Dixie State University’s presence off campus fueled the board of trustees’ latest meeting.
The board of trustees hosted its second meeting of the academic year Friday. Discussion highlighted DSU hosting Tanzanian nurses for a six-week course; experiential learning opportunities for DSU students; and proposals for future academic programs.
Carole Grady, school of nursing and health sciences dean, said Tanzanian nurses will embark to DSU next summer. The east African country faces extreme hardships in regards to health care, so the program should help alleviate those long-term issues, she said.
Grady said the program begins next summer, and out of 70 applicants for the opportunity, 10 were chosen.
Eric Pederson, science and technology dean, presented information about experiential learning for DSU students at Zion National Park. Pederson said students can sign up for the field courses 60 days prior to their starting dates, with the first one running from May 15, 2015 to May 24.
The field courses, he said, provide students with the quickest and most effective way to earn credit.
“There are 170,000 students in Utah higher education, and any one of them could get their [science credit] while in the park,” Pederson said.
The board also approved numerous academic programs anticipated to go into effect next August: a bachelors of both science and art in dance; new bachelors of science in biology emphases such as biological sciences, biomedical sciences and natural sciences; and four minor degrees in CIT.
Discussion about new programs centered around the proposed bachelor of individualized studies degree. The degree “will be a rigorous and versatile degree that produces adaptive, autonomous, and autodidactic graduates” who “will design their plans through a reflective process of self-driven but faculty-guided curriculum building,” the executive summary stated.
“A lot of the programs we’re implementing … a lot of students have expressed interest in,” said Student Body President Gregory J. Layton, a senior English major form Cottonwood Heights and board of trustees member.
The board meets again Jan. 30.