Marietta College offering five new majors starting in Fall 2019
Six minors, one graduate program also being added
Marietta, Ohio (06/03/2019) — This fall, Marietta College's students will see some major - as well as some minor - additions to their educational opportunities.
In keeping with the increasingly diverse academic interests of students, Marietta will offer five new majors, six new minors and one new graduate program. These new additions build on the more than 50 majors, minors and programs that are currently available.
Marietta is adding majors in Entrepreneurship, Neuroscience, Supply Chain Management, Educational Studies and Middle Childhood Special Education Dual Preparation, as well as a Master of Arts program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, which is currently under review for approval by the Higher Learning Commission and the State of Ohio Department of Higher Education.
The new minors will be in Business, Creative Writing, Geographic Information Systems, Legal Studies, Professional Writing and Public History.
"Ideally, every major we offer should accomplish three things," said Dr. Janet Bland, Marietta College Provost. "No. 1, it should be relevant to prospective students such that it causes them to enroll at Marietta College. No. 2, it is built on a rigorous appropriate curriculum that will enrich students with a depth of knowledge in their area of study. And No. 3, as students graduate with that major, they will be able to successfully join the field as a professional or gain entrance to graduate or professional school."
Marietta College, like many others in higher education, reshapes and adds majors in response to changes in specific fields, in response to evolving market and employment trends, and to strategically enhance current resources.
"Primarily we look to our faculty to be aware of changes in their field," Bland said. "For instance, in Education, our new dual license program in middle childhood was created to meet a demand for students who have both a standard license for the age range and additional credentialing in Exceptional Learners. Graduates with this dual expertise are highly prized."
Bland added that the College also adds new majors when trends in the economy demand a specific skill set.
"For instance, online commerce, driven by Amazon, supports our new Logistics and Supply Chain Management degree," she said. "We also review our existing curriculum and faculty expertise to identify new majors like Neuroscience, which was proposed by the Psychology Department and created without any need for additional faculty. We're growing our Entrepreneurship program, and so we are able to support a major."
Consistent with the move of Psychology into the Science Division in the new general education curriculum, Psychology has added a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience to its offerings.
"Although the program is housed with Psychology, this is truly an interdisciplinary program, tying together foundational coursework in Psychology, Biology, Chemistry and Physics, with many elective options available in each of those areas," said Dr. Alicia Doerflinger, Chair of Psychology. "Students will be prepared for jobs in healthcare, research, medical technician, science writer, clinical research assistant, pharmacy technician, and many others."
She added that students will also be prepared to pursue master's and doctoral degrees in many fields. Any questions about the Neuroscience major should be directed to Doerflinger at ad001@marietta.edu.
Dr. Greg Delemeester, Chair of the Department of Business and Economics, said they are excited to offer Supply Chain Management starting in the Fall.
"Developed with input from Marietta College alums in the supply chain profession, the major introduces four new courses to our curriculum - including courses on data analytics and logistics - to go along with a rigorous business core," he said. "When you couple that with the College's liberal arts foundation, our graduates will be well-positioned to handle the challenges that supply chain professionals will face in an increasingly globalized market."
B&E is also adding a Business minor, and Delemeester believes it will be a popular choice of many students.
"Given that incoming students must choose an area of secondary concentration as part of the new General Education curriculum, our new 21-hour Business minor might be an attractive option for those students majoring outside of B&E who want to get a general survey of the primary functional areas of operating a business," he said.
Entrepreneurship has been a minor at the College for the past three years, and with growing interest, the timing was right to make it a major, according to Dr. Jacqueline Khorassani, Director of Entrepreneurship.
"If you want to start your own small or large for-profit or non-profit business someday, if you want to work in an organization that appreciates and rewards creative thinking, or if you would like to enter a graduate program in business or related fields after graduation, then the Entrepreneurship major is for you," Khorassani said.
The Education Department is excited to offer a new major in Educational Studies that prepares students to work in youth-related fields outside of the traditional classroom.
"Educational Studies majors will be prepared for careers in education-related nonprofit organizations, museums, after-school programs, and many more," said Dr. Tanya Judd Pucella, Chair of the Education Department. "This major does not require a student to complete the requirements for a teaching license."
Judd Pucella also said the Middle Childhood Special Education program will allow everyone who completes the program to serve as a general education instructor or the special education teacher.
"Our teacher candidates will be able to receive their teaching license in both special education for students in grades K-12 as well as Middle Childhood grades 4-9 in STEM (math/science) or Humanities (Language Arts/Social Studies)," she said. "The MCSED program joins our dual preparation program for licensure in both primary grades (PreK-5) and special education grades K-12. These dual preparation programs reflect a strongly held belief in our department that teacher candidates must reach ALL students before they can teach them anything. The dual preparation programs have a major focus on new trends in education, including trauma-informed instruction, universal design for learning and co-teaching."
Located in Marietta, Ohio, at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, Marietta College is a four-year liberal arts college. Tracing its roots to the Muskingum Academy back in 1797, the College was officially chartered in 1835. Today Marietta College serves a body of 1,200 full-time students. The College offers more than 50 majors and is consistently ranked as one of the top regional comprehensive colleges by U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review, as well as one of the nation's best by Forbes.com. Marietta was selected seventh in the nation according to the Brookings Institution's rankings of colleges by their highest value added, regardless of major.
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