Millersville University, Faculty Senate

Attachment E

Faculty Senate Minutes

April 4, 2000


To: Dr. Joel Piperburg, President
Faculty Senate

From: Dr. Dan Anna, Program Coordinator
Occupational Safety & Hygiene Management

Date: 4/4/00

Re: Request for a program name change

Attached is a recommendation to change the name of the Occupational Safety & Hygiene Management program to Occupational Safety & Environmental Health. This change was discussed by the Department of Industry & Technology Curriculum Committee, and then approved unanimously by the department faculty at the March 6 Industry & Technology Department meeting. Dr. Ben Berhow, Dean of the School of Education, has reviewed this recommendation and his written statement of support is attached.

If you have questions regarding this recommendation, please contact me at x3334 or by email at dan.anna@millersville.edu.

Thank you for considering this request.


Department of Industry & Technology

Millersville University

Recommendation:

Change the name of the program from Occupational Safety and Hygiene Management (OSHM) to Occupational Safety and Environmental Health (OSEH). This change is requested for the Fall 2000 semester.

Rationale:

The OSHM program is accredited by the Related Accreditation Commission (RAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET). Under the ABET Accreditation Policy the title of an accredited program must be properly descriptive of the content of the program and must not be misleading with respect to the intent of the accreditation. The current program name contains two words, hygiene and management, that are used by ABET in the accreditation of other types of academic programs. Because our program is neither an accredited Industrial Hygiene nor an accredited Industrial Management program, use of these words in the program title may mislead the public, including students, prospective students, and employers. ABET has stipulated that these terms must be removed from the program title prior to their next accreditation visit.

The name Occupational Safety and Environmental Health was selected with the assistance of the OSHM Industrial Advisory Board. This advisory board is comprised of 7 members from industry and 13 faculty members from related academic areas. The proposed name not only eliminates the terminology discussed above, but also reflects the current state of the Occupational Safety profession and the current curriculum content of the program.

Companies hiring graduates of our program, and similar safety and health programs throughout the country, expect that the new employee will have a basic technical understanding of issues related to safety, industrial hygiene, and environmental technology. All names suggested by the advisory board included these three areas, with particular emphasis on including environment in the title.

The current program curriculum includes a two course sequence (8 credits total) that contains an environmental component (OSHM 321 - Environmental & Industrial Health I and OSHM 422 Environmental & Industrial Health II). Additionally, a topic course in Environmental Safety has been offered on a periodic basis. A curriculum change is being proposed that will add a course in Environmental Technology to the program requirements.

Occupational Safety & Environmental Health provides an accurate description of the content of the program, the direction of the profession and the expected competencies of the students graduating from the program.


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