The Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Education approved the addition of three new academic programs to Mississippi State University and the removal of four current academic programs on Sept. 18.
MSU will offer a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology degree, a Bachelor of Science in Veterinary Medical Technology degree and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Provost Peter Rabideau said the university has permission from IHL to form these new programs, and the departments will begin to recruit students for the specific degrees.
“It usually takes a year for the colleges to organize the new programs,” Rabideau said. “A good estimate for the availability of these degrees would be the fall 2009 semester.”
Rabideau said the department of sociology already offers classes in criminology, so the new Bachelor of Arts in Criminology degree will allow students the ability to receive a degree in the sociological aspects of crime and justice.
Kent Hoblet, dean of the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine, said the new veterinary medical technology degree is one of only three programs of its kind in the United States. Purdue University and Michigan State University’s veterinary programs are the only other colleges with the degree.
“This program opens a whole other field of opportunities and reasons for new students to come to MSU,” he said. “It will benefit not only the university and veterinary college, but the state of Mississippi as well.”
Hoblet said the program will help alleviate local, state and regional needs to eliminate the shortage of veterinary medical technologists in private veterinary practices, biomedical research facilities and other veterinary-related industries.
The MSU Graduate School will receive another program with the recent approval, offering a doctoral degree in philosophy in earth and atmospheric sciences.
Rabideu said the program will provide students with a broad understanding of physical and chemical processes associated with the Earth’s subsurface, surface and atmosphere.
MSU will delete the Bachelor of Science in Business and Industry, Bachelor of Science in Trade and Technical Studies, Master of Science in Entomology and Plant Pathology and the Doctorate of Philosophy in Agricultural Economics.
Rabideau said the programs being deleted did not meet the minimal enrollment requirement during the past three-year period.
“We’re not throwing out students in the deleted programs,” he said. “We are merely renaming and reforming these smaller degrees into larger and more productive programs.”
The IHL board also approved new limited-scope centers and institutes to continue growth in education and research outreach programs. New centers and institutes being added include the Center of Family Enterprise Research, the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Center for Veterans Research, the MSU Energy Institute, the MSU Institute of Golf and the MSU Sustainable Energy Research Center.
The IHL also approved MSU to rename the College of Business and Industry the College of Business to reflect modern terminology in the field. The department of sociology, anthropology and social work will be renamed the department of sociology as a part of a proposed reorganization within the College of Arts and Sciences.
“We are very pleased with the additions,” Rabideau said. “This has been the best September IHL board meeting I’ve been to in years. All of these programs will allow the university to grow on an academic and research level of great proportions.”