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New minor promotes leadership |
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Tuesday, 01 April 2008 |
by McLEAN DOBBINS
Intern News Reporter
Appalachian State University now offers a minor in Leadership Studies through the department of human development and psychological counseling in the Reich College of Education.
According to the minor’s proposal, “The minor in Leadership Studies is an interdisciplinary program that focuses on the study of leadership from various perspectives and contexts. It is designed to provide
ASU students with learning opportunities to understand the leadership process and to develop
leadership competencies.”
The minor consists of 18 credit hours, including two required courses—Principles of Leadership and
Capstone Seminar in Leadership.
The remaining 12 hours would come from a multi-disciplinary list of elective courses approved by the
Leadership Minor Committee.
Dr. Jim L. Street said a multi-disciplinary faculty committee met to discuss the possibility of a minor
and then began looking at what Appalachian had to offer, as well as other universities with existing
leadership minors.
Street is the associate director of the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership and advisor for
the minor.
“What we had at the time was a number of courses that we had been
teaching for the past 15 years through human development psychological
counseling and some courses were over in interdisciplinary
studies,” Street said.
Eventually, the committee decided to place the minor within the department of human development and
psychological counseling.
Although the minor’s academic home is in the department of human development and psychological
counseling, CSIL currently serves as the administrative home and is where students are advised by
either Street or Julie Lassalle, a coordinator for Housing and Residence Life.
“It’s going to give Appalachian students an opportunity to really dig into leadership studies,” Street
said. “Most people take one class. Maybe, somebody will take two. So now we have an opportunity to
offer something that students I think will find useful, that they’ll find appealing. And it will appeal to
students across disciplines.”
When it looked at other universities, the committee saw that leadership minors came out of several
different programs and included courses from several different areas.
“Leadership happens in groups, in organizations and communities primarily speaking,” Street said. “So
we looked at courses that had to do with groups, organizational courses.”
“It’s an ongoing process,” he said. “We have a place to start. This list of courses will grow as this minor
continues. We don’t think we have found all the courses that can relate. I expect departments and
faculty will contact us with ideas. I think students will come to us and say that they have taken a
course or they’re looking at a course that seems to relate.”
Initially, the fear was that the minor would draw students from only one college or department.
“So we found a department that was happy to house the minor and we knew from that particular
department that we were in a fairly neutral place and we could really recruit students from all colleges,
from all majors,” Street said. “I think the collaborative approach to creating this minor makes it a unique
program at Appalachian.”
Street said students should know the hours that go toward the minor cannot also be used toward the
completion of the student’s major.
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