The new school year has brought new change to some academic departments on the campus.
On July 22, the Board of Trustees approved two department name changes at Ball State University, resulting in significant shifts in the way the departments are structured.
What was previously known as the Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services is now the Department of Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology and Counseling.
Prior to the change, the department had been housed along with the Educational Psychology department under the Teachers College.
The new department will be formed from three main programs: the doctoral program in counseling psychology, the master’s program in social psychology and the master’s program in counseling.
“Making the move was a very difficult decision for us because our home has always been in Teachers College,” Sharon Bowman, chairperson of the department, said. “However, for the counseling and counseling psychology fields, we are seeing much more of a move toward integrated health care.”
Bowman said the new changes in the department will result in students having more opportunities for practical work, as well as clinical research with health related aspects of their field.
“Being now in the College of Health, working in an inter-professional environment, [and having] the opportunity to work with colleagues with whom our students will work with when they graduate, such as social workers and other groups in training, is just mind blowing for us,” Bowman said.
More classes may be able to integrate with clinics so that students will be training with other health professionals as a result of the move.
“It’s an incredible opportunity," Bowman said. "There are very few counseling psychology programs like ours.”
The other department which has undergone significant changes has been the newly formed Department of Nutrition and Health Science.
The new department merges two units – Nutrition and Health Science – which were previously housed under Consumer Science and the Health Science and Physiology Departments, respectively.
Following the move of the physiology unit to the Department of Biology about a year ago, Health Science and Nutrition merged to form the new department, which will focus on new educational opportunities drawing from both studies.
Merging the Nutrition and Health Science will provide many new possibilities for integrated learning, Rebecca Brey, professor and interim chair of the department said.
“I think the biggest thing for students is that they’re going to have more access to collaborate on research projects with faculty," Brey said. "Even though nutrition and health sciences are different disciplines, a lot of our research areas are very similar... so there’s going to be more faculty and more teams of students and faculty working together with this change.”
The new changes will also make it easier for students to get access to advisors who can assist them with their program specifically.
There is also the possibility of more programs and majors being developed within the department.
“We’re working together, and we’re excited about the possibilities of what we can do,” Brey said. “The students that I’ve met are really excited about this opportunity, and I think we’re going to do some really great things in the future.”
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