A. External Environment: Market Forces

B. Internal Environment

A. Legal Studies Department Goals

B. The Strategic Plan for Legal Studies Programs

C. Technology

D. Linkages with Other Units

E. Assessment

F. Resource Implications

The Legal Studies Department is committed to assisting students in learning about law within the context of a quality liberal arts education. To prepare students for the highly competitive world of law, we engage them in critical thinking and analysis, theoretical considerations and practical applications, conflict management, research and writing, and technological preparation.

We accomplish our mission on several levels. In general education courses, we teach students to be informed consumers of law. Through rigorous undergraduate programs, we prepare students for a variety of law-related careers by emphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of law and providing them with a sound theoretical foundation. Through the integration of law with such disciplines as psychology and sociology, we prepare students for multifaceted approaches to the delivery of services in law, criminal justice, and child advocacy. On the graduate level, we provide advanced and specialized programs for enhanced professional opportunities in law-related fields. At all levels, students are prepared to deal with the dynamics of a world of new and evolving careers.

II. Current Snapshot of the Department of Legal Studies

MSU’s Department of Legal Studies is unique among four-year institutions of higher education in the State of New Jersey. The Department currently offers the following programs:

Growing public and business pressure now demand expeditious and inexpensive resolution of disputes. There is a concomitant increase in less adversarial approaches to resolving conflicts. Consequently, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes are burgeoning. Arbitration is required in all automobile personal injury actions and is included as a requirement in many business contracts. Mandatory mediation is required in landlord/tenant disputes and in many small claims matters; it is presently utilized on a voluntary basis in family law and in many municipal court matters. Pilot programs of commercial mediation are already in place in some counties of New Jersey. The Americans with Disabilities Act and other recent legislation demonstrate support for the use of dispute resolution. With a society increasingly intolerant of the time and expense of litigation, ADR will increasingly invade areas heretofore seen as the exclusive domain of lawyers and the judiciary.

Dispute Resolution/Conflict Management will become a better-defined profession. Licensure or certification for dispute resolution professionals may become a reality. MSU dispute resolution courses may satisfy court-mandated prerequisites for court-appointed mediators. Because of its pioneering offerings in the field, MSU may become a major player in this arena.

New Jersey K-12 teachers are now required to incorporate conflict resolution skills into the curriculum of certain grades. Students who receive this training will, as adults, expect increased opportunities for more creative means of resolving disputes.

To meet these demands, ADR concepts and principles must increasingly be included in existing courses and programs. New courses/programs to meet these needs, as well as expanded offerings for teachers and future teachers will also have to be developed.

Technology continues to expand exponentially in the legal field. Yellow pads have given way to mouse pads. Those who fail to adapt are -- and will be -- unable to deliver competitive or effective services to their clients.

Legal information management has become the modus operandi of research and litigation. The proliferation of digital research storage systems and services will mandate acquisition of advanced technological skills on the part of legal professionals at all levels.

The judiciary is evolving -- and will continue to evolve -- toward the "courtroom of the future" of which the O.J. Simpson trial was but a harbinger. While administratively the courts are already moving toward direct electronic filing, the transformation of the practice of law through the information and nanotech revolutions will continue, as holographic storage, holographic projection, and virtual presence become accepted realities of legal presentation. Specialized education in a variety of legal information, management, and technology fields heretofore unknown will become necessary.

The expansion of law-related jobs -- especially in information management, administration, and middle management -- will continue, and the MSU Master of Arts in Legal Studies will continue to be in the forefront in education for Legal Management, Information and Technology.

Electronic privacy and free speech issues are already influencing the nature of legal practice. Developments in copyright, trademark, and patent law will affect the future of law and technology. Appropriation of material and distribution around the world will be only a mouse click away. Information on networks and through the Internet, once thought secure, will be subject to observation and theft. New paradigms of information ownership and legal regulation are in development at present and will have profound affects on the way in which we practice, administrate, manage, and teach law.

To meet these demands, continuous revision of pedagogy and upgrading of technology within all Legal Studies offerings will be required. Faculty as well as students must learn and adapt to the new technologies and modes of delivery of knowledge.

While some specific kinds of violent crime have decreased in recent years, one cannot turn from the reality that crime will always be with us in our society: It just shifts to from form to form. At a time when violent crime was decreasing in New York City, Mayor Giuliani added 1600 police officers to the force. Domestic violence, crimes against children, drug-related offenses, and white collar/high tech crimes continue to rise. The criminal justice system can no longer rely upon knowledge gained through experience by the cop on the beat. The law enforcement community is increasingly requiring baccalaureate-level education. A recent survey published in The New York Times found that, in contrast to earlier studies, more college students are now interested in education for a job than in education for a philosophy of life.

Traditional jobs have become more broadly defined, and employers now expect practitioners to deliver more comprehensive services. Children’s rights advocates, for example, must be trained in legal issues and in conflict management. There is increasing diversification in law-related employment settings.

To meet these demands, multifaceted preparation is required. Working collaboratively, the Departments of Legal Studies, Psychology, and Sociology have begun to address the complex interrelationships among the legal, psychological, and sociological dimensions of the field in developing the Justice Studies major. Programs must continue to be developed from a multidisciplinary approach which incorporates an understanding of the legal system, constitutional issues, criminal culture, as well as society’s response to and the psychological dimensions of these issues, all of which must be interwoven to meet changing societal needs and career paths. Faculty must develop a keen awareness of multidisciplinary contexts and approaches.

Economic forces continue to create even greater demands for paralegals as legal support personnel. The Occupational Outlook Handbook of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics states that: "(J)ob prospects are expected to be favorable for persons with bachelor’s degrees who graduate from well-regarded paralegal training programs." (The Legal Assistant Managers Association has recently concluded that a four-year college degree should be the minimum entry level requirement for paralegals.)

Moreover, the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that employment of paralegals is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations through the year 2005, at a rate of 36% or more. Paralegals and lawyers are rated among the occupations having the largest numerical increase in employment from 1994 to 2005. The Department of Labor lists related occupations requiring a specialized understanding of the law such as claims examiners, compliance and enforcement officials, police officers, patent agents, and title examiners.

A number of states, including New Jersey, are presently considering certification or licensure of paralegals. The advent of regulatory credentialing by the legislature or judiciary significantly increases the need for heightened educational preparation. Similarly, individuals in related professions such as child advocacy may have certification or licensure requirements in the future.

The Paralegal Studies Program, therefore, must continue and further develop its outstanding preparation of students for paralegal careers at the undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, and master’s degree levels, and in multidisciplinary offerings in the Paralegal studies concentration of the Justice Studies major.

As the baby boom generation ages, critical and expanding areas include Social Security, Medicare, estate planning, issues surrounding the granting and denial of benefits in health and disability insurance, and elder law.

The college population will also include significant numbers of more mature students including second career students and unemployed parents. Many of these students will require flexible hours, additional support services, and non-traditional systems for the delivery of knowledge.

Changing demographics also have repercussions in the legal system. By the year 2000, fully 25% of the nation’s population is expected to be Spanish speaking. Language barriers require sensitivity to diversity and to multicultural considerations. Immigrants, in general, come from countries with different systems of justice and, as a result, may misunderstand our legal system. In approaching the growing gap between rich and poor, increased attention must be paid to public service work in the inner cities. An increased interrelationship with the Educational Opportunity Legal Studies Program will be required to help narrow the gap.

The globalization of so much of the economy requires that legal professionals be cognizant of comparative law issues. On an individual level, the rapid increase in international travel results in multinational consequences ranging from immigration to taxes and Social Security.

To meet the needs of an aging population, it will be necessary to develop course offerings in elder law and increase offerings in administrative law and estate planning. To meet the needs of globalization, the Department’s "Skills for Bilingual Legal Personnel" course will have to be offered more frequently and it may become necessary to develop courses dealing with comparative law and legal systems. Service learning, in addition to already existing clinical and pro bono activities for students, will be essential to sensitize students to considerations of changing demographics and economic gaps. The complexities of changing demographics will require student advisement on many issues beyond academic concerns. Student advisement will become more service-oriented.

The education of legal students must reflect the new demands of legal careers of the 21^st century. Pre-law education must continue to be grounded in the liberal arts and also provide applied perspectives in order to provide a platform for prospective law students. Shifting demographics will result in an older and more diverse population in law school.

To meet these demands, pre-law studies at MSU must provide further globalization of offerings and applied fieldwork opportunities, within the liberal arts context. The technological expertise to interface with the fast-paced legal environment must be provided. The needs of non-traditional adult students who have different perspectives as they seek law school preparation must be considered. Additionally, a grounding in mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution will provide enhanced perspectives to the student’s law school education.

The Master of Arts in Legal Studies is seen by some students and by some law schools as an alternative or preparatory route to law school. The MA may enhance the student’s confidence in his/her academic abilities after a long hiatus from classroom instruction. It will broaden a student’s perspectives in both theory and practice prior to the focused experience of law school, and it will permit a student to combine law with careers such as alternative dispute resolution or legal management, information, and technology.

A number of internal assumptions, which we will group as "opportunity designations," flow from the external (market) forces described above as well as from internal forces at the university, college, and departmental levels. Key underlying values permeate these assumptions. On behalf of students, they are:

1. The offerings of the Department of Legal Studies are unique in that they have an applied and professional/pre-professional focus within a liberal arts context.

1. By the year 2000, there will be more tenured faculty in Legal Studies, which will provide greater stability within the Department.

2. By the year 2008, 1-2 Legal Studies faculty members will have retired and their positions will have to be filled.

3. The current number of Legal Studies students in undergraduate courses (paralegal minors, pre-law minors, and post-baccalaureate certificate students) has stabilized at approximately 475. This number suffered a severe drop in 1996, after post-baccalaureate tuition was doubled, but has since recovered. This number is expected almost to double with the new major.

4. The MA program, now in its third year, currently has 64 students, including those accepted and pending. Given current trends, this number is expected to increase at a rate of approximately 10% per year.

5. Intensive and supportive student advisement and faculty/student interaction is fundamental to the success of Legal Studies Programs. The Department has an "open door" policy with regard to hearing from and dialoguing with students. Increased enrollment in current and new programs will engender the need for additional faculty participation in advisement.

6. The placement of the new major in the Legal Studies Department will increase the need for administrative and technical assistance.

7. Interdepartmental faculty cooperation and collaboration, essential to the success of the Justice Studies program, are present and supported by the Dean of the CHSS. Cluster teaching and team approaches to instruction will become increasingly important in multidisciplinary offerings. They will serve as models for students to emulate in the work environment.

8. Faculty will be required to develop a keen understanding of multidisciplinary contexts and approaches to learning in view of the new major. The increase in multidisciplinary offerings will require that departments and colleges invest in developing curricula and pedagogy.

9. Current faculty will be required to learn new technologies and modes of delivery of knowledge, and to keep current in alternative dispute resolution and other changes in the field. They will have to be given the opportunity and support to broaden their knowledge.

10. Additional learning opportunities for adjunct and visiting specialist faculty need to be provided in technology, conflict resolution, and other evolving areas. This may include the development of partnership training programs pairing full-time faculty with adjunct faculty. Graduate assistants may also play a role in this process.

11. Additional line faculty positions are required in key areas where programs cannot rely so heavily on adjunct faculty – notably in technology and dispute resolution.

1.     There is a need to interface traditional classroom materials and instruction with constantly evolving  digital materials in cyberspace. This will require departments or college-based Centers of Pedagogy to develop hardware and software capable of supporting the curricula.

2. Advances in technology will require a broader array of focused technology courses as well as the integration of technology with specialized subject matter.

3. The hands-on technology requirements of increasing numbers of courses will have to be supported by more laboratories with access to specialized file servers.

4. Currently, some faculty use e-mail in classes, all undergraduate Legal Studies students learn computer-assisted legal research, and sophisticated technology is taught in some classes. Enhancements to currently used technologies and incorporation of evolving technologies will be required.

5. Special training will be required for many MSU students whose economic level inhibits their access to technology off campus.

6. Non-traditional students struggle more than traditional students with advances in technology due to lack of exposure and will require support.

7. Faculty need time and expert guidance to learn and practice technology.

8. There is a need for the staff of Information Technology to be more attuned to and knowledgeable about the educational process in order to determine, first hand, technological needs in support of instruction.

9. Vastly increased support from Information Technology will be required to change to an Academic Computing model of technology, i.e., where leadership roles are given to faculty.

10. Teaching with technology is more time-consuming and labor-intensive and will require compensation.

11. Non-print media will become an increasingly important resource in classroom instruction.

12. There will be a need for decentralized college-based Centers of Pedagogy to support technological and academic innovation. These will supply the technological expertise to create courseware or to help faculty create their own electronic course material.

1. The experiential learning component of the curriculum is enhanced through strengthened partnerships with the legal community, the educational community, and the public.

2. Support for the nation’s first Paralegal Public Interest Law Clinic on the MSU campus should be continued.

3. The Campus Peer Mediation Center should be strengthened and expanded.

4. "Town and gown" partnerships, such as the volunteer mediation program in which MSU Legal Studies graduate students are currently placed in Montclair Municipal Court, need to be increased, particularly in conflict resolution.

5. Additional joint ventures with the NJ Institute for Continuing Legal Education, professional dispute resolution associations, and professional paralegal associations need to be explored for continuing legal education.

6. MSU should become a center for the exchange of ideas among practitioners in law and conflict resolution.

1. External funding supports the development and enhancement of Legal Studies programs while the programs themselves receive essential support from the institution.

2. In addition to essential MSU support for Legal Studies programs, external funding through corporations, foundations and government sources needs to be explored.

3. Crime does "pay" in significant funding opportunities. Once the major is operational, new sources of funding will become available from government and private grant sources in criminal justice and from law enforcement agencies.

The Department’s mission and goals as well as the effects of the external and internal environment must be factored in when planning for programs, offerings, and staffing in the Legal Studies Department.

The MA in Legal Studies is in its third year of operation. There are presently 64 students, 34 accepted and 30 in process. Our anticipated rate of growth will result in double the number of students by 2008. This will require additional course offerings each semester and more advisement. Additional faculty will be required to teach Legal Studies courses at the graduate level.

Evolving curriculum in the MA will be consistent with developments in the legal field. Existing courses will have to be reformulated to take into account advances in technology and the increasing role of alternative forms of dispute resolution. Additional courses, or selected topics courses, will have to be developed to provide education in areas such as elder law, environmental law, bankruptcy, and yet unanticipated new areas.

The new major will bring more students to MSU as undergraduates, thereby providing a cadre of potential students for the MA in Legal Studies. Students will be informed of the relevance of the MA in Legal Studies and encouraged to consider it through advisement, open houses, promotional materials, and guest speakers. The Department may want to consider adding a concentration in Justice Studies.

The Department will seek court and professional organization approval of graduate course offerings so that MSU graduates will be able to provide dispute resolution services under their auspices.

The Paralegal Studies Program is in its twentieth year of operation. There are presently 209 undergraduate paralegal minors and 80 post-baccalaureate certificate students. While the number of undergraduate students has remained constant since 1990, the number of post-baccalaureate students dropped significantly after the imposition of graduate tuition. That number reached a low of 60 in 1994 but has made modest gains to the present level of 80 students. Our anticipated rate of growth for post-baccalaureate students is approximately five percent per year, for an anticipated enrollment of approximately 120 students in 2008. In 1996, there were 188 students enrolled in the Paralegal minor. In the absence of the new major, our anticipated rate of growth for undergraduate Paralegal minors would be approximately five percent per year, for an anticipated enrollment of 270-300 in 2008.

With the new major, however, we could anticipate a significant decrease in the number of students taking the Paralegal Studies minor (to approximately 120-150 by 2008) because the new major, with its paralegal concentration, will prove more attractive. This decline in Paralegal minors will not require a concomitant decrease in course offerings, however. On the contrary, students will be required to take additional courses in Paralegal Studies to complete their concentrations. In most cases, this will not result in the need to offer additional sections, but will rather maximize the enrollment potential in current offerings.

However, legal research is the one area where additional sections will be required to meet the needs of the new major. All students in all concentrations will be required to take a course called "Research in Justice Studies: Legal Perspectives." Enrollments in this class will, therefore, experience a significant increase as not only all paralegal students but all students in the Justice Studies and Child Advocacy concentrations will be required to take the course.

Evolving curriculum in Paralegal Studies will be consistent with developments in the legal field and in the role of legal support personnel. Education for the paralegal profession will be affected by the national trend for imposition of standards for certification or licensure. The New Jersey Supreme Court Standing Committee on Paralegal Education and Regulation is expected to issue its recommendations to the Supreme Court within the next year. Consistent with national trends, some form of certification or licensure is expected to follow. This may require some curricular revision.

Existing courses will have to be reformulated to take into account changes in the role of paralegals, the effects of market demands on the delivery of legal services, advances in technology and the increasing role of alternative forms of dispute resolution. Additional courses, or selected topics courses, will have to be developed to provide education in areas such as elder law, estate planning, advocacy, legal information management, environmental law, and bankruptcy.

The Pre-Law Studies minor is in its fifteenth year of operation. Since its inception in 1991, the number of pre-law students has increased markedly -- from a figure of 113 to 187 at present. Our anticipated rate of growth is 10% per year, based upon present statistics. However, limitations in law school enrollments and market pressures are expected to limit this growth rate. Taking into account all of these factors, our anticipated enrollment in 2008 is approximately 250 students.

The Pre-Law Studies minor is interdisciplinary, with more than half of the courses in the minor coming from other departments. Students take many different course combinations to fulfill the requirements of the minor. Modest increases in several required course offerings in Legal Studies may be required.

(See D. Linkages with Other Units.)

The Legal Studies Department presently offers two Gen Ed courses -- "Introduction to Law" and "Conflict and Its Resolution," grouped respectively in the Social Science Survey category and the Contemporary Issues category. Since law permeates all aspects of life and conflict management is the way of the future, the Department expects to continue to contribute to Gen Ed in both of these areas.

Additionally, it is likely that the Department will develop a contemporary legal issues course.

The Department of Legal Studies has developed an outstanding reputation as a leader in the use and integration of technology in classroom instruction. The Department will build upon this work by serving the technological needs of students and keeping abreast and ahead of market-driven demands. Technology has moved from novelty to standard tool in the curriculum and it is both a vehicle for communication and for problem solving. This evolution requires adequate personnel with sophisticated expertise to staff, teach, and develop programs. Evolution also requires a greatly heightened level of support services and the building of a technological infrastructure able to meet the needs and demands of the future.

-- Paralegal careers in legal information management and technology will become increasingly important. The Department will continuously need to update coursework, software, equipment, and teaching resources.

-- The use of technology will lead to the rapid growth of novel legal issues, which will have to be addressed in new courses or in the expansion of material covered by existing courses.

-- The Department will have to deal with the gap between technologically sophisticated students and those who are lacking even the basic rudiments of computer knowledge.

-- The software that is being developed for an increasing number of law and dispute resolution subject areas and the increasingly important World Wide Web must be integrated into classroom instruction.

-- Many faculty members with vast expertise in legal studies are not expert in technology and will require sophisticated support services to bring them up to speed and to help them remain current with rapidly advancing technology.

-- The Department will continue to develop its web server to include course curricula for more and more classes.

-- Faculty will begin to make their course materials available to their colleagues, and on-line through departmental web resources, providing standardization of materials and saving on expenses for copying and distribution.

-- Department faculty, with appropriate support, will be encouraged to develop their own interactivecurricula with on-line testing, substantive hyperlinked materials, and research resources.

-- Course materials will be integrated with world wide resources through hyperlink documents.

-- "Computer Applications in the Legal Environment" will become a required course for all majors inthe Paralegal concentration. All students will be required to have a basic level of law-related technological competence. The vehicle for imparting this knowledge may be a separate course and/or modules integrated into other courses.

-- Computer-assisted legal research will evolve in both scope and methodology. Faculty will need to keep abreast of developments and incorporate them into instruction.

-- A multidisciplinary research course encompassing the legal, sociological, and psychological aspects may be developed. Students may, for example, work with computer profiling of criminals or the use of computers in solving crimes.

-- The Department believes in the continued use of traditional modalities of effective classroom instruction, updated and supplemented by interactive learning tools and new technologies. We will experiment with distance learning in order to assess fully its applicability and effectiveness as an adjunct to or in lieu of traditional classroom instruction. As a significant increase in work will be required of faculty for distance learning courses, adequate support and compensation for their efforts will be required.

-- Students will be encouraged and aided in acquiring computers and resources with which to download and integrate course materials and prepare assignments for faculty.

-- "Chat rooms" can be structured by faculty to enrich student instruction and may be applied in linking students at different levels of learning.

-- College Centers of Pedagogy will be required to support faculty efforts to learn and integrate technologically advanced curriculum and materials. More graduate assistants and teaching assistants will be required to support the localized development of curriculum and pedagogy.

-- Centralized electronic resources for adjuncts augmented by off-campus access to these materials will be necessary to bring adjuncts up to electronic and pedagogical standards. This will require increased technical support.

-- As a center for law-related education in technology, the Department will be an educational resource for graduates. It will become increasingly common for graduates to require additional education to gain new skills and upgrade existing knowledge.

Multidisciplinary team approaches to service delivery are redefining traditional law-related careers. In response to increasingly complex requirements and the need for career flexibility, the Justice Studies major has been developed. This program involves an approach which bridges departments and disciplines, joining together the expertise of Legal Studies, Sociology, and Psychology to offer the student a broad-based liberal arts background combined with applied concentrations in Paralegal Studies, Justice Studies, and Child Advocacy. The courses in the core of the major encompass the perspectives of all three disciplines. The concentrations utilize discipline-specific courses. Program governance will be collaborative.

-- The same external forces driving the Justice Studies major have significant implications at the graduate level. Joint master’s degree programs, particularly with the departments of Psychology and Sociology, will prepare students for advanced career opportunities requiring multifaceted expertise.

-- The Doctorate in Classroom Pedagogy provides an excellent opportunity for the inclusion of law related education, particularly in the area of conflict resolution for K-12 teachers. More generally, law-related education is increasingly important across the curriculum. The Legal Studies Department is in a unique position to provide this component of doctoral studies.

-- The Campus Peer Mediation Center, initiated by the Legal Studies Department working with the Division of Student Development and Campus Life, encourages students to resolve their own conflicts through mediation. Students are trained as mediators in a course offered by the Department and provide mediation services through the Student Government Association and the Division of Student Development and Campus Life. The model of the Campus Peer Mediation Center may be expanded to encompass the resolution of conflicts among members of the larger campus community.

-- Present linkages to the external community may be strengthened and expanded. In the conflict resolution area, this includes the expansion of the Montclair Municipal Court Mediation Program, presently staffed by MSU graduate students in Legal Studies, to other venues, including other courts, community mediation centers, and conflict resolution programs in schools. In the paralegal area, this includes possible expansion of the Paralegal Public Interest Law Clinic to serve additional constituencies.

-- Service learning is a natural outgrowth of the Department’s long-standing commitment to public service and involvement in experiential education. Paralegal Studies and the Justice Studies program are both ripe areas for the development of service learning courses.

Self-study is the fundamental building block of assessment, as subsequently reviewed by departmental faculty, departmental advisory boards, and visiting committees. The American Bar Association requires an in-depth review of the Paralegal Studies Program every seven years, with extensive reporting requirements during the intervening years. This review will include the Paralegal Studies concentration of the new Justice Studies major. It involves an evaluation of programs, students, faculty, employment opportunities, and measures of program success. In particular, graduate and employer surveys are required, as is an explanation of how evaluation results are analyzed and utilized. Additionally, a periodic survey of program graduates is required. The Department will continue to follow this model in the ongoing review and assessment of all of its programs, which include visiting committees, as required by the University.

The CHSS graduate assessment committee will be recommending criteria for self-assessment, which will require the Department to examine the MA program in a systematic fashion based upon external standards. The MA in Legal Studies is a relatively new program and this kind of in-depth examination will contribute to its growth and development.

Resources for Legal Studies will be needed to maintain faculty and program health, keep current with new developments in the field, and explore new directions and initiatives of interest to the Department, college and university.

Grant funding is pivotal to the development of innovative programs in Legal Studies. The Department has an excellent track record in obtaining grant funding from both public and private sources. Several of the programs developed through external funding serve as national models. The Department plans to continue fund-raising and to explore creatively new sources, such as paralegal and attorney alumni of MSU. Grant-writing efforts will require support through the pairing of faculty with individuals who have expertise in this area. This will increase the number of individuals willing to apply their creativity to fund raising. However, even grant resources recognize that the basic building block of successful programs is university funding for faculty, support services, and equipment.

Legal Studies is a highly productive department. Since the department came into existence only a decade ago, faculty resources to support new and developing areas have necessarily been made available through the shifting of resources from other programs. The department is still of modest size and its faculty are working at or beyond tolerable levels. The fifty percent adjunct faculty ratio further strains resources by requiring full-time faculty to cover the administrative and programmatic needs of a student body served by an FTE faculty twice its size.

To carry out the plan described in this document, the Department will require: