Justice Studies - Department of Chemistry - San Jose State University

2. Context and ScopeThe JS Department offers a 120-unit undergraduate major leading to a B.S. degree and a 30-unitmaster’s program leading to an MS degree, along with an 18-unit JS minor. JS also participatesin the 18-unit interdisciplinary minor in Legal Studies.Alignment of JS Programs with University and College Missions, College Goals, and UniversityStrategic Planning GoalsThe University mission is to enrich the lives of its students, to transmit knowledge to its studentsalong with the necessary skills for applying it in the service of our society, and to expand thebase of knowledge through research and scholarship. JS Department programs are fullyconsonant with the University’s mission. JS courses at all levels require students to engage incritical inquiry regarding social, economic and criminal justice. Taken as a whole, JS courses areinter- and multi-disciplinary, exploring theory and practice, historical and present-day issues, lawand policy, the local and the global. Thus, the undergraduate and graduate programs not onlytransmit knowledge about justice and justice systems to students, but enrich their intellectual,professional and personal lives. Through required research, writing and evaluation courses,along with the undergraduate and graduate internship courses, students develop skills that enablethem to serve society as community advocates, activists, and leaders; justice professionals;attorneys and judges; policymakers; researchers and analysts; teachers and professors; expertwitnesses; and engaged citizens, voters, consumers and community members.The full-time JS faculty engage in a wide variety of justice-related research and scholarship, bothbasic and applied, that contributes to disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields of knowledge,including biology, criminology, critical pedagogy, cultural studies, forensic sciences, genderstudies, history, human rights, Latin American studies, law and jurisprudence, media studies,political science, punishment and penal theory, rhetoric, social theory, socio-legal studies, andsociology. A number of part-time JS faculty also engage in evaluation research at thecommunity level, contributing to knowledge in the areas of criminal justice and social services.JS faculty regularly involve JS students, both graduate and undergraduate, in their research; assuch, students are an integral part of the department’s contribution to diverse fields ofknowledge.The mission and goals of the College of Applied Sciences and Arts (“CASA”) are to provideliberal and professional education and, through application, to empower graduates to beexemplary members of a diverse and global community. The College is committed to excellencein undergraduate and graduate programs and improving the quality of life for present and futuregenerations. JS programs are again entirely consistent with CASA’s mission and goals. JScourses offer both liberal and professional education, and graduates have served as leaders oflocal, state and national justice agencies, nonprofit groups, and the like as previously discussed,improving the quality of life, often dramatically, in the communities they join and serve.The University Strategic Planning Goals are enhancing academic quality, enriching the studentexperience, improving the campus work environment and infrastructure, and strengtheningcommunity alliances.4