Criminology major moves to CSUN A closer alternative for Criminal Justice majors soon to be approved

NADINE GOSTANTIAN News Editor @Ngostantian

Cal State University, Northridge is currently waiting for chancellor approval to create a criminology major for spring 2017.

Until now, students who wanted to apply for the Criminology and Criminal Justice program at CSUN could only do so by choosing the sociology major and then selecting the criminal justice option. If classes get approved by the chancellor, students would be able to apply directly for the criminology major.

Vickie Bensen, chair of the new criminology department at CSUN, brought up the issue to the dean and started talking to faculty to develop the curriculum. The curriculum was passed earlier this year.

One of Bensen’s biggest concerns with sociology being the major and criminology being the option is that they don’t have an ethics course in the option.

“Every student that gets a degree that says criminal justice on it, or justice studies or anything close to that, needs to cover ethics,” Bensen said. “The other problem that I've had is that they haven’t had criminal law and there’s an option which remains here to take a course in criminal procedures.”

According to Bensen, they’re expected to have classes that teach students about the system and focus closely on criminal law. Bensen said the content currently deals with the accused instead of providing students with a fundamental understanding of the foundations of criminal law and how the criminal justice system works.

Students who declare a BA in sociology with an option of criminology and criminal justice will have both titles show up on their record, according to Bensen, and this creates confusion for students.

“It’s interesting when I pull up a student’s record and their major shows up as criminology and criminal justice,” Bensen said. “And a lot of students call themselves criminology and criminal justice majors, but we don't have a criminal justice major; you’re a sociology major, but a lot of students don’t see themselves that way.” ngostantian.roundupnews@gmail.com out of open education resource material.”

Bensen said students have the opportunity to get a fairly broad and deep understanding of criminology with the current option, but they have to select the right electives. “If students selected particular electives that were [not relevant], they may find holes in their understanding. The new criminology major’s core would include classes such as ethics in law, juvenile justice, criminal justice systems, criminological theory, and criminology and justice methods.

In 2015, the California Legislature adopted a bill from the 114th Congress. The Affordable College Textbook Act was passed on the state level but is still pending on the federal level.

According to congress.gov the bill was introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin in October 2015 with an intention to “expand the use of open textbooks in order to achieve savings for students.”

According to Gediman, there are some professors on campus already implementing the affordable textbooks program.

Political Science Professor Denise Robb, is one of the professor's who is involved in providing affordable textbooks for her students.

“I attended a workshop a couple years ago that had to do with the governor signing this and would increase affordable textbooks,” Robb said. “They had websites where we can find textbooks and at the time, I could not find anything on the courses I taught, but our librarian, Gediman showed me there were new textbooks so I look at them and I started using them so I no longer use the old one hundred dollar textbook.” Professor Wendy Bass, distance education coordinator, is one of the faculty members who is using the OERS program for her students.

“I decided to try to go all open education resource this semester, so my students don't have to buy a textbook,” Bass said. “I am gathering all the necessary resources and putting it all on canvas so they can be able to read it there.”

Bass is new to the program with only five weeks in, but has been enjoying creating her own material appropriate for her class. Bass said this project would still give the students the education they need, but it would not cost a fortune.

“I love it and I think my students are happy with it as well,” Bass said. “I could not have done it without his [Gediman] help. He has helped me get the necessary amount of resources for my classes.” rjespinoza.roundupnews@gmail.com

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