Program Unit Review Committee
P U R C F I N D I N G S A N D R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S
Program/Unit Reviewed: Criminal Justice
Self-Study Chair(s): Arnold Brock
Division: Technical Sciences
Year of Review: 2014-2015 (Resubmission from 2013-2014)
Date Submitted to VPAA:
Committee findings of self-study strengths:
Curriculum:
• Courses appear to be on an assessment schedule.
• An academic advisory board with members of the community is in place (although no
evidence of minutes in Appendix).
• Improvement from previous version on faculty qualifications (although discipline of degree not
included).
• Some improvement noted on External Resource Recommendations and Implementation Plans
section.
• Some improvement noted in Factors Affecting Curriculum and Strategies section by adding
that program needs a coordinator to assist with curriculum development.
• Teaches beyond the state’s minimum requirements for Peace Officer Standards and Training
(but no documentation to support this).
• Some improvement to the Factors Affecting the Curriculum and Strategies section by
discussing the need for a coordinator to assist with curriculum development.
• Strategy to add new and timely labs to coursework.
Demographics and Enrollment:
• The CRJ student body is comprised of students who are younger than a typical TMCC student,
more diverse than a typical TMCC student and they are doing a great job at bringing in
females to a traditionally male program.
Resources:
• Full-time faculty members have required master’s degrees. Part-time faculty are qualified in
their areas.
• Classrooms are fully functional for lectures.
Committee findings on self-study weaknesses:
Curriculum:
• No description of assessment-driven improvements. Six CARs were completed in 2012-2013,
but they are not referenced or provided in the appendix. Stated the process that TMCC
follows regarding assessment driven improvements, but did not delineate what is occurring in
CRJ.
Page 1 of 6; Program Unit Review Committee findings and Recommendations
TMCC is an EEO/AA institution. See http://eeo.tmcc.edu for more information.
Created: 12/11/2014; Rev: 6/25/2015
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
CARs not submitted for the majority of program courses. Only 6 of the 26 courses have been
assessed, and only once, in the last 10 years. Unsure of relevance of curriculum since CARs
are not complete. How are students doing?
No plan for assessment given in Strategies section.
No text provided in Evaluation of Relevancy of Curriculum section.
No explanation of program changes since last report, such as course or certificate deletions,
only program worksheets are presented for documentation.
No changes were made from the previous version of the Post Completion Objectives. This
section continued to speak to TMCC’s goals but not the programs.
No meeting of the advisory board in the last year, and no documentation of minutes from
previous meetings in previous years.
Discussed the police academies in the Non-credit Training Offered section, but it was unclear
what role, if any, the CRJ program plays in this.
The Police Academies and the CRJ program are misaligned. It’s unclear what advantage a
Doctoral-level instructor would provide. Is he a specialist in the areas addressed by the Police
Academies?
Minimal changes were made to the Factors Affecting the Curriculum and Strategies section.
No mechanism noted to assure curriculum relevance, that course content is current and that
courses are meeting the needs of students and the law enforcement community.
Articulation efforts unclear.
Separation of Criminal Justice and the Police Academy are mentioned, no proof provided to
substantiate issues caused by this situation or efforts noted to effect a change.
No discussion of efforts to track 4-year degree completions (comments are on lack of current
method to do so).
Very understaffed within department. Very difficult to manage all the requirements of a
department. Only one tenured faculty member with one temporary member. Stated that a
search had begun but it was unclear why it was not continued nor what the plan is for future
positions? Lack of coordinator/full-time instructor appear to have affected program growth,
assessment, curriculum relevancy, student recruitment and tracking, articulation efforts, and
continuity.
Demographics and Enrollment:
• General Note: Last year the PUR committee compiled a list of strengths and weaknesses for
the CRJ PUR. This list contained many specific items that needed to be clarified and/or fixed
in the interpretation of the demographic data. These items were, in general, not incorporated
in “take 2” of this PUR. The author should address these items and make the suggested
changes before finalizing.
• 1
this discipline should have its own mission statement.
• 1
the relationship between the TMCC Police Academy and the Criminal Justice program
should be clearly stated and described early on in the document. The police academy (and
whether or not we have one any given term) plays a major role in explaining some of the
enrollment trends seen within the program.
• 2
last sentence at the bottom of the page should read “ There is a thirteen percentage
point difference…”
• 3
last sentence on page should use the word “parity” not “parody”.
• 5
the author mentions a dip in New Student enrollments in spring 2011. Looking at 5
years of spring data, spring 2011 does not seem too out of line. More notable is the
consistent drop in New Student enrollments across 5 fall terms. The hypothesis that this is
due to “police academy activity” should be explained.
Page 2 of 6; Program Unit Review Committee Findings and Recommendations
TMCC is an EEO/AA institution. See http://eeo.tmcc.edu for more information.
Rev.: 6/25/2015
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
6
the graph on this page shows “Credits Attempted” and the table is labeled as such. At
the bottom of the page, the author says that a graph showing “Credits Earned” can be found
in Appendix A. First, he should have said Appendix D (page 43). Second, the graph found on
page 43 is not Credits Earned, it is exactly the same graph as found on this page. The Credits
Earned page was provided in the data packet and should replace the current graph that is
found on page 43.
6
The sentence at the bottom of the page beginning “As with most status criterion…”
should be replaced as it makes no sense. A correct sentence might be “CRJ students attend
full time at a higher rate than TMCC students as a whole.”
12
In the last sentence on this page, the author makes a statement about FT/PT faculty
ratio. This sentence belongs on page 23 where FT/PT faculty ratio is displayed. This page
shows Student to Faculty Ratio (avg. students per section) which is a totally different thing
13
The second paragraph has a typo. “… 3% have transferred” should read “… 23% have
transferred”.
13
On page 13 the author should take a few sentences to explain the evolution of the
degrees and certificates offered by this program. Clearly, some of the degrees are current
and others are no longer offered and this should be described.
17
Left side of the page “Additional Degree Requirements” shows that this degree requires
14 credits of Foreign Language. But on the right side of the page “Suggested Course
Sequence”, foreign language is listed as an elective. This should be corrected in the catalog.
19
On this page the author states “We currently sit at 25/75” with respect to FT/PT
faculty”. Committee members are not sure where this ratio comes from but we believe the
author is erroneously talking about faculty headcount (i.e. the number of faculty). The
correct interpretation of FT/PT ratio is the percent of student credit hours that are being
taught by FT Faculty vs. PT faculty and this data is found on page 23.
Resources:
• The statement that “certain classes may not require a bachelor’s degree…” on page 23 is
difficult to understand.
• Required Faculty Credentials section is difficult to determine what is required without going
back to Faculty Qualifications on page 19.
• The full-time to part-time FTE was not at the level of 60/40 and continues to decrease as
there is only one full-time instructor. There is no description of a plan to address this issue.
• Internship sites are dependent on the partnering agency or the instructor.
• Over the past six years, the tenured faculty has been reduced by 50%; leaving one
permanent and one temporary full-time faculty. The previous hiring/search committee was
disbanded. Tentative plans to hire a permanent full-time faculty member still exist.
• Equipment for photography, fingerprinting, and collection of evidence is outdated and in need
of replacement.
• There are no labs for crime scene and fingerprinting tools to accommodate demand for online
classes.
• Program is lacking a dedicated classified administrative assistant.
• Funding Sources section does not identify a plan/goal to seek/acquire external or grant
funding to sustain program.
Page 3 of 6; Program Unit Review Committee Findings and Recommendations
TMCC is an EEO/AA institution. See http://eeo.tmcc.edu for more information.
Rev.: 6/25/2015
Committee Strategies and Recommendations:
Overall, this report remains unacceptable for the second straight year despite the changes made,
which were minimal. This suggests a lack of leadership in the program. The committee
recommends that an external consultant be hired and work directly with the Dean and Vice President
of Academic Affairs to submit a report that addresses the weaknesses cited within the self-study,
and implement a plan to address the strategies and recommendations below. The committee
further recommends that the consultant fee come from the program’s operating budget.
Curriculum:
• Develop a program-specific mission and goals/objectives as a road map.
• Submit CARs for assessment dates that have already passed or explain why these courses
were not assessed.
• Establish and submit a revised course assessment cycle to the academic Dean and Office of
Assessment and Planning. Every semester might be too much for a small department to
implement. Perhaps each course can be assessed in its entirety once every 1-3 years. This
will lessen the annual assessment workload. It is critical that this program begin assessing its
courses on a regular basis.
• Develop a plan for educating PT faculty on how to complete CARS as they appear to be
teaching a majority of the classes.
• Develop plan and implement strategies to evaluate course and curriculum relevance and
ensure that student and community needs are met by the program.
• Re-evaluate entire transfer curriculum along with advisory board and UNR representatives to
ensure it still aligns. Per the Dean’s recommendations, work with the Office of Institutional
Research to determine whether AA students successfully transfer and complete their
Bachelor’s degree at UNR.
• Re-evaluate curriculum that could be credit-bearing for the Police Academies. Work with
advisory board and academies representative to develop associates-level degrees or
certificates, if appropriate. Per the Dean’s recommendations, work with other Public Safety
programs to develop a Bachelor’s of Applied Science degree by Fall 2016.
• Along with the Dean, the sub-committee validates the need for an additional FT-faculty
member with expertise in Law Enforcement coordinator to assist with program assessment,
curriculum relevance, student recruitment and tracking, articulation efforts, and continuity.
• Along with the Dean, the sub-committee validates the need for an administrative assistant to
assist with program coordination.
• Consider working with WCSD to ensure students are prepared when entering TMCC. Consider
adding those high school teachers to the Advisory committee if not already.
• Develop a graduate survey to track transfer and completion at transfer universities.
Demographics and Enrollment:
• Only two strategies were described for the Enrollment section on page 14. There is a lot of
verbiage and many statements that are not explained or documented, but only these
strategies were found:
•
Strategy: Developing relationships with local and Federal agencies for Homeland Security.
Response: Agree that this would be a good strategy because expanding relationships within
the community is always good. However, the discussion could be flushed out to indicate what
outcomes would be sought i.e. increased participation in the Police Academy, federal funding
for the Police Academy, etc.
Page 4 of 6; Program Unit Review Committee Findings and Recommendations
TMCC is an EEO/AA institution. See http://eeo.tmcc.edu for more information.
Rev.: 6/25/2015
•
Strategy: Expand online instruction.
Response: Agree that this is a good strategy.
•
The committee suggests that another strategy could be developed dealing with the Police
Academy. TMCC hasn’t offered one in several years. Why is that? What can be done to allow
for more regular academy offerings? Offering a Police Academy is not only a great thing for
TMCC because of the enrollments and FTE, but also because academy completers can
immediately transition to our local work force.
Resources:
• Initiate a plan to secure funding for two additional full-time faculty and one dedicated
classified staff person.
• Initiate a plan to secure funding for additional equipment, such as crime scene processing and
firearm computer forensics, to allow for growth of the program.
• Develop a working relationship with the Washoe County Crime Lab.
• Determine if collaboration can be done with the biology department to assist with forensic
labs.
• Initiate a plan to address program’s isolation from the Police Academy.
Page 5 of 6; Program Unit Review Committee Findings and Recommendations
TMCC is an EEO/AA institution. See http://eeo.tmcc.edu for more information.
Rev.: 6/25/2015
PURC Members
Name
Melissa
Deadmond
Title
Julia Bledsoe
Gabriella
Brochu
Chair, PURC
Program Officer, VPAA’s
Office
Instructor, Foreign
Languages
Jody Covert
Director, Nursing
Erin Frock
Counselor, Counseling
Meeghan Gray
Instructor, Biology
Julie Muhle
Professor, Dental Assisting
Asst. Director, Institutional
Research
Cheryl Scott
Henry Sotelo
Anne Tiscareno
Signature
Date
Instructor, Paralegal/Law
Exec. Asst., Assessment &
Planning
By signing, the Self-Study Chair(s) and Dean acknowledge the findings and recommendations made
by the Program Unit Review Committee and, that following VPAA and President approval,
acknowledge that the program must continue to address recommendations until completed through
Annual Progress Reports (APRs).
Self-Study Chair(s):
Date:
Date:
The self-study chair did not attend the meeting scheduled on 11/21/14 with the Dean and PUR
Committee.
Dean:
Page 6 of 6; Program Unit Review Committee Findings and Recommendations
TMCC is an EEO/AA institution. See http://eeo.tmcc.edu for more information.
Date:
Rev.: 6/25/2015