Contact: Maridith Geuder
Sharing library resources, faculty expertise and distance learning technologies, Mississippi's two land-grant institutions are launching an academic partnership designed to enhance regional workforce skills.
Beginning in January with the 2002 spring semester, Alcorn State and Mississippi State universities will offer a collaborative master's degree program in workforce education leadership, said Clayborne D. Taylor, MSU dean of continuing education.
"The curriculum has been developed based on needs identified by a five-state community college survey we conducted in 1998," he said.
Taylor said responding community college presidents identified an increased need for rural community college leaders with the skills necessary to coordinate collaborations among two-year institutions, K-12 schools, industry, and government agencies. Responses from Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee also showed a potential pool of as many as 1,000 individuals requiring or desiring a graduate degree in the major.
Additionally, he added, the survey indicated that as many as 40 community college leadership positions will need to be filled in the next several years.
Already collaborating on a doctoral degree in community college leadership, ASU and MSU determined they could combine resources to create an additional targeted and efficient educational delivery system, said Napoleon Moses, dean of ASU's School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences.
This new program will give graduates highly marketable skills in today's rural community colleges, rural development organizations, industry, and business," Moses said. That's because the cross-disciplinary master's will include academic training in agriculture, the arts and sciences, business and industry, and education, he explained.
While students may be admitted through either institution, the curriculum requires that approximately 50 percent of required courses be completed at ASU and an equal amount at MSU. Both institutions will award the degree.
Though the two schools are geographically far apart, Web-based courses will allow convenient access for those who are employed full-time. On-campus classes and meetings will complement the Internet courses.
For more information about the new master's degree program, telephone ASU's Moses at (601) 877-6137 or Anthony Olinzock of MSU at (662) 325-8267.