Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Guiding Curricular Change: Grass Roots or Top Down
Grass Roots Model
ADVANTAGES:
• High degree of faculty engagement
• Meticulous curriculum design
• Encourages creativity and disciplinary vision
DISADVANTAGES:
• Often slow
• Risks disjunction with market (potential student
interest)
• Limps unless/until it gains administrative support,
including budget and marketing
External proposal submission
↑
Internal proposal approval:
Curriculum, market analysis, budget
↑
Faculty/dean/AA determine budget/ROI
↑
Faculty/dept/dean/VPAA talk to EM
↑
Faculty/dept/dean talk to VPAA
↑
Faculty/department design curriculum
↑
Faculty/department “have a good idea”
Top Down Model
ADVANTAGES:
• Budget driven, so gains administrative support from
the start
• Includes market analysis (potential student interest)
• Can respond quickly, under sense of urgency
DISADVANTAGES:
• Fails unless/until it gains faculty support
• Risks disjunction between EM goal of attracting
enrollment and academic goal of maintaining rigor
• Can put strain on departments
EM or AA identifies area of need
↓ ↓
AA approaches EM/AA determine budget/ROI
faculty/department
↓ ↓
Faculty design curriculum
↓
Internal proposal approval:
Curriculum, market analysis, budget
↓
External proposal submission
Christine De Vinne, OSU, Ph.D. cdevinne@ndm.edu
Notre Dame of Maryland University 410.532.5321

Guiding Curricular Change: Grass Roots or Top Down
Strong colleges and universities thrive on strong curricula. What planning strategies build the
most robust programs On what common ground do creative ideas from faculty meet
institutional growth needs relayed by administrators
Mini Case Study: Filling a Gap for Non-Traditional Students
The College of Adult Undergraduate Studies (CAUS) at Notre Dame of Maryland University
enrolls a thousand non-traditional aged part-time students in evening and weekend classes.
Most students work full-time; some begin their college experience in CAUS, while others bring
transcripted credits. In addition to three professional programs (education, nursing, and
business), CAUS offers six liberal arts majors. However, the 2010 discontinuation of the Human
Services major left a gap: other than a specialized, low-enrollment criminology major, now there
was no major in the social sciences.
With a goal of increasing enrollment, a consultant was asked to determine interest areas of
potential CAUS students and identified the social sciences. The VPEM then approached the VPAA
with a request for a program in the social sciences, potentially something in psychology, which
generated a high number of inquiries annually, but not the existing research-based psychology
major, since CAUS students typically avoid programs that require statistics and methods courses.
The psychology department recognized a number of difficulties.
1. The department oversaw a collection of majors: psychology, behavioral neuroscience,
criminology and social deviance, as well as human services, still being completed by
remaining enrollees; physical education was also housed there. Taking on a new major in
CAUS would stretch an already extended department.
2. Departmental commitment to rigor and research had contributed to the decision to
sunset human services. The department expressed concern about any new major,
especially in an applied field, that might appear to be “psychology lite.”
3. The department already offered criminology in CAUS. By adding a new major, they risked
competing against themselves for enrollment.
A (protracted! but amazingly productive) series of emails generated strong positive response
from both EM and the department around:
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
A. It is a recognized division of APA, so it passes the legitimacy litmus test.
B. It has an interdisciplinary foundation, with a foot in psychology and one in business.
C. That interdisciplinarity allows the department to draw on its own resources and those of
other departments. Curriculum includes a P.E. course in coaching and a course in the
sociology of work, as well as eight psychology courses, plus six business courses.
D. If enrollment hits projected targets, the psychology department will hire a new HT faculty
member in Y2, to be converted to a FT opening in Y3.
From concept to curriculum design, internal approval and external proposal:
6 weeks
Christine De Vinne, OSU, Ph.D.
cdevinne@ndm.edu
Notre Dame of Maryland University 410.532.5321