
to a variety of teaching styles is to promote team-teaching, especially in the
integrative seminars. Finally, some highly qualified adjuncts have agreed to
teach courses within the program.
On the one hand, the fact that faculty develop and teach (often in teams) numerous
new courses for little or no additional compensation can be viewed as strength.
On the other hand, this short-term strength of the program may also be a potential
problem. Development of new, interdisciplinary courses, effective team-teaching,
increased academic advising, and the changes in the content of, and modes of
delivering, both general education courses and courses required for baccalaureate
program, have all added to faculty workload. Moreover, there is an extensive
amount of committee work associated with developing and overseeing new programs.
This also increases the work faculty undertake. With the exception of “re-assigned
time” for faculty senate chair, lead faculty, and occasional other duties,
GBC faculty teach the standard community college load-five courses a semester
with no distinction for lower- and upper-division courses.
In the long run, given program needs, faculty teach too many preparations per
semester (often four, sometimes five, and, in a few cases more). Some of these
courses are taught using distance delivery media (interactive video and online)
which are usually more “labor-intensive” than traditional live lecture
courses. There is thus a significant potential for a weakening of faculty morale
and “burn out.”
STRENGTHS
• A well qualified and experienced faculty committed to providing students
with a strong interdisciplinary education.
• A capacity for developing student’s analytic and communicative
skills, through open and extensive student-teacher communication in small classes.
• A preponderant majority of the students are committed, active learners.
• Faculty are actively developing and delivering courses beyond contractual
obligations.
• Student internships and student working portfolios
CHALLENGES
• Serving the 45,000 square mile service area.
• Insufficient resources (and a number of minor problems) for distance
education delivery, primarily interactive video courses.
• Confronting factors that increase faculty workload and the potential
for “burn out.”
• Hiring exemplary full-time and adjunct faculty.
• Providing more diversity in course offerings and faculty.
• Recruiting students to the campus from outside the College’s service
area.
• Maintaining the core values of the community college continues to be
a priority.
• Coordinating internships for students with local governmental agencies,
non-profits, and businesses, time-consuming and sometimes politically sensitive.
• Balancing the need for reflection and change versus the need for stability
as the program evolves.
RECOMMENDATIONS/ACTION ITEMS
• Develop a more consistent and equitable workload policy.
• Increase resources for the Interactive Video component of distance education.
• Continued development of new courses that are designed to fulfill requirements
for students in more than a single baccalaureate program.
• Continue development of a third concentration area, interdisciplinary
natural sciences.
• Continue planning with teacher education program to develop a degree
in secondary education.
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