College of Community and Public Affairs receives approval for PhD program
The College of Community and Public Affairs has recently received approval from SUNY and the New York State Department of Education to offer a doctorate in community and public affairs. The Binghamton University Faculty Senate gave unanimous approval to the plan in November 2012.
The new program will prepare students in three learning areas: research methods and data analysis; community systems, cultural competence and social justice; and leading public and nonprofit organizations.
The interdisciplinary program will involve all departments in CCPA, as well as faculty in the Decker School of Nursing, the Graduate School of Education and several Harpur departments in the humanities and biological sciences.
“This program was very carefully designed and fits extremely well with the University’s emphasis of transdisciplinary areas of excellence, in particular with the citizenship, rights and belonging, and with the sustainable communities areas,” said CCPA Dean Patricia Ingraham. “It will be truly interdisciplinary and will be a major contribution to Binghamton and its efforts to move in that direction.”
“We will be looking at community-based problems addresses by public and nonprofits that find solutions in the complex society in which we now live,” Professor of Social Work Josephine Allen said. “This program focuses on leadership and the kind of strengths leaders of the future will need to address the problems before us. It will allow us to look through a number of lenses at complex issues we face.”
The new program, which expects to enroll its first students in fall 2014, is incredibly important for the College of Community and Public Affairs, said Ingraham. “It gives us another part of our foundation and it gives us potential research capability and visibility that is much more significant. It means that our college has taken one more large and important step into the future and I’m absolutely delighted by it.”