SUNY Orange adds two new degree programs

College adds human services and emergency management degrees MIDDLETOWN — The SUNY Orange Board of Trustees has approved two new degree programs, paving the way for the implementation of associates degrees in human services and emergency management beginning with the Fall 2007 semester. The human services degree will be an associate in science, offered through the College’s Social Sciences department, while students in the Emergency Management program will receive an associate in applied science degree, as supervised by the Movement Science Department. “There continues to be a significant need for qualified professionals across many of the human services fields, and we hope our program will help address the needs of current professionals as well as students just starting out on their path to a human services degree,” said Catherine Chew, SUNY Orange vice president for academic affairs. “And we are extremely excited about our Emergency Management program, which we are offering cooperatively with the four-college Emergency Preparedness Consortium that was announced this past fall.” Inspired by the late Dr. Peter Alberghini, who initiated on-campus discussions about a discipline of its type more than a decade ago, the newly approved human services program is designed to provide transfer-oriented students interested in the human services field an opportunity to concentrate their study and explore the field of human services early in their educational career while also completing the general education requirements set forth by the State University of New York. In addition, the program, which will require a maximum of 63 credits for completion, features a broad liberal arts component with concentration in psychology and sociology, along with two “field experience” courses that support the professional goals and requirements set forth by both the Coalition for Direct Care Providers and New York State Family Development Training and Credentialing Program. Through SUNY Orange’s Emergency Management degree program, first responders-including fire, police and emergency medical professionals-will be prepared to react appropriately and professionally to situations where the public might be at risk by natural or man-made emergencies. Graduates will be trained to assess, plan, mitigate, command and control professional responses to emergency situations. They will also be trained to coordinate and evaluate resources and operations while dealing with emergency situations and their aftermath. The creation of SUNY Orange’s program is a result of the newly minted Hudson Valley Consortium of Community Colleges for Domestic Preparedness, Response and Recovery, which efficiently unites the curriculums and resources of first-responder programs from the community college campuses at Orange, Ulster, Rockland and Sullivan. Through the Consortium, which received a $4 million startup grant from the New York State Legislature this past fall, the four colleges will be able to broaden the scope of their respective programs currently under way by simultaneously offering them to students attending the other three colleges. For more information on the new programs, contact Patricia Guallini, chair of the Social Sciences Department, at 845-341-4365, or Sheila Stepp, chair of the Movement Science Department, at 845-341-4245. The SUNY Orange Admissions Office can be reached at 845-341-4030 or by logging on to www.sunyorange.edu.