UO considers 3 new academic programs

Presenter: Why is the University adding three new academic programs? At the  Academic and Student Affairs Committee Nov. 17, Provost Chris Long:

Provost Chris Long: After the bruising summer of budget cuts, we’ve heard, ‘Why would we consider launching anything new right now?’ repeatedly as a mantra. It’s a fair question, and so I want to offer two responses.

[00:00:26] First, even in challenging moments, maybe, especially in challenging moments, we can’t allow a deficit mindset to take root. A university that stops evolving begins to wither. To continue leading through this period of intense disruption in higher education, we need creativity, imagination, and an enduring focus on the things that matter.

[00:00:57] That’s why we’re committed to moving from planning to action on our Oregon Rising goals this year and why we have not imposed a hiring freeze, but will focus on strategic hiring in a limited number of specific areas.

[00:01:13] And it’s also why we must continue to align our academic offerings with the shifting interests, needs, and aspirations of our students. Developing strong, relevant programs that attract students and generate sustainable revenue is essential to our future.

[00:01:31] Second, as this committee well knows, no academic program arrives before you without considerable research, deliberation, and consultation.

[00:01:42] So today you’ll hear about three programs, a new bachelor’s of education in child behavioral health, a new master’s in cybersecurity and a new master’s in data science.

[00:01:52] We’re confident that the three programs before you today reflect both sound academic judgment, and real opportunity. They represent thoughtful next steps: forward-looking, student-centered, and responsive to the evolving landscape of higher education.

[00:02:07] Presenter: Executive director of the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health, Katie McLaughlin:

[00:02:13] Katie A. McLaughlin: Just as a reminder, this from the start was designed as a two plus two program. And what that means is that students start either in Eugene as freshmen and do their first two years there or at a community college or really at any other institution, and they transfer to UO Portland for the final two years.

[00:02:31] And in that final two years, the way I like to describe this is we’ve sort of inserted what almost looks like a master’s degree into the last two years of college. And I say that because students take the full two years with us. Every credit, every course is with the child behavioral health training program. It makes it a particularly full major. It’s a full 90 credits.

[00:02:53] Students aren’t taking electives at that point in time. They’re not finishing up core ed. They are just doing the child behavioral health training program. And as you might remember, that includes both courses as well as 700 hours of applied practice out in the community where they’re actually learning how to deliver mental health services to kids in schools in healthcare settings and in community organizations while they’re being supervised by our faculty. So it’s a chock full major.

[00:03:19] And just some brief milestones before I talk about the B.Ed. pathway. So at the very end of 2022 is when the B.A. and B .S. pathways for this undergraduate program were approved. We enrolled our first cohort as juniors here at the Ballmer Institute last fall in 2024.

[00:03:37] Here we are in fall 2025. For the first time, we have students in both their junior and senior years of the program. So we actually have students enrolled across all four years of the program for the first time. We’ve got more than 100 students, and our recruitment is going in the right direction. Enrollment is going up. And we expect our first cohort to graduate this spring.

[00:03:57] So why are we pursuing a B.Ed? We’ve already got a B.A. pathway and a B.S. pathway. There’s two main reasons. The first is increasing flexibility for students who start in Eugene and transfer into this major.

[00:04:10] We have a very full major. For comparison, psychology is a 45-credit major. We are 90 credits. And there’s two reasons for that. One reason is that we are giving these students clinical training in addition to coursework. So there’s a lot more they’ve got to learn. It’s a pre-professional program.

[00:04:27] And we are located in Portland. So we have to fill their full 90 credits because there’s nothing else they can actually take here. We don’t have other undergraduate programs. We don’t have core ed at UO Portland. And so we’ve got to make sure they can stay on track to graduate.

[00:04:41] So really the goal is increasing access to this unique training program for talented community college students who want to pursue behavioral health careers and for whom the B.A. and B.S. pathways provide obstacles.

[00:04:56] These are just different degree pathways that students can choose , while our final two years in Portland is the same for all of them. They all get the same curriculum from us where they learn about professional practice and behavioral health. They learn how to implement evidence-based mental health interventions with kids. They get a lot of training in culturally responsive and inclusive practices, and they spend about 30% of their time out in the community, actually learning how to deliver mental health services under supervision.

[00:05:22] This program emphasizes critical thinking and technical skills. So just as an example, all of the assessments in our program are competency-based, which means that rather than giving students an exam, we actually have them demonstrate live through recorded patient vignettes or other kinds of demonstrations that they have learned the technical skills and knowledge that are required to be behavioral health professionals.

[00:05:46] Our budget covers training for up to 150 students per cohort. We are not yet enrolled at that level. And all of our faculty and advising and support services are covered through the original gift from Steve and Connie Ballmer. So no costs associated with this and that is it. The Ballmer Institute is driving this work completely.

[00:06:07] The degree pathway is called a bachelor’s in education. It is already an approved bachelor’s degree that we offer here at the U of O. Thus far, the only programs that have offered that pathway have been at the College of Ed. So we would be the first program offering a bachelor’s in education outside the College of Ed. And we are close partners with COE and have gotten their approval.

[00:06:31] You know, Laura Lee (McIntyre) had approved this before she had moved on. Emily Tanner-Smith, the interim dean, is supportive. And, you know, when you think about a bachelor’s in ed, most people pursue that kind of undergraduate degree because they want to work in K-12 schools.

[00:06:45] Our program really emphasizes training in a variety of settings, but all of our students get trained to deliver services in K-12 schools. And so for students who know they want to go on to work in education, to work in K-12 schools, it’s also just a natural fit for the kind of training program we have.

[00:07:03] Not all students want that, though. Some are really focused on health care. They want to go work in a pediatrician’s office or in a mental health agency. So it may be a less desirable degree pathway for those students. But we would be the first unit on campus to offer a B.Ed. outside the College of Ed. But the Ballmer Institute would be the, is the unit that is driving this work.

[00:07:24] And then second, to transfer in and meet core ed requirements, there’s a core transfer map that Oregon uses at all of its public universities. The B.Ed. pathway is actually most consistent with that core map that all of the public universities try to use to make it easier for community college students to know what should they take before they come here to the U of O to be ready to finish in two years.

[00:07:48] One of our challenges being located in Portland is that we don’t offer core ed here, right? So it’s particularly important for students to have gotten as much of that done as possible to ensure that they can graduate in four years, right? Which of course is what we want for all students.

[00:08:03] Students still need to get all 180 credits. The real difference between the B.Ed and the B.A. and the B.S. is that it has a slightly smaller set of core ed requirements. And the real difference, honestly, is that it doesn’t require those two years of foreign language. By reducing those six classes that students are in the B.A. are required to take, it gives students a little more space to take electives, to minor in something, and to navigate through the core ed and elective process with a bit more flexibility.

[00:08:33] The foreign language is a particular obstacle for community college transfer students who often have not taken any foreign language. In their senior year, they’re literally two and a half days a week out in the community. And, you know, they’re still taking classes. Their schedules are truly chock-full when they’re here with us.

[00:08:49] It’s a pretty, it’s a very rigorous program in terms of, you know, the training it provides at the undergraduate level. And so those last two years with us are very, very full, which is one of the reasons that more flexibility in how students navigate through the remainder of their bachelor’s degree is just gives more degrees of freedom for us meet individual student needs and interests.

[00:09:10] Presenter: From the Board of Trustees, Gerard Sandoval:

[00:09:12] Gerard Sandoval: You’re waiving the foreign language requirement. Is that right?

[00:09:17] Katie A. McLaughlin: Well, we’re not waiving anything. The B.Ed. is already a degree pathway that exists. It’s tied to some existing undergrad programs that are offered at the College of Ed. We would be simply making that B.Ed. pathway, which is already approved at the U of O, one of the pathways students could select for the child behavioral health major.

[00:09:36] And that B.Ed. pathway, which is already approved and being used by other programs, does not require foreign language as part of the core education requirements.

[00:09:47] Gerard Sandoval: Yeah, because I saw one of your goals to be like culturally responsive. And so I was wondering how do you reconcile that? I think it would be beneficial for the student to understand the second language if they want to be culturally responsive. 

[00:10:01] Katie A. McLaughlin: Sure. I totally agree. And most of our students do the B.A. pathway. And that will still be true, even with this pathway being offered, that most students choose to take the B.A. pathway through this degree that requires two years of foreign language.

[00:10:15] We are working with (Vice Provost for Global Engagement) Dennis Galvan and some others to think about ways that students could meet the foreign language requirement creatively, like through a training program in the summer in Spain that’s really focused on behavioral health- relevant Spanish.

[00:10:29] So the other just relevant piece here is that even if you learn a bit of a foreign language, it doesn’t necessarily give you the training to deliver services in another language, there’s a whole different kind of training you would get for medical Spanish, for example, than for just conversational language use.

[00:10:44] And so even if students do those two years, it doesn’t necessarily mean they could deliver services in that language without specific training.

[00:10:53] But, you know, despite that, we anticipate the majority of students are still going to use the B.A. pathway. This is just an additional option that we think is most likely going to be utilized by community college transfer students.

[00:11:06] Presenter: Speaking for a master’s degree in data science, the department head, Peter Ralph:

[00:11:11] Peter Ralph: We are wanting to start a master’s degree in data science. So we’re doing this now to build on the momentum that we’ve got here around data science. It’s part of a longer running strategic initiative.

[00:11:23] We’ve had a department of data science for a bit more than a year and an undergrad program for about five years. The number of majors in that undergrad program has been growing quite well. We’re at about 300 majors, this popularity of the undergrad degree, it really reflects the enthusiasm around data science locally and also nationally.

[00:11:47] Nationally, there is a number of master’s programs in data science that are, you know, growing rapidly, doing quite well. There’s nothing really comparable locally and we’d like to, you know, get on top of this as well, basically….  training people who would then go on to be, you know, perhaps software engineers, data scientists, data analysts, biostatisticians, or sort of a broad range of career outcomes.

[00:12:14] And the data from Lightcast suggests that the momentum around data science isn’t slowing down. They’re projecting a 30% increase over the next 10 years.

[00:12:24] So, of course, we’re doing this in the UO way, right? We’re building on top of our undergrad program, to train people in data science who are familiar with the entire data science lifecycle. So not only, like, doing the statistics, fitting the models and doing the machine learning, but being conversant with the context the data comes from, and so understanding what sort of questions are important to ask to learn from the data, what sorts of things can the data tell us about, and being good at seeing the big picture and communicating the big picture and actionable insights downstream to the people who care about it.

[00:13:05] And we hear from industry partners that these are the sort of skills that they really are looking for in people that they want to hire and will produce people who are hirable you know, robustly across changes in workforce demands.

[00:13:21] Other departments are enthusiastic about sending their graduate students to take some of our classes. And these can serve as sort of a base for other departments to do things like certificate programs. You know, a certificate in data science in X is an attractive thing to graduate students because it expands their career outlook after graduation and so would make UO a more attractive place for graduate school. And more generally, it’s supporting the new data science department. It has been a strategic priority.

[00:13:56] We’re planning to start a PhD program. And also generally, we’re designing the program to be community-engaged, being a positive force in various ways in the local and wider Oregon community.

[00:14:09] Presenter: Speaking for the masters in cybersecurity, the department head of computer science, Reza Rajaie:

[00:14:14] Reza Rajaie: The master’s program that you’re reviewing right now is an element of the bigger ecosystem that we are building.

[00:14:21] A few years ago, our department embraced the vision of becoming a regional hub in cybersecurity research and education. We want to reach out to the community and offer training to the communities, not just for all students.

[00:14:34] This vision is, in part, motivated by the creation of Oregon Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (OCCOE), by the State of Oregon in 2023. University of Oregon along with OSU and PSU are co-founding member and co-leading this center. 

[00:14:53] Getting connected with the legislators and then establishing Oregon Cybersecurity Center of Excellence might have been the most exciting thing that happened to me, because I see how much opportunity exists out there as you get out of walls of campus to see how you could connect with school districts, with tribes, with Oregon Lottery, with, you know, counties, with cities, and how much need is there and how we can pair that with experiential learning.

[00:15:22] Workforce development is one of the major goals of OCCOE. In fact, one of the driving forces for creating this center was the growing gap in cybersecurity workforce. 

[00:15:33] Perhaps the signature and most exciting piece that we have worked on is what is called Teaching – Security Operations Center, or TSOC, that is being launched now, basically in order to give what I call a foundational experiential learning opportunity to students.

[00:15:49] A Security Operations Center is a facility that monitors security of an entity out there. We created a SOC at U of O that provides this service to external government agencies. It could be a county, it could be a city, it could be a special district, it could be a school district.

[00:16:05] And we have a couple of engineers that run this facility and the students take a class and each week go through multiple shifts to work on this facility and get a hands-on experience exactly the same way that they would at a full-time job outside by working on a facility like this.

[00:16:24] Another example of such experiential learning is what is called ‘RISK Clinic.’ As you probably know, there is a great demand to assess cybersecurity posture of many aspects of the cyberspace. The state was interested to do this assessment, but they didn’t have resources.

[00:16:41] We partnered with them to offer training to students so they can go and help to conduct this cybersecurity for more than 100 water districts during the next two years.

[00:16:51] This is in partnership with the operational side of campus. We have had partnership for more than 10 years when we shared data and other resources, especially because we are conducting experimental research and we need to have a sandbox to try things. And the expertise of operational wing of the campus have been critical for us. 

[00:17:11] We recently applied and secured ‘Center of Academic Excellence in Research’ designation from National Security Agency. Again, this is a badge basically that indicates the quality of your research and graduate program is at the high level nationally. We knew it mattered to students, so we secured that.

[00:17:31] We are working on a cybersecurity lab that essentially would be a sandbox for students in classes and otherwise to come and set things up, break things, hack things, and learn various skills . And most of the equipment for this lab are donated equipment from our industry partners.

[00:17:51] And finally, we are bringing cutting edge simulator in the area of cybersecurity. With these cyber ranges, we are able to create all sort of interesting scenarios and expose students to those scenarios.

[00:18:03] And now that we have a core cybersecurity program in our department, I’m exploring interdisciplinary angles for that cybersecurity program by reaching out to other departments that have interest in cybersecurity, whether being a law school through cyber law or public policy through various policies that need to accommodate and address cybersecurity, School of Business that has cybersecurity interests.

[00:18:28] We have another proposal for a grad certificate program in cybersecurity that is just six courses, and we think that is an appropriate way for someone with a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field to consider certificate, and that would be an on-ramp to get into the master’s program.

[00:18:46] For our master’s program that we’re discussing, one of the key elements is what I call curriculum integrated co-op. Students take classes for a year and then at the first summer they go and do an internship or co-op, for nine months at a partner industry company.

[00:19:06] We want to create a network of companies that have interest in cybersecurity because of their own needs and they want to become partner with our program to make an offer for a paid co-op to our students and compete to get them.

[00:19:19] And we think that would be a really interactive and productive very win-win scenario, both for us and for students as well as the industry to create this talent pipeline between our programs and local and regional companies.

[00:19:35] We embrace the new and evolving topic of using AI machine learning in the field of cybersecurity. Industry is running their own innovation and developing new solution. Research is also developing new solution, but there is no way to integrate them.

[00:19:53] Because we have TSOCs, we are creating an entity called Living Lab that would be an opportunity for us to bring industry and academia together, examine their solution and then package those mature solution into training for our students. 

[00:20:08] We are actively exploring ways to offer this master in cybersecurity in Portland campus, there is a large tech sector in Portland, which I think their employees would be interested in upskilling their team by taking this program.

[00:20:23] Presenter: Announcing the dual enrollment agreement with LCC, Provost Chris Long:

[00:20:27] Provost Chris Long: As I have kept this committee regularly abreast of our efforts to make the University of Oregon a destination for transfer students, I wanted to note that we have now finalized our long-awaited dual enrollment agreement with Lane Community College, our top transfer partner.

[00:20:43] A couple of weeks ago, I joined President Stephanie Bulger for an exciting kickoff event with staff from both schools around how, in practical ways, we’ll continue to build a closer partnership so we can better support dual-enrolled and transfer students.

[00:20:59] We call the initiative Duck Lane, which captures well the spirit of transition from Lane Community College to the University of Oregon, which as President Bulger joked last week, expresses this much more effectively than Lane Duck. So just to be clear, thinking about the naming of this initiative.

[00:21:20] Each pathway we create, preserve, or expand for students becomes a bridge helping them transform their own lives and the lives of their families and communities, potentially for generations to come.

[00:21:34] Academic life at the University of Oregon is enriched by the depth of experience and breadth of perspective our transfer students bring into our classrooms, our studios, and our labs.

[00:21:46] My hope is that drawing on the experience born of this collaboration with Lane Community College, we can create something in this partnership that can scale across the state.

[00:21:57] We cannot navigate the ongoing efforts across the country to undermine the transformative power of higher education for students and their families without these kinds of partnerships.

[00:22:09] Together we can make good on the promise of higher education if we continue to build relationships of trust rooted in our shared commitment to enriching the lives of our students and communities

[00:22:20] Presenter: With the masters in data science approved by the Faculty Senate Nov. 19, and the others awaiting a Dec. 3 vote, the Board of Trustees will consider the new academic programs at its meeting Dec. 9-10.