By Valerie Orleans '80

Seventies-era students could major in engineering, but not computer science. Likewise, there weren’t yet animation classes in the arts or social media classes in communications. Today’s language students have diverse choices, including Arabic, Persian or Vietnamese.

Cal State Fullerton’s course offerings have always been a reflection of world issues and new advances. Each year, the eight colleges on campus analyze course offerings — determining what courses to keep, add, adapt or drop.

The most often selected undergraduate areas of study in 2008-09 were finance, child and adolescent development, psychology, accounting, marketing, kinesiology, liberal studies, business management, communications and human services.

Training Today's Teachers

When it comes to educating future teachers, Cal State Fullerton’s first graduates would be surprised by the additional assessments, curriculum changes and emphasis on educational technology and knowledge of K-12 standards.

Program offerings have evolved as well, including the creation of a new master’s degree in education with a concentration in higher education, online master’s degrees (such as instructional design and technology) and a new doctoral program with concentrations in pre-kindergarten- 12 leadership and community college leadership.

“Officials predict about 1 million teaching vacancies will be created over the next four years as a result of baby boomers retiring,” said Karen Ivers, acting associate dean for the College of Education. “While students continue to seek elementary education credentials, there is also a need for qualified secondary education teachers, with a particular need for those who can teach math and science, and an ongoing need for special education teachers. The College of Education has highly regarded and innovative teacher education programs, and is the only college in Orange County with programs that are nationally accredited.”

Meeting Workforce Needs

The number of students graduating in mathematics and the sciences is insufficient to meet future workforce needs. In addition, job prospects in these fields are predicted to grow. In the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the number of majors has grown in all departments during the last decade. The most often selected major in the college is biological science, followed by chemistry and biochemistry and mathematics.

In the College of Engineering and Computer Science, civil and environmental engineering has witnessed the most rapid growth in student interest in recent years. “The market often drives students in choosing their majors,” said Dean Raman Unnikrishnan. “Although traditional engineering disciplines remain strong, environmental engineering is receiving a lot more attention from students who are more eco-conscious.”

Similarly, the College of Health and Human Development owes its origins to the general growth of health-related fields. “Each of the departments within the college has experienced numerous changes over the years and currently look vastly different from the original programs,” said Kathy Koser, the college’s associate dean.

Years ago, the university considered eliminating the nursing program and today it is one of the fastest-growing programs on campus. In the past, students receiving a degree in physical education primarily taught and coached in the public schools. Today’s students receive a degree in kinesiology and choose a focus area in clinical exercise science, fitness and health promotion, gero-kinesiology, sports studies or teacher education, or a degree in athletic training.

The child and adolescent development degree now offers options in early childhood development, elementary school settings, adolescent/youth development, and family and community contexts. New to the campus are the Master of Public Health and the Master of Social Work degrees. In addition, there are numerous changes to the master’s degree in counseling and the Bachelor of Science in Human Services.

The most often selected majors in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences are psychology, liberal studies, criminal justice and sociology. Psychology’s popularity, according to Jack Mearns, chair of psychology, can be attributed to its two different master’s degrees – an M.A. in research and an M.S. in clinical psychology. Both programs have more than doubled in size in the last decade, Mearns said, and both send graduates to Ph.D. programs. In addition, the M.S. program trains future marriage family therapy clinicians to treat patients in a variety of settings in the community.

Focusing on Professional Development

The Mihaylo College of Business and Economics reports continued interest in accounting and finance. The college’s centers in Insurance and Sales Leadership also are creating increased student interest in careers in those areas, said Thomas Boyd, associate dean of the college. “Our focus is now on continuous improvement, resulting in upcoming curriculum innovations in the areas of leadership and functional integration,” Boyd noted. “We also have made significant changes to the MBA, moving beyond course content to include important aspects of professional development that will increase demand for our graduates and make alumni degrees more valuable and prestigious as well.”

Between 40 and 50 years ago, the fine arts dominated majors in the College of the Arts, said Larry Johnson, chair and professor of art, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art as a Cal State Fullerton student during the ’70s. “There was a strong interest in the crafts area of metalsmithing, woodworking, weaving and so on, along with a robust drawing and painting program. In the late ’70s, graphic design majors began to grow, eventually overtaking all other concentrations to become the largest program area. The introduction of computers to design education in the early ’80s ensured continued interest.

“In the ’80s and ’90s, successful feature animation projects at Disney and other major studios fueled a demand for creative talent with a strong foundation in figurative drawing skills. In the 2000s, we introduced digital to our more traditional or classical hand-drawn animation programs,” Johnson said.

Theatre and dance programs also have drawn students, according to Susan Hallman, professor of theatre and dance who served as chair of the department from 1997-2009. “The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre is by far the most popular major.”

Music has always been a prevalent major, with the number of music majors growing by more than 15 percent in the past two years. CSUF has always been a source of many of Southern California’s finest middle and high school choral and instrumental music teaching programs. According to Marc Dickey, chair of the music department, “When I met my first class of student teachers in instrumental music in 1988, they were all young men. These days, a typical student teaching class is about a 50-50 mix of males and females.”

Communicating Change

With the advent of online publications, students in the College of Communications are focusing more of their energies on online communication.

“Convergence is the name of the game today,” said Tony Fellow, chair and professor of communications. “For example, today’s advertising, journalism and public relations students must learn to tell a story, tell it across various media and learn how to market that story.”

The university’s proximity to many of Southern California’s tourist attractions has led to new concentrations in areas of entertainment and tourism. Communications offers an entertainment studies concentration; art offers an entertainment art/animation concentration; and business offers entertainment and tourism management. What’s more, as the world grows increasingly smaller based on new technologies, there is more interest in the College of Communication’s programs in intercultural communications.