By Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5:43 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22 to correct a source’s statement that Long Beach State will be the CSU system’s first Public Health doctorate program. It will be the second.
The Long Beach State Academic Senate approved a proposal to introduce a doctorate of public health degree program to the university, with 37 out of 49 senators voting to approve the new program.
According to Academic Senate Chair Neil Hultgren, the proposal must be signed by CSULB President Jane Close Conoley for the new program to be officially implemented into the curriculum. If approved, the proposal will introduce the fourth doctorate program to the university and the second-ever public health doctorate program in CSU history.
According to the proposal, the post-master program will consist of hybrid courses taught primarily by the Health Science Department. Full-time students are expected to complete 48 units within two years, six semesters, while part-time students will complete the units within three years, nine semesters.
Additionally, students applying for the doctorate of public health program will be required to enroll in one out of three areas of concentration, which include Public Health Informatics and Technology, Global Health or Health Policy and Management.
During the meeting, CSULB Health Science Department Chair Kamiar Alaei said there will be a 3:1 student-to-faculty ratio in the program.
Alaei said there will be 30 students total in the program, meaning the Health Science Department will only need 10 faculty members to teach the program. There are also 13 faculty members outside the Health Science Department who have shown interest in teaching interdisciplinary courses for the program via email.
The senate also discussed revisions to CSULB’s policy on master’s degrees. Hultgren said it had been over a decade since the previous revisions to the policy.
“It’s just a very long policy—eight pages long—and we take the changes really, really seriously,” Hultgren said. “So, it takes a long time to get through that.”
Hultgren said the addition of appeals in the university’s graduate program was the most important policy revision approved at the meeting. These appeals would be applicable during the admission process and instances of repeating and deleting courses at the graduate level.
“We really work to be inclusive, to get everyone on the same page and figure out the best language so that people aren’t confused in the future,” Hultgren said.
During the meeting, CSULB Graduate Studies Advisory Committee Chair and Academic Senator Deepali Bhandari wrote a policy revision to make grade forgiveness available for graduate students at the university.
“As of now, we do not allow grade forgiveness for our master’s students,” Bhandari said. “Which we felt—you know, life happens—so they should get at least one chance.”
According to Bhandari, the CSU Chancellor’s Office allows each CSU campus to determine how to deal with grade forgiveness at the graduate level, and many CSU’s permit grade forgiveness for one course. Grade forgiveness is already available at the undergraduate level at CSULB.
At the meeting, 40 out of 41 senators voted to approve Bhandari’s revision. Hultgren said Conoley must sign the revised master’s degrees policy for the appeals to go into effect.
“I don’t want to overestimate the success of our work, but I do think it’s possible that we could complete [these revisions] by the end of the semester,” Hultgren said.
