UNION COUNTY COLLEGE ACADEMIC PROGRAM REVIEW. Criminal Justice Associate in Arts Degree

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1 UNION COUNTY COLLEGE ACADEMIC PROGRAM REVIEW I. Program Objectives Criminal Justice Associate in Arts Degree The Criminal Justice Program is designed to develop law enforcement professionals, other criminal justice personnel and others who, after completion of the two-year program, will be prepared to continue their studies in fields such as police administration, public administration, legal studies, and management. The specific objectives of this program are that the graduate must be able to demonstrate: knowledge of the field of criminal justice including police organization and administration and police management systems; awareness and concern about the ethical implications of criminal justice; awareness of his/her rights and responsibilities as an officer of the law and as a citizen of a world community; the ability to communicate effectively, both in writing and orally, with particular emphasis on police reports and interpersonal communication; awareness of the factors that shape the world in order to function effectively as a police officer in a multicultural society; an understanding of the characteristics of the social and psychological characteristics of offenders; an understanding of the dynamics of relationships between the diverse cultural and racial groups; the ability to apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills to specific criminal justice situations. II. Departmental Organization and Administration The CRJU program is an associate in arts degree program. Department communication is informal with no strict constraints. and mobile communication devices are used extensively among department faculty. III. Faculty During the academic year the CRJU program consisted of two, full-time faculty members. Professor Palmer taught 15 contact hours in the fall semester and 18 contact hours in the spring semester. Professor Singer taught 18 contact hours in the fall semester and 21 contact hours in the spring semester. The CRJU program also consisted of 4, part-time faculty members during the academic year. Professor Arezzi taught 6 contact hours in the fall and 3 contact hours in the 1

2 spring semesters. Professor Merrill taught 8 contact hours in the fall semester and 7 contact hours in the spring semester. Professor Orak taught 3 contact hours in both the fall and spring semesters. Professor Spinelli taught 3 contact hours in both the fall and spring semesters. A. Advisory Committee The CRJU Advisory Committee consists of five members including Ralph Frohlich, the Union County Sheriff; Anthony Parante, the director of the Union County Police Academy; James Debbie, the Chief of the Mountainside Police Department; Philip Spinelli, the Chief of the Waterfront Commission in New York City; and Eric G. Mason, the Chief of the Cranford Police Department IV. Curriculum CRJ 101 Intro to Criminal Justice CRJ 102 Police Organization & Administration CRJ 103 Intro to Forensic Procedure (or Mathematics or Laboratory Science) CRJ 201 Police Management Systems CRJ 203 Criminal Investigation CRJ 205 Police Role in the Community CRJ 206 Criminal Law or Criminal Justice (18-25 credits): CRJ 207 Special Police Operations (or GOV 205) GOV 201 American Govt. & Politics GOV 202 American National Govt. Government (6-9 credits): GOV 204 Public Administration (or CRJ 206 or CRJ 207) Mathematics (6-8 credits): 2 Mathematics Electives (or Laboratory Sciences or CRJ 103) Science (6-8 credits): 2 Laboratory Sciences (or Mathematics or CRJ 103) ENG 101 English Composition I ENG 102 English Composition II ENG 128 The Dynamics of Communication or Communications (9 credits): ENG 129 Public Speaking HIS 201 US History to 1865 History (6 credits): Humanities/Social Sciences (15 credits): Electives (3 credits): Total (63-68 credits) HIS 202 US History since 1865 PSY 101 General Psychology PSY 207 Social Psychology SOC 101 Principles of Sociology SOC 206 Minorities in American Life Humanities Elective 1 General Elective The total number of credits required in the CRJU program meets the criteria for being awarded an Associate in Arts degree and the distribution of courses is appropriate for a typical Criminal Justice curriculum. Foundational government, history, and humanities/social sciences courses are required. The importance of the English communications courses cannot be 2

3 overemphasized; repeatedly employer feedback highlights the need for good communications skills from employees. The math, science, and elective courses help contribute to developing students well-rounded general education. The sequence of criminal justice courses consists of eighteen to twenty-five credits. All of these courses have the appropriate content and level as indicated by the course descriptions in the UCC course catalog. V. Students A. Program Enrollment Analysis The proportionate change in total CRJU majors has a history of fluctuating. The total enrollment in the academic year included 612 CRJU majors, most of whom were continuing (410) or first-time (112) students. Table 2 details CRJU enrollment patterns over the past several years. Table 3 further details fall enrollment patterns by attendance status. As can be seen in this table, there was an increase in the amount of students enrolled in the Fall of 2006 (418) to the Fall of 2007 (456). Table 4 shows the number of transfers into the CRJU program. The CRJU program had a increase in the amount of 6 external transfer students into the program from to followed by a decrease of 8 from to The amount of external transfers remained at 13 from to then increased by 6 in The amount of external transfer students decreased to 15 in before settling at 18 in Student attrition throughout the CRJU program has posed an issue for students academic success. As Table 5 depicts, there were 138 first time CRJU students in the Fall 2006 semester, yet only 39 endured after four semesters. Those who did not continue in the program either did not re-enroll (74 students, or 54%), changed their major (7 students, or 5%), or were academically dismissed (18 students, or 13%). There was only one graduate of the CRJU program over the four semesters from the Fall 2006 cohort. Table 6 illustrates the number of graduates from the CRJU program. There were 29 graduates from the CRJU program in which increased to 34 graduates in and decreased to 33 graduates in The number of graduates then increased to 41 graduates in and decreased to 32 graduates in There was another increase in the number of graduates from the CRJU program from 32 to 53 from to followed by another decrease to 48 graduates in Credit hours generated from CRJU students increased 4,253 hours to 11,230 credit hours from fiscal year () 2002 to Table 7 contains this information. The CRJU direct instructional cost has increased over $370,000 between the 2002 and 2007 fiscal years, to $1,074, while the cost per full-time equivalent (FTE) student has also increased $257, to $2, Table 8 has figures since There are 20 similar Associate s degree programs in the area, 16 Bachelor s degree programs, 7 Master s degree programs, and 1 Doctoral degree program. Table 9 lists these schools and programs. B. Core Course Scheduling and Enrollment 3

4 Table 10 depicts the distribution of students among core CRJU courses from the to academic years. Overall, 6,833 (duplicate) students enrolled in 255 sections of core CRJU courses with an average class size of 26.8 students. A total of 877 (duplicate) students enrolled in the core CRJU courses in academic year There were 32 sections that ran, with an overall average class size of 27.4 students. During the academic year, 1,032 (duplicate) students enrolled in 38 sections for an average class size of 27.2 students. It should be noted that all of the core courses in the CRJU program were offered and ran at least once during the to academic years. Additional required course enrollment is presented in Table 11. Table 12 contains core course scheduling information. There were a total of 266 core courses offered, of which 255 actually ran, over the seven year time period. Most CRJU major courses were offered (and ran) on the Cranford campus. Tuesday/Thursday courses dominated the schedule, with 68 of the 68 offered courses running. Apart from Tuesday/Thursday courses, the most popular days for courses were Monday/Wednesday/Friday (48 that ran) and classes that started between 5:00pm - 5:59pm (40 that ran). C. Student Outcomes The Office of Assessment, Planning and Research conducts an annual survey of UCC graduates. Forty-one students transferred to a 4-year institution after graduating from UCC. Fifteen of the 41 graduates that transferred attended Kean University, nine attended Rutgers University, and five attended Montclair. Additional institutions that the UCC graduates transferred to are listed in Table 13. Table 14 lists the degrees that the graduates who transferred were pursuing. The most common degrees being pursued were criminal justice (31), and Sociology (3). The amount of credits that transferred from UCC to the new institutions are listed in Table 15. Most of the CRJU respondents reported that they accomplished their objective at UCC. Survey results over the past five years also emphasize that the majority of CRJU graduates are generally satisfied with UCC. Further details from this survey are presented in Table 16. An analysis using the CCbenefits occupational projections tool revealed that the job forecast for students graduating from CRJU programs in the Newark-Union Labor Area may be a concern. The area fell short of the expected change by 387 jobs showing an increase of 513 jobs instead of the projected 900 over a ten year period. Highlights of this analysis can be found in Appendix I. VI. Summary and Conclusions The obvious weakness of the CRJU program is low retention. In the Fall of 2006 the CRJU program had 138 first-time students enrolled. Of these 138 students, only 39 were still enrolled in the CRJU program after four semesters. While the amount of first time students entering the program is a good size (112 in the 07/08 academic year), the low retention rate shows the number of students surviving to the second and third semesters will likely be small. 4

5 The cost per FTE of the CRJU program, i.e., $2,608.74, is less than the median cost per FTE of programs at UCC which was $2, in The cost per FTE of the CRJU program has been less than the median cost per FTE of programs at UCC since Another concern may be the projected availability of jobs for bailiffs, detectives and criminal investigators, police and sheriff s patrol officers, private detectives and investigators, gaming surveillance officers, and gaming investigators for the Newark-Union labor area. Over the next decade, an increase of 7.06% is projected in the region for bailiffs, detectives and criminal investigators, police and sheriff s patrol officers, private detectives and investigators, gaming surveillance officers, and gaming investigators jobs. Similarly, a small 6% increase in employment for bailiffs, detectives and criminal investigators, police and sheriff s patrol officers, private detectives and investigators, gaming surveillance officers, and gaming investigators jobs is forecasted for the State and a 15% increase in jobs is expected for the nation. 1 The occupation employment projections for bailiffs, detectives and criminal investigators, private detectives and investigators, gaming surveillance officers, and gaming investigators show zero annual average job openings from 2004 to 2014 for Union County while projections for police and sheriff s patrol officers show an annual average of 30 job openings. 2 The CRJU Program was not designated as a regional program because it is not unique among community colleges in the State, e.g., Raritan Valley Community College, Hudson County Community College, Passaic County Community College, Gloucester County College, Bergen Community College, Atlantic Cape Community College, Brookdale Community College, Burlington County College, Camden County College, County College of Morris, Cumberland County College, Essex County College, Mercer County Community College, Middlesex county College, Ocean County College, Sussex County Community College, and Warren County Community College offer programs. 1 Source: CCbenefits 2 Source: State of New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development 5

6 Criminal Justice Table 8 Direct Instructional Cost (in dollars) Direct Cost 699, , , , ,057, ,074, ,102, Cost per FTE 2, , , , , , ,608.74

7 Criminal Justice Job Forecast Appendix I CCbenefits provides data, tools and reports for community colleges to use for occupational projections with respect to specific educational programs. For the purposes of this report, the APR office utilized the economic forecaster module to investigate the occupational projections for graduates of the Criminal Justice program, Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code The analysis links the academic program by CIP code to the federal government s Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. CIP code is directly mapped to SOC codes , bailiffs; , detectives and criminal investigators; , police and sheriff s patrol officers; , private detectives and investigators; and , gaming surveillance officers and gaming investigators. Criminal Justice (CIP ) Mapped to SOC codes : bailiffs; ; detectives and criminal investigators: ; police and sheriff s patrol officers; : private detectives and investigators; and , gaming surveillance officers and gaming investigators. For the Newark-Union Labor Area (Essex, Hunterdon, Morris, Sussex, Union). Timeframe: (5 years) Over the next five years, a projected increase of 336 Criminal Justice jobs (4.61%) is predicted for the Newark-Union Labor area. This compares to a 4% increase throughout New Jersey and a 9% increase nationally. General economic growth throughout the US should create about 531 additional Criminal Justice jobs in this area over the next five years. An expected 125 Criminal Justice jobs will be gained in the local area over the next five years. A regional decline of 320 Criminal Justice jobs is expected by the year In sum, 531 jobs created local jobs gained 320 national jobs lost = 336 total projected jobs. The concentration of Criminal Justice jobs in the Newark-Union Labor area is above the national average and this concentration is expected to remain over the next five years. Throughout the State of New Jersey, areas that specialize in Criminal Justice jobs are Cape May, Mercer, Salem, Cumberland, Sussex, Essex, Atlantic, Hunterdon, Ocean, Gloucester, Union, Monmouth, Camden, and Burlington counties, since these areas are above the national concentration average in Criminal Justice jobs. Timeframe: (10 years) The Criminal Justice job market in the Newark-Union Labor area over the next ten years is projected to have an increase of 513 jobs. Regionally, an increase of 7% of Criminal Justice jobs is anticipated over the next 10 years, compared to increases of 6% at the state and 15% at the national level. The future health of the economy over the next ten years should account for an additional 900 Criminal Justice jobs in the Newark-Union Labor area. A projected gain of 220 Criminal Justice jobs in the local area is a result of occupational performance at the national level. Regional attributes are expected to account for the loss of 607 jobs in this labor area. In total, this equates to a job increase of 513 Criminal Justice jobs over the next ten years.