Acting Chair: Dr. Nola Allen (460-7161)
Graduate Coordinator: Dr. Tim O’Shea
Professors: Allen, Fishman, Kressley
Associate Professors: Fisher, Husain, Morris, Nicholls
Assistant Professors: Bowers, O’Shea, Royster
Emeritus Professors: Harkins, Kaempfer

UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
The courses offered in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice are designed to achieve three important objectives:

1. to help students attain a liberal education;

2. to encourage and prepare students to participate actively in public affairs;

3. to help students advance toward professional careers in such fields as education, law and government.

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MAJOR IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
For a major in political science a student must take a minimum of 36 semester hours in political science, of which 15 hours come from the core political science courses, 15 hours of PSC electives at the 300/400 level, and six hours of PSC electives at the 400 level.

Political Science Major:

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MINOR IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
For a minor in political science a student must take a minimum of 24 semester hours in political science, of which 12 hours come from the specific political science courses listed below, nine hours of PSC electives, and a minimum of three hours of PSC electives at the 400 level.

Political Science Minor:

CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The Criminal Justice Program is designed to meet two broad objectives:

1. To give students, through core courses, an overview of the criminal justice system, and the ability to analyze critical problems associated with that system; and
   
2. To give students (through their selection of a group in either correctional administration, criminal justice administration, juvenile justice administration, or law enforcement administration) a concentration of elective, specialized courses that will allow them to assume professional-managerial careers in their chosen area of the federal, state, local, or private level.

The program prepares students for further academic training in graduate or law school.

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MAJOR IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The major shall consist of a minimum of 39 semester hours, 24 hours of which are in the Core and required of every student. Most courses are grouped in the categories of Corrections, Law Enforcement, Juvenile Justice Administration, or Law Administration. (The four groups are the four segments of the criminal justice system.) Students are required to concentrate by taking at least two courses out of the group in addition to the lead course that is listed in the core. The remainder of the hours for the major can come from any group or from a series of courses that are electives.

The Criminal Justice offerings are:
CRIMINAL JUSTICE CORE*

Criminal Justice Majors must choose one of the following groups:
Corrections:

Law Enforcement:

Juvenile Justice Administration:

Law Administration:

Criminal Justice Electives:

*A core course that must be taken as a prerequisite to the other courses in the group.

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MINOR IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The minor shall consist of a minimum of 21 semester hours, 12 hours of which are in the core and required of every student.

PSC 130, U.S. Government, and CJ 205, Introduction to Criminal Justice, are prerequisites for all Criminal Justice courses. (The hours for PSC 130 will not be applied to the major or minor.)

GRADUATE STUDIES
The Master of Public Administration degree (MPA) curriculum in the Department of Political Science is a professional degree program designed principally for present and future administrators and officers in government and other public related organizations. It is open, however, to other qualified students as well.

Students entering the program come from varied academic and vocational backgrounds. Accordingly, no specific undergraduate major is required for admission to the MPA Program. However, certain course prerequisites must be satisfied prior to enrollment in any of the required core courses of the curriculum.

All students in the program have an option of non-thesis (Plan A) or thesis (Plan B).

Students in the program who are not already employed in the public sector should, if possible, serve in government internships, discussed below.

REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION
Students are admitted each semester. The following criteria supplement the Graduate School criteria (see Categories of Admission).

REGULAR ADMISSION

1. Minimum cumulative undergraduate grade point average of 3.00 (on a 4-point scale).
   
2. Satisfactory GRE (or equivalent standardized test) scores (at least 1000 combined score on the Verbal and the Quantitative Subtests).
   
3. The GRE requirement may be waived for holders of earned advanced degrees on the recommendation of the program coordinator.

PROVISIONAL ADMISSION

In addition to the minimum standards required by the Graduate School, the student must have a minimum undergraduate GPA of 2.7 and submit GRE general test scores.

REQUIREMENTS FOR DEGREE
To qualify for the degree of Master of Public Administration, all candidates must satisfactorily complete a minimum of thirty-six semester hours, as follows:

1. The following courses are prerequisites for the core curriculum: PSC 130, Introduction to U.S. Government, or its equivalent; PSC 334, Public Administration, or its equivalent.
   
2. Twenty-four hours in the following eight core courses:
   Note: The Core Curriculum Cycle Should Ideally Commence in the Fall Semester
   

   PSC 500 PSC 520 PSC 540 PSC 570

   PSC 510 PSC 530 PSC 550 PSC 580

3. Twelve hours of electives approved by the Coordinator of the MPA Program in the Department of Political Science. These twelve hours are to be selected from among the following: PSC 596, Internship (maximum of nine hours); PSC 594, Directed Research (one to six hours); PSC 599, Thesis (six hours); and/or other graduate or 400, 500 or 600-level courses offered by the University of South Alabama as approved by the advisor.

Any substitutions for the above requirements must be approved in writing by the Coordinator of the MPA Program.

GRE (or equivalent standardized test) scores must be submitted prior to any category of admission except for the person with an earned advanced degree from an accredited institution.

A candidate for the MPA degree must complete successfully a comprehensive written examination covering the eight core courses listed under 1) on the previous page. To be eligible to take this examination, a student must have achieved at least a 3.00 (B) grade-point average on the core curriculum course work. Normally, the examination will be administered during the Fall and Spring Semesters. The comprehensive examination may be attempted no more than twice.

INTERNSHIP
Students in the MPA Program who are not suitably employed full-time in public agencies may be allowed to enroll in PSC 596, Graduate Internship in Public Administration, for a maximum of nine semester hours.

Normally, admission to the Internship Program will be dependent upon the following prerequisites:

1. satisfactory completion of at least six of the required core courses;
   
2. approval by the internship professor of the prospective intern’s qualifications and proposed project; and
   
3. placement of the student in an appropriate agency of the government or other public service institution.

The length of the internship and corresponding credit (at the rate of three to nine hours per semester), not to exceed a total of nine hours, will be determined for each student on the basis of the student’s particular needs and opportunities.

Each intern will be required, in consultation with the intern professor, to develop a research design for the project to be undertaken during the internship. Each intern will also be required to write a paper showing how that research design has been carried out. Particular emphasis will be placed in the paper upon the relationship between the internship experience and academic course work. Close and continuing supervision of each intern’s progress will be provided by the intern professor.

Descriptions of all Political Science (PSC) courses

Descriptions of all Criminal Justice (CJ) courses

College of Arts and Sciences

Table of Contents

University of South Alabama   -  Mobile, AL 36688-0002 / (334) 460-6101
For comments or questions about our web site, please E-mail the Webmaster .
Last date changed: Friday, July 16, 1999 10:51:05 AM
URL: http://www.southalabama.edu/bulletin/artpol.htm