2015- 2020 CRIMINAL JUSTICE GRADUATE PROGRAM REVIEW Prepared by Gale Iles and the Criminal Justice Faculty of the Department of Social, Cultural, and Justice Studies, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures 3 List of Tables 3 Preface/History 4 Part 1: Learning Objectives (Outcomes) 5 Part 2: Curriculum 11 Part 3: Student Experience 16 Part 4: Faculty 20 Part 5: Learning Resources 28 Part 6: Support 36 1 LIST OF FIGURES 3.1 Student Enrollment: Gender, Ethnicity 16 3.2 Enrollment Trends 18 4.1 Student Credit Hours 21 4.2 Gender 22 4.3 Race/Ethnicity 22 LIST OF TABLES 1.1 Abbreviated Student Evaluation for Fall 2018 10 2.1. Past Three Years of Course Offerings 13 2.2 Summary of Program Learning Outcome 15 4.1 Educational Background of Faculty Members 23 6.1 Class Enrollments for the Last Three Years 33 2 PREFACE/HISTORY Departmental Structure Criminal Justice is part of the Department of Social, Cultural, and Justice Studies, in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The program offers a Masters of Science Degree, which prepares students for leadership and management positions across the field. Courses are available in the evening and online, and provide students with opportunities to study a wide range of subjects from police, courts and corrections to victimology to terrorism. i.1 Organizational Chart Randy Boyd Interim President of the University of Tennessee System Steve Angle Chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Jerald L. Hale Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Joe Wilferth Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Lynn Purkey Interim Head of the Department of Social, Cultural, and Justice Studies Karen McGuffee Associate Head of the Department of Social, Cultural, and Justice Studies Gale Iles Graduate Program Coordinator Mission The mission of the Department of Social, Cultural, and Justice Studies is to prepare students for professional and personal success in the context of a strong liberal arts education. The Department is committed to coursework that is grounded in theory, research, and community engagement to help students prepare for careers in their respective fields. Emphasis is placed on intellectual, experiential, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities that will prepare students to become ethically informed, culturally sensitive, engaged scholars, able to address global, national, regional, and local challenges. More specifically the mission of the Criminal Justice Program is to help students acquire a solid footing in the core of the criminal justice system and to explore crime and its social, cultural, and political implications. Departmental History During the 1990s the Criminal Justice Program was part of the School of Social and Community Services, which in 2003 split into different departments, including Criminal Justice. As of August 1, 2015, the Department of Criminal Justice merged with the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Geography to form the Department of Social, Cultural, and Justice Studies. Trends Graduate enrollments have dropped nationally and at UTC. However, enrollments in the Criminal Justice graduate program have remained steady over the past five years, although they have dropped by 4% from last year. Response to Previous Findings and Recommendations Overall the last review was favorable. The undergraduate review in general discusses previous findings and recommendations for the program in general. However, a few areas relate 3 specifically to the graduate program. In particular, the reviewer indicated the need for more faculty for the graduate program, suggested gradually moving towards creating an online distance program, and encouraging graduate students to take relevant courses outside of the program. The reviewer indicated that the graduate program could not continue to grow at the same rate without new resources, particularly without more faculty members. He also indicated that it would be extremely difficult to sustain the same level of engagement, mentorship, and scholarship, without lowering the teaching load. The department is currently searching for three faculty members, two assistant professors and a lecturer, which are filling lines that have been vacant, which is an improvement over the past few years, although the program needs more faculty. In regards to the suggestion of gradually creating a distance learning program, the department has steadily increased the number of online classes in the graduate program, but it is not fully online. This is a choice on the part of faculty members, who feel that offering a completely online graduate program might diminish the program’s reputation and might not be suitable pedagogically. Many top students in the program have gone on to prestigious programs. Faculty fear that national reputation of the program will diminish, if it is fully online, and they also fear that students will only take online classes, if given the opportunity, which would lead to the demise of the face-to-face program. Moreover, certain courses particularly those that are more theoretical or difficult lend themselves better to a face-to-face environment, and it would be counterproductive to offer them online. PART I. LEARNING OUTCOMES 1.1 Program and student learning outcomes are clearly identified and measurable The learning outcomes of the program are clearly specified in the catalog (see this link: http://catalog.utc.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=30&poid=5442&returnto=1048. The goals and objectives are as follows: • Analyze the major historical and contemporary issues facing the criminal justice system in order to evaluate the nature, extent, causation, and prevention of crime. • Apply and critique the major theories relevant to crime and identify how they affect policy decisions. • Explain the inter-dependent operations of the major components of the criminal justice system (i.e., police, courts, correctional agencies) and the political, legal, ethical, and socioeconomic environments in which they operate, as well as the implications of these relationships for victims, offenders, justice professionals, and society. • Illustrate how gender, race, ethnicity, age, social class, and sexual orientation function at both the macro and micro level in the criminal justice system. • Apply the skills and methods in criminal justice research, including how to acquire, analyze, interpret, and disseminate both quantitative and qualitative data. • Students will be able to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, and demonstrate basic knowledge of information technology as applied to criminal justice research and practice 4 Condensed into three broad categories, the fundamental educational outcome of our graduate program is to ensure that graduates from the program will emerge with (1) mastery of core material, (2) research- related skills and (3) the professional communication skills and abilities needed for employment. 1.2 The program uses appropriate evidence to evaluate achievement of program and student learning outcomes. As noted above the six learning outcomes of the program can be summarized into three broad categories: (1) mastery of core material, which includes the integration of program skills, (2) research-related skills including analytic, critical, evaluative and empirical skills, and (3) the professional communication skills and abilities needed for employment. Mastery of Core Material Outcome Graduates will demonstrate their ability to master core material in the field including familiarity with the structure, operation of the justice systems, criminological theory and research methods. This is assessed by the percentage of comprehensive exams passed and successful completion of a thesis. To be eligible to take the exam, the student must be within one semester of program completion, successfully completed or be concurrently enrolled in all core classes and have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 (CRMJ 5000, 5010, 5020 and 5030). The comprehensive exam is a two-part process. Six weeks prior to the official exam date, students will electronically receive Part 1 of the exam. This part requires students to respond to a policy question in the form of a research proposal that includes an introduction, literature review, theoretical framework, methodology, and limitations of the study. The literature review is expected to contain a discussion that outlines theoretical issues associated with the topic and outline the strengths and weaknesses of their study. The policy question mimics real-life issues facing society and is designed to assess students’ ability to analyze the major historical and contemporary issues facing the criminal justice system in order to evaluate the nature extent, causation, and prevention of crime. For example, students taking the comprehensive exam in Spring of 2019 were asked to construct a research proposal that addresses the “#MeToo Movement.” Previous exams have addressed similar hot button topics such as cyberbullying, the war on drugs, the death penalty, and the treatment of juveniles in the criminal justice system (see appendix 1.1 for sample copies of past exams). The theoretical portion of the exam is meant to assess students’ ability to apply and critique the major theories relevant to crime and identify how they affect policy decisions. On the official date of the comprehensive exam the student receives Part II of the exam. They have 6 hours to respond to research