FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
ABOUT THE PROGRAM IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND HOMELAND SECURITY
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Welcome to the program. We are here to help you find your place in the world.  And, more importantly, we're here to help you find places on the university website.

    #1.  The fastest way to get admitted is to contact a representative of the Admissions department.  That department's main rep at the Ft. Campbell Center (where most new students get started) is Vanessa Sanford (for military) at sanfordv@apsu.edu or 931-221-1415 or Michele Stamper (for civilians) at stamperm@apsu.edu or 931-221-1424.  The main office there is 931-221-1460.  Admissions needs to get you in the computer system before any official advising can take place, but some faculty are willing to help you work out an "unofficial" program of study if necessary. Once they issue you a student ID number, you should login to your OneStop account and declare BS_Criminal Justice as your major AND Homeland Security as your concentration. The CRJ major declaration is not complete without the HLS concentration added. You will have to add a minor later, but that can safely wait.  Note that the Admissions Dept. (which has lots of webpages) abides by term/semester-specific application deadlines which can be found in the Academic Calendar (learn to use the academic calendar).   For military applications, all you need to do is make APSU your home school in your GoArmyEd portal (www.goarmyed.com), GoArmyEd being a tuition assistance program that pays up to $4,500 a year.  APSU has helpful assistance in the form of a GoArmyEd point of contact at 931-221-7123, snowl@apsu.edu.  The VA office at APSU can also be reached at 931-221-7907 or ova@apsu.edu.  If you are a main campus student worried about trying to complete the major from downtown, then Mary Cochran of financial aid is the appropriate contact at 931-221-7957 or cochranm@apsu.edu.  If you are interested in "splitting" your financial aid between the main campus and the Ft. Campbell campus, please note that grants can normally be divided, but not all kinds of loans.  Also, to update Admissions so that they are notified you plan to take courses at both campuses, you should use the Application Update form at the Registrar's website or within your OneStop login (onestop.apsu.edu).  You can usually only choose one campus as your "primary" campus, but to "mix" campuses and ensure absolutely no problems with financial aid, you may need to ensure, for instance, that you are signed up for 12 hours on the main campus (a full time load each time there), and then add one or two courses in a Ft. Campbell half-semester (6 hours being a full load for any Ft. Campbell term).  A common pattern is for students to sign up for 12 hours (full time load) on the main campus and add an extra 3 hour Ft. Campbell class once registration opens for that, and then dropping one main campus course.  It takes a little timing, but don't worry, the criminal justice major is completely supported 100% on both campuses and in both face-to-face and online formats.  Even if it comes down to your last term with us, and all you need is one class left, and it is only offered face-to-face (and you need it online), you can always go ahead and sign up for it and let the CRJ (or PM) instructor know, and they will work with you by email or something.  

    #2.  The full Admissions process involves four steps, as follows:
        (a) filling out the form entitled Application for Undergraduate Admission, which can be done online in secure HTML at https://apweb.apsu.edu/) which requires setting up a login as well as a $15 fee, or by using the mail-in (PDF) version at http://www.apsu.edu/admissions/Application/2004_App.pdf, but note that soldiers can get admitted using the common application found in their EArmyU or GoArmyEd login, or by using our Admission department's temporary military admission form at https://www.apsu.edu/admissions/undergrad/temp-military.
        (b) filling out a one page form entitled Transcript Request Form for previous HS/College(s) attended, http://www.apsu.edu/admissions/forms/trans_request.pdf; and please note this is the same form you should use if you are thinking about having any corporate or government training records forwarded;
        (c) filling out a form entitled Certificate of Immunization (in HTML at http://www.apsu.edu/healthservices/MMR.htm), or alternatively, contacting Health Services and getting a waiver for at least a week or so until you get the forms in;
        (d) signing up for and taking the COMPASS test, if applicable, or submitting your ACT scores, or determining if you are exempt from such testing (for Math & English placement) via http://www.apsu.edu/testing/compass.htm; and please note that James Sanders, at sandersj@apsu.edu or 931-221-1416 is the coordinator (and resident expert) for "developmental" math and english placement.
    The re-admissions process applies if you have sat out for one semester or two terms or more.  Information on re-admission can be found at this Admissions Dept. webpage.  If you are "stuck" in some kind of re-admissions process due to a change in status of some sort, like a new source of financial aid, a change in state address, a change in residency, a problem with tuition calculation, or a problem with which term OR campus (Main campus v. Ft. Campbell) you applied for, the Admissions Dept. will probably need an Admissions Update form filled out on you.  Look for this form within your OneStop login or on one of the school's webpages for Admissions or Registrar.  If you have been out of school more that a semester at Main Campus and two semesters at Fort Campbell, then you will need to go thru a RE-ADMISSIONS process.  This process is somewhat slow and may be frustrating, but stick with it, and about the only thing an academic advisor can help with is maybe go over your academic records.  During this process, it's important when contacting anybody (especially an academic advisor) to give them your ID NUMBER; i.e., your assigned A number.  The advisor can try to help by updating your standing in courses toward the major.  When going thru the re-admission process, it is not uncommon to miss the first expected start date of a semester, so to Late Add, you'll either have to get the permission of the individual instructor and their chair, or you'll have to wait until the next semester rolls around.  

    #3.  The "open" periods to register for classes are set by the Registrar and announced via their Academic Calendar page.  In general, Main Campus registration is usually 15 weeks before a semester starts; Military students can usually register 8 weeks before a semester starts; and Ft. Campbell Civilian students can usually register 3 weeks before a semester starts.  The person in charge of putting courses in the schedule that program managers request is Sherry Kendrick. The military admissions processor for APSU is Vanessa Sanford at sanfordv@apsu.edu or 931-221-1455.  The primary point of contact for soldiers at APSU is Lydia Snow at 931-221-7123 or SNOWL@apsu.edu.  Contact the primary point of contact if the military portal you are registering under is glitched or giving you messages like "The class you are trying to register for is not in your degree plan and will therefore not be covered by TA" or "No student ID number can be generated," etc.  There are secondary points of contact like Amanda Keller at kellera@apsu.edu or 931-221-1462 if you are having military benefits problems, or Mary Cochran (931-221-1438; cochranm@apsu.edu) if you are having Business Office issues.  Please note that National Guard and Reserve are not eligible for active duty TA unless mobilized or AGR status, BUT they may be eligible for TA thru the Army National Guard or Army Reserves.  For SOCAD issues, your best contact is Marion Yarbrough at yarbroughm@apsu.edu.  Some good links to explore are the Admissions Dept. page for veterans and the military's ACES website.  Often, your benefits rep will want (and get) a (prospective or actual) program of study (aka prior credit evaluation) from an academic advisor to check that you are on track with your degree program and taking the right courses.  This can be done unofficially by any professor/advisor in your program, but "officialness" will depend upon how the prior credits are evaluated by the Registrars office, and when/if you get all your AARTS transcripts updated and into our system.  Your advisor may need to send email "overrides" to the reps if a course your advisor says you need is one they say you don't need, which can be the case when substituting one course for another, which again is something the academic advisor doesn't have complete control over.  It might also be the case that a soldier's AARTS transcript has not yet been evaluated by APSU for all the credits earned, and in many other cases, the AARTS transcript needs updating, which can be done online at either http://aarts.army.mil/ or at http://www.archives.gov/veterans/evetrecs/index.html.  Please note that is not your advisor, but someone in the Registrars office (usually someone in the Transfer Evaluation area) who helps with AARTS transcripts (as well as prior training credit of any kind).  The head of the Transfer Evaluation area is Patrice Cheatham at 931-221-7216 or cheathamp@apsu.edu.  If a deployed student has an extenuating circumstance or emergency, repayment of GoArmyEd tuition may not be required, but see Pocket Reference Guide at https://www.goarmyed.com/public/public_goarmyed-about_goarmyed.aspsx for complete details. 

    #4.  All course are available online, but they are also available face-to-face (or on-ground as we like to call them), and are scheduled as either one or the other or both, across each and every eight-week term according to a Rotation Schedule which pretty much ensures that all classes are offered on-ground at one time or another and online at other times.   Online offerings tend to be more numerous, especially in the Spring terms (Jan-Mar; Apr-June) than the Fall terms (July-Sept; Oct-Dec).  The usual proportion in a given term is for about 25% of courses to be on-ground, and 75% being online.  No course is in any "fixed" format because the format for each course will rotate throughout the year's five eight-week semesters.  The same is true for any General Education courses needed to meet graduation requirements, although there is a distinct shortage of Natural Science courses online, for which distance learners might have to take a TN consortium course via RODP lookups in the course schedules.  We have some majors who just refuse to take online courses, and they're progressing fine in the program.  On the other hand, we have several students who are joining us solely online (often from great distances), and they're progressing fine also.  Our IT folks manage any problems you may have with logging into an online course, and they have put together a nice Orientation Guide to USERNAMES AND PASSWORDS.

    #5.  There is nothing "typical" in how many courses one of our students will take at any time.  The maximum load at Ft. Campbell is no more than four (4) courses.  Most majors take no more than two (2) or three (3) at a time, and some (those with busy schedules) only take one (1) course at a time.  A very small number of students are approved on a term-by-term basis via an Overload Request Form (pdf) to take five (5) courses a term, and requests to take six (6) courses a term are almost never approved.  Some students pursue a strategy of "knocking off" General Education coursework first, before taking any Criminal Justice courses.  Some students pursue the opposite strategy, finishing off the coursework in the major first.  Most pursue a "mixed" strategy, putting at least one General Education course in their schedule every term along with at least one major course.  Of course, if your COMPASS test results indicate the need for any "enhanced" English or Math, you may find yourself blocked from registering for certain General Education courses like the sciences  and certain writing-intensive humanities (e.g., Art) unless there is prior or concurrent enrollment in an enhanced section of English or Math.  Your funding source may also give you some static about putting your "enhanced" requirement off.  Under some financial aid rules, you may simply "have" to take one of these "enhanced" General Education courses early on or within your first year, unless you sign up for only criminal justice courses required of the major (where no blocks exist) or manage to sign up for other courses that aren't blocked until you satisfy the COMPASS requirements first.

    #6.  All registration at APSU is web registration. There is no paper-and-pencil method of registering for courses. There are also no paper publications of courses scheduled.  All is online.  At Ft. Campbell, we have five terms a year, eight weeks long each.  The academic schedule looks like this: (Fall I: August 18-October 11; Fall II: October 20-December 13; Spring I: January 12-March 7; Spring II: March 16-May 9; Summer III: May 26-July 18).  Five times a year, you have to contact your advisor, identify yourself with your ID number (which is an "A" number like A00012345), and receive an ALT PIN number (which is a series of digits like 012345) from your advisor.  You then use these numbers to register online via your OneStop login which requires another personal PIN number to login (initially set to your birthdate).  You can call the Registrar at 931-221-7121 (option 2) if you get locked out and need your personal PIN reset back to your birthdate.  The registration process may seem cumbersome, but stick with it.  You'll learn the ropes quickly.  Your "A" number and personal login PIN never change, but the ALT PIN your advisor gives you changes every term.  There is one employee in the Registrar’s office who “throws the switch” or whatever that makes the computer system calculate random Pin numbers every term, and they do not share the exact date when that switch is thrown, but it is usually sometime about eight weeks before a term starts and then another switch is thrown opening up the registration period.  Civilians are usually able to register 3 weeks prior to a term, and soldiers can usually register 8 weeks before a term.   There is also a walk-in, face-to-face (normal) registration period which occurs every week before a term (and that is the best time to get your ID card, gate pass, etc.).  During that week of normal registration, all faculty advisors hold joint office hours in a big advising shindig along with representatives from other offices.  The criminal justice manager, Dr. Tom O'Connor, can be contacted for ID help and ALT PIN number by email oconnort@apsu.edu, by phone (931-221-1477), or by dropping by his office (Building 203), but the fastest service with him is by email.  Dr. O'Connor's admin assistant, Gail Roach, can also assist you with getting your ALT PIN and troubleshooting web registration problems.  Her email is roachg@apsu.edu and her phone is 931-221-1480.  In the CRJ program, we ensure that for each student, your advisor fills out and gives (email) you a Program of Study (POS) which shows what courses you have completed and have left to take.  You are entitled to an update of this POS every eight weeks.  This means that you are advised five times a year.  In order for your criminal justice advisor to access your records, you will need to ensure that indeed you are a criminal justice major and have him listed as your advisor.  Secretaries are the only ones who can "fix" major and advisor assignment.  Students can also self-declare the criminal justice major (or any major or minor for that matter) by using their OneStop login.  It is important to declare BOTH the criminal justice (CRJ or CRIM) major AND the homeland security (HLS or HS) concentration.  You may have to look hard and/or ask somebody about the right codes to put in, but generally, you want to achieve declaration of the BS degree in Criminal Justice with concentration in Homeland Security.  Ignore any codes which seems to indicate a standalone CRJ major or anything in criminology or law enforcement, for example.  To become a listed advisee of a CRJ faculty member, you'll have to call or contact the admin assistant, Gail Roach, and she'll put you in the system as a formal advisee.  Faculty can't make their own advisees.  Faculty also cannot fix a problem with major or concentration declarations since those are things the student has to do themself.  There is a late registration period which runs a couple of days or so after a semester starts, but it is advisable to avoid late registrations.  Every registration has to be "validated" in some way which ensures the school is going to get paid, and this validation process is explained and handled by the Business (Bursar) Office.  If you forget to "validate" after signing up for courses, your registration will be cancelled sometime during the first week of classes and your advisor may or may not be able to get you back in.  Once you are registered for Ft. Campbell courses, to get a post or parking pass, you may need to contact Cheryl Garrett at garrettc@apsu.edu, 931-221-1401, or at the APSU window at the Education Center.  They will give you the paperwork you need to take to Gate #4 and get a term-long pass.  No one with active criminal warrants or a significant criminal history will likely be issued a pass.  You will also need your vehicle registration and insurance up to date.   

    #7.  All previous coursework from another institution, regardless of whether a student wishes to receive credit for it or not, should be submitted via the official transcript request form which is routed initially to Admissions and then to the Registrar for evaluation and input.  The whole process requires a Records Official at one site (whomever that may be) send paperwork to a Records Official at another site (the APSU Admissions or Registrar's Office).  Your advisor cannot handle, route, or guarantee anything official regarding credit for previous work anywhere.  He can "unofficially" give you an assessment, but he cannot help you get "get the stuff on your transcript" so to say.  Again, that requires a Records Official from one institution contacting a Records Official from another institution.  Backlog times vary from two weeks to a month or two, and a list of contacts in the Registrar's Office is provided below.  Credit for military training programs are based upon appropriate ACE Guide recommendations, and typically, students who have completed Basic Training are usually awarded two hours of Physical Education credit along with three hours of the equivalent of a HHP (Health and Human Performance) course.  Most military training is evaluated by rank and not purely by MOS.  Advanced military training usually transfers in as Management or Marketing credit, often amounting to about 15 credit hours, some of which may be upper level credit (depending upon rank), and also under some circumstances, some of it (lower level as well) might substitute for Criminal Justice credit (at least the Intro course and possibly some electives).  Credit for law enforcement or correctional training (page 39 of 2005-06 Catalog) is also given, and typically, nine hours of lower-level Criminal Justice equivalent credit is usually given for law enforcement training.  Criminal justice training credit gives preference to Tennessee, but reciprocity might quality stuff from other states, depending upon how the Records Officials treat the matter.  The most preference (twelve credit hours and specific, upper-level CRJ core credit) is given for attending the Nashville police academy, but samples for elsewhere are shown on the aforementioned catalog pages.  Below are your contacts for the people at APSU who do official transcript evaluations:

    #8.  According to page 52 of the Student Bulletin (pdf), a senior is someone who has earned 90 hours of college credit.  A junior has 60-89 hours, and sophomore 30-59 hours.  A lot more useful information for students is contained in the Student Bulletin (aka College Catalog) which is a long document but well worth the download.

    #9.   There are two programs that APSU has for academic forgiveness. One is called CARE and the other is called Fresh Start.  The APSU point of contact for these is Trwanja Titington at (931)-221-7152 or titingtont@apsu.edu and here is what those programs entail:
       CARE (Credentials Analysis and Re-Evaluation) Policy is one of two academic forgiveness policies.  Enrolled students who have been out of college a minimum of two years may apply for consideration of the CARE Policy by petitioning the dean of the college in which they plan to major. A maximum of 18 semester hours 27 quarter hours of  “D' and/or “F', along with the grades and credits of all other courses taken in no more than two consecutive semesters or terms taken at APSU or another institution prior to the separation may be removed from the GPA calculation. If the number of “D' and “F' credits exceeds 18 over the two consecutive terms, the policy will then be limited to all course work in a single term. The course and grades will remain on the transcript, noted appropriately, and be removed from the GPA calculation. Students who earned an associate or baccalaureate degree cannot apply for consideration of the CARE Policy regarding credits earned prior to earning the degree.  Students may apply for this at any time during the enrollment at APSU as long as they have not earned an associate or baccalaureate degree.  The CARE Policy can only be granted once.  It will remove everything in consecutive order (up to 18 hours total), including any courses passed as well as failed.
       Fresh Start Policy is the second of two academic forgiveness policies.  Beginning with the Fall of 1992, students who have been out of higher education a minimum of four years and return completing 15 semester hours credit (excludes remedial and developmental work) with a minimum GPA of 2.00 in all coursework at APSU may renew their academic records without penalty of prior failure. To be considered for this, eligible students must complete the Fresh Start Form with the Office of the Registrar, located in Ellington 316, during the first term of admissions or re-admissions  Fresh Start calculates the GPA and credit hours toward graduation on course work commencing with the credits taken following the absence. Students granted Fresh Start will forfeit all college credits and grades earned before the separation period. The courses and grades will remain on the transcript, noted appropriately, and be removed from the GPA calculation. Permission for Fresh Start will be granted only once. A student may utilize both the Fresh Start and CARE Policy, provided the separation from higher education is not the same time period.  Fresh Start will also remove everything (including courses passed as well as failed - you can't pick and choose with either program) but it will not remove military credits.

     #10.  Credit for Life/Work/Portfolio/Experiential credit is given, but it is hard to get.  The Criminal Justice Program recognizes Experiential Credit but does not handle the process of granting it.  The procedure works as follows.  The university requires that students exhaust all of the traditional avenues first (DANTES, CLEP, challenge exams, transfer etc.) prior to starting the PLA portfolio process.   It is a time consuming process and most suitable for students with a large body of life experience and a strong ability to write, organize and reflect on their experiences.  Essentially, you would need to gather up relevant information about the experience and write some extended essays about how it relates to the course objectives and content covered in the syllabus for a related course.  See Dr. O'Connor's website for each and every syllabus and try to write your essays using course objectives as a guide.  To get the ball rolling, interested students should contact Mary Alice Burkhart (burkhartm@apsu.edu), Coordinator of Noncredit and Customized Programs, ASSU Center for Extended and Distance Education, POB 4678, Clarksville, TN 37044, 931-221-6487 or Fax 931-221-7748.

    #11.  Austin Peay does NOT have Developmental or Remedial courses.  Other schools do, so if you are "stuck" in the sense of having to complete something like DSPM0800 (elementary algebra) or DSPM0850 (intermediate algebra) that APSU does not provide, then you will need to take these courses online via RODP (Regents Online Degree Programs), the Tennessee multi-state consortium.  Their homepage is at www.rodp.org and the steps to enrolling can be found at their website (which also has online science classes).  APSU does offer what are called "enhanced" (E) sections of MATH 1010 (Mathematical Thought and Practice) and ENGL 1010 (English Composition), but these are only face-to-face, for now.  There is another math course which satisfies the Math requirement at APSU, and that is statistics which is MATH 1530.  Every "enhanced" (E) section requires an extra couple hours of "lab" each week.  There is a procedure for requesting Exemptions from having to take such course, but be advised that the only people who can formally waive deficiency makeups are the main campus chairs, like Prof. Hoehn for Math at 931-221-7815 or hoehnl@apsu.edu and Prof. Guest for English at 931-221-7860 or guestd@apsu.edu.  At the Ft. Campbell facility, their representative is James Sanders at 931-221-1416 or sandersj@apsu.edu and you might want to talk to him first before contacting any dept. chairs.

    #12.  The average price of a single course, after all fees are considered, is close to $800, and the total cost of a bachelors degree, assuming normal progress, is about $23,500. The chart below comes from some 2011 snapshots of Business Office webpages where prices are subject to change.  Note that in-state tuition applies to any Tennessee address and the following Kentucky counties (Allen, Calloway, Christian, Logan, Simpson, Todd, and Trigg). Regents Online is the RODP consortium discussed in #9 above, and sometimes the place to look for online Science courses or substitutes for some local course that you really need but is maxed out in enrollment capacity.  Science courses taken via RODP automatically go on your APSU transcript, and a passing grade in Math and Science is considered a D (whereas English taken elsewhere usually requires a C or better).  Prices shown below do not reflect any nominal online course fees, technology fees, or other fees.

    #13.  Austin Peay State University (APSU) is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution and an equal opportunity employer committed to the education of a non-racially identifiable student body.  It's annual budget is approximately $37 million.  It is a selective admissions institution which requires a GPA of at least 2.0 and an ACT score of at least 19 (SAT equivalent = 891).  The program is a Bachelor of Science degree program in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Homeland Security.  It is housed inside Gate #4 of Ft. Campbell, KY (secure entrance) in a newly-constructed Austin Peay building adjacent to the main Education Center. Austin Peay is the only university in the country to have it's own separate building on a military post.  Ft. Campbell is one of the nation's largest Army posts, with approximately 30,000 active duty military and a large number of military dependents and retirees on and off the post, and together, these two groups comprise a significant portion of the population we serve.  The remainder come from the local community, nearby areas, or the main campus (downtown Clarksville), and consist of retired or active law enforcement, corrections or legal professionals, as well as civilians of all stripes interested in education preparing them for exciting career options.  A significant and rapidly growing number of students from near and far also complete the program as online students.

    #14.  In 2004, the state of Tennessee decided to create not just another generic bachelor's program in criminal justice, but one with a built-in concentration in homeland security, which in many ways would be more of a homeland security than a criminal justice degree.  General Wendell Gilbert and Rick Shipkowski assisted in putting together the initial curriculum.  Together with the insights of Gerald Beavers, program managers, and various adjuncts, the program was finalized in 2005, with connections to the newly-developed Institute for Global Security Studies (IGSS) and the Tennessee Office of Homeland Security.  Dr. Tom O'Connor has managed the CRJ program since 2006 and the IGSS since 2007.  Here's an excerpt from the final approval document: "to provide the formal education necessary to understand the nature of homeland security threats, to prepare for such events, to train for the response and recovery from such events; and to prepare for and successfully manage the broad topic of terrorism in the United States."
    The curriculum requires the delivery of sixteen (16) courses, all heavily geared toward issues or topics in homeland security and/or terrorism:

    A built-in "interdisciplinary minor" (also called concentration area; or in the computer system as Homeland Security Group #2 and #3) of six additional courses are required in the major, making use of existing courses in other departments such as Public Management, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, History, and Social Work.  Three different departments need to be represented in each student's Interdisciplinary Minor so that the student doesn't "stack up" on Criminal Justice electives only.  Usually this part of the program is easily filled up with transfer credit, military credit, law enforcement credit, or lower level electives from other disciplines.  Substitution paperwork is often filled out to make this so, but in order to avoid running into the problem of not having enough upper-level credits for graduation, the student should give serious consideration to taking at least one (1) of our upper level CRJ electives (like International Law, Forensics, Investigations, Ethics, or Special Topics).

    A regular MINOR in criminal justice also exists and consists of the following six (6) courses.  Substitutions are common with the minor, but these are the ones picked for getting a good sample of the major:
        CRJ 1010 Introduction to Criminal Justice (or PM 3150)
        CRJ 3000 Constitutional Law (or PM 3160)
        CRJ 3010 Criminal Law (or PM 3170)
        CRJ 3030 Terrorism and Law
        CRJ 3400 Terrorism Understanding
        CRJ 3430 Management of Incidents

    One full time faculty member was deemed adequate to support the program the first few years (supported by about twelve adjuncts), but by 2007, the need for a second full-time faculty member became apparent, and in 2008, a second fulltimer joined the program, and in 2010, a third fulltimer joined the program.  As enrollments keep growing, additional full-time faculty positions may be added.  There is little burden on state appropriations.  Equipment and supply costs are kept at a minimum, concentrating upon academic excellence in teaching and financing through normal tuition and fees.  The program is also active in grant management, having obtained grant support in such areas as cyberterrorism, infrastructure protection, and intelligence analysis.  The program is academically housed in the Department of Public Management which has five full-time faculty of its own who have expertise in various aspects of public administration.  The program also works closely with the 101st Command and other units at the Ft. Campbell military installation.

    For many years before the Homeland Security was built, Austin Peay at Ft. Campbell offered the A.A.S. degree in Police Science and Administration.  This program produced about 200 graduates over the years, and those who never completed it are welcomed back into the new B.S. in the Homeland Security program.  Preferential treatment is given to such alumni in terms of articulating their associate-level credit into baccalaureate-level credit, but this privilege is not normally extended to lower-level credit obtained from other schools.  Program review assessment takes place on a five-year cycle and makes use of student and alumni satisfaction surveys.  Annual performance reviews are also conducted.  The program is approved by Legal Affairs to participate in the following consortia or partnerships: HSDECA, I2, LIU, and CHDS.

     #15:  The BSCJHS degree program is presently available on BOTH the Austin Peay main campus AND the Center at Fort Campbell.  However, only a limited number of CRJ courses (about three-fourths as many as at FCC) are offered on the main campus.  Substitutions via PM courses or from other disciplines can help, and also a recently-established minor makes it easier for main campus students to participate.  However, what main campus students usually do is this:  complete general education requirements downtown; take a handful of PM, POLS, SOC or PSY courses, and then sometime in their junior year, transfer out to the Ft. Campbell campus to finish up.  Yet, it is entirely possible to finish up without transfer by adding FCC online courses to a main campus schedule.
    The typical Program of Study in outline form looks like the following, and please note that there are two (2) kinds of programs of study (also called degree audits or evaluations) in the pipeline.  The first type are those students with a catalog year of admission prior to 2010.  These students (2010 catalog year and prior) will have what is called an "Interdisciplinary Concentration" area (also called Homeland Security Group 2 and 3).  The second type (catalog year of admission 2010 or later) will have to declare a Minor to make up the six courses that normally would have come from the old Interdisciplinary Concentration.         

DETAILED CURRICULUM OUTLINE

    #16:  In late 2010, the program is implementing a senior exit exam required of all soon-to-graduate majors.  This test can be taken online and is administered by the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness and they usually run several test dates prior to any graduation ceremony date.  The program is designed to help those who are currently employed in a related area as well as those who have no previous related area experience.  The degree is conceived as most relevant to careers in homeland security, but also in law enforcement, at the city, county, state, and federal levels.  A secondary area of most relevance is business and industry.  Private sector employment opportunities are plentiful, especially in security areas, but are often overlooked as career opportunities.  The third area of most relevance is intelligence work.  Specializations are under development for our second and third areas of relevance.  Students would be wise to join (as student members) not only the two main professional associations in the field, ACJS and ASC, but also explore some of the groups which represent our secondary and tertiary areas of emphasis, like AAFS, AFIO, ASIS, IALEIA, SCIP, and WACA.  You'd be surprised at how well membership in these things can jump start your career because of their mentoring services, resume help, lists of employment ads, etc., and a whole lot more.
    A generic guide to Employment Opportunities in criminal justice is provided at Dr. O'Connor's Employment Mega-Links, but specific opportunities available to APSU homeland security graduates are only sent out by an email newsletter which the program manager puts together from time to time.  Many of our major find the school's Office of Career Services to be of help, especially in putting together a good resume.  Many of our majors also look for jobs in homeland security (and post their resumes there) at USAJOBS.
    The field of homeland security is growing, and many schools around the country are starting up new programs.  We have always had an open approach to working with other schools and programs.  Sometimes we set up exclusive relationships with grad school programs, like our one with the Long Island Homeland Security Management Institute or the one with UNLV.  In addition, we are proposing our own Master's level program, which we hope will be approved by the State of Tennessee one of these years.

    #17:  The new Banner computer system (aka AP Self Serve) implemented in 2007 doesn't provide academic advisors a very good way to evaluate transcripts, especially when substitutions have been filed.  No longer do advisors have access to what used to be called SIS code 651 which tracked substitutions.  A "substitution" form is still initiated from the advisor's office, routed for the appropriate signatures of a Chair or Dean, and then logged by the secretaries, but once it goes downtown to the Registrar's office (931-221-7121), there's no good way of telling if the substitution was officially approved or not.  APSU is working on a way to get substitution records in Banner, but that may take a while.  It does little good to call your advisor to see if some substitution went through.  Students are encouraged to contact the Office of the Registrar themselves for questions regarding such matters, especially if an academic deficiency has been reported in response to your application for graduation.  Filing an application for graduation is the best, and only official, way of finding out if you've met all the requirements for graduation, including those your advisor may know about or not know about.  Be advised that the Registrar staff are very busy, and very specialized by function (see Registrar Site Index) for the latest updates in functional assignment).  Normally, the student finds out from the Registrar what the specific nature of the deficiency is and then, if appropriate, contacts the advisor to see if "one last substitution" is needed or an additional course needs to be taken (or retaken).  For contact purposes, the current lineup of representatives in the Registrar Office is as follows, and please note that analysts are divided up by the last names of students, as below:

    It is possible to wind up short of the 120 hours needed for graduation because of a science lab waiver or because of an APSU 1000 waiver (both distinct possibilities for Ft. Campbell students).  In such cases, you have two choices:  (1) sign up for an extra 3 hour course to put you past the 120 hours; or consider taking a 1 hour course in another department.  Two such courses are PTMA 490A (Special Problems in Professional Studies) taught by Victoria McCarthy and CTIM 299A (Special Problems in Computer Technology) taught by Sue Evans.  These courses can be arranged (put in your personal schedule by permit and special section scheduling) for you, any term, even though they may not show up in the school's schedule.  The CRJ program also has its own 1 hour course called CRJ 4011.

     #18  There are two exit exams that APSU requires.  One is the university-wide (general literacy) exam that the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness administers.  You may receive emails or notices from them that it is required to take this exam.  It is, in all truth, not required, but suggested that you take it.  It helps the university guarantee to auditors and lawmakers that we are not graduating anyone who is illiterate.  To check on times when you can sign up for this exit exam, visit the Dept. of IRE's website at  http://www.apsu.edu/ire. The other exam is the departmental exit exam which is the ETS exam in the subject area of Criminal Justice.  It will cover traditional areas in the field, such as policing, courts, and corrections, as well as criminology.  It is also NOT mandatory that you take it, but it is suggested you take it because how well you do on it helps determine part of our funding level for growing the program.  To check on times when you can sign up for this exit exam, contact the department Admin Assistant Gail Roach at 931-221-1480 or roachg@apsu.edu.  Here is a typical announcement she sends out every term:  Students graduating from Public Management and from Criminal Justice/Homeland Security are required to take a departmental exit exam.  I have scheduled 2 sessions in April for the exam.  The 1^st will be April 8^th, 2:00pm to 4:00pm, the 2^nd will be April 15^th, 2:00pm – 4:00pm.     

Last updated: Oct. 16, 2011
Not an official webpage of APSU, copyright restrictions apply, see Megalinks in Criminal Justice
O'Connor, T.  (2011). "Frequently Asked Questions About the Program," MegaLinks in Criminal Justice. Retrieved from http://www.drtomoconnor.com/aboutprogram.htm accessed on Oct. 16, 2011.