Haven Orecchio-Egrezits   Journal Staff

This summer, after careful consideration and consultation with department chairs, the administration made the decision to dissolve the Department of Education and Human Services. Although many of the programs have been relocated to alternative departments and will still be offered to students, some programs will begin to be phased out completely, including the undergraduate licensure program in Middle School and Secondary School Teaching.“This will be a year of transition,” said Associate Dean Krisanne Bursik of the College of Arts and Sciences. “We are shifting all programs, except those with little student interest, to other existing departments within the College of Arts and Sciences.

”Prior to July 1st, the graduate programs in School Counseling and Mental Health Counseling had been administered through the Department of Education and Human Services. By moving the programs to the Psychology Department, the administration expects to both increase enrollment, as well as provide students in those programs with a community that better fits their area of interest.

Additionally, the graduate program in Administration of Higher Education will be offered through the Philosophy Department with no programmatic implications, and the graduate programs in Organizational Learning and Development will be temporarily administered through the Department of Communication and Journalism as they move into a “teach-out” due to low enrollment.

“The department was an eclectic assortment of programs,” commented Dean Bursik. “At one point, after the Applied Legal Studies program was moved to the Government Department last year, it offered five very different graduate programs and only one undergraduate minor. The unusual placement created a lack of focus and commonality for the department as a whole.”

Students have been given until October 1 to declare their interest in pursuing the licensure programs in Middle School or Secondary School Education. The undergraduate non-licensure minor in Educational Studies is still strong and will now be administered through the Sociology Department.Due to the recent change in the Massachusetts’