WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.000 Hi everyone and welcome to Western Oregon University 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:04.000 department of criminal justice. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:08.000 My name is Omar Melchor-Ayala and I am one of the faculty 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.000 in the CJ department and I'm also an academic advisor and the 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:13.000 and a practicum coordinator for CJ. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:16.000 The criminal justice sciences division is located in Maaske Hall. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.000 This is the second floor of the building that is right across from the library. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.000 Our email and phone number is listed here. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:25.000 The chair of our division is Dr. Vivian Djokotoe 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:28.000 and the administrative program assistant 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.000 and general advisor is Jennifer Willard. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.000 Her name is important because she 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:35.000 is essentially the main point of contact and the first person you should 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:39.000 contact for any questions related to criminal justice. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.000 The program offer a bachelor's of science degree in criminal justice 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:45.000 and you have a choice to choose either homeland security, 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:48.000 forensic anthropology or juvenile justice as a concentration. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.000 We also offer 3 optional in-house minors in the same disciplines. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:55.000 And for those of you that are continuing on with your education, 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:58.000 we also offer a graduate degree in criminal justice. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:00:60.000 And I want to begin by talking about 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.000 what I think is one of the biggest misconceptions 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:04.000 about pursuing and obtaining a degree in CJ. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:08.000 We often hear students say that they're interested in criminal justice 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:10.000 but they're not sure they want to become a police officer 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.000 or work in a jail or a prison. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:15.000 In other words, they think that somehow by studying CJ 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:18.000 they're going to be limited in terms of their career choices. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:20.000 When the reality is that a CJ degree 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.000 really opens up a lot of possibilities in terms of careers 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:27.000 and that is because our degree is meant to give you a broad foundation 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:30.000 and to prepare you for many positions in and outside of CJ. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.000 The degree teaches you to be critical thinker, 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:35.000 to be a good writer and also to be a good communicator. 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.000 And of course to develop an expertise in criminal justice. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:41.000 All of which are things that translate very well into the job market. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:44.000 Just to kind of give an idea of the possibilities in term of careers, 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.000 this slide breaks down the formal criminal justice system 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:50.000 in it's four main components being law enforcement, 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.000 the courts, correction and advocacy. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:56.000 There's approximately 50 different positions being listed here. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.000 And this by the way is not an exhaustive list. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:61.000 It's not a very complete list and it's also not detailed. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.000 As another example, this is an organizational chart 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:08.000 from Corvallis Police Department which is just down the road from us. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.000 There's about 30 different positions being listed here, 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:13.000 all the way from the Chief of Police to parking enforcement officials 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:16.000 to dispatchers, people that handle evidence 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.000 and records and so on and so forth. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:21.000 Now to talk about our degree and specifically in our program. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.000 The program was founded over 50 years ago 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:26.000 which makes it one of the oldest in the region 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:28.000 and also one of the best connected. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:31.000 In that time we have been able to graduate many, many students and 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:35.000 and to build very strong relationships with criminal justice agencies 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:38.000 across Oregon which is a benefit to you as a student. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:41.000 Also the degree and all the classes that we offer 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:44.000 are deliverable online which means that we 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:46.000 teach them online at one point or another. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:49.000 It is completely possible to essentially finish 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:50.000 your degree online if you needed to. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:52.000 That offers you a lot of flexibility. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:55.000 in terms of when and how you can take your classes. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:58.000 One of the biggest strengths of our department is our faculty's 00:02:58.000 --> 00:02:61.000 diversity in their areas of expertise. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:04.000 Not only does our faculty have PhDs in many different areas 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:08.000 including sociology, criminology, criminal justice but we also have 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:12.000 faculty who teach for us, an FBI agent. We have attorneys, 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.000 a forensic anthropologist, a professional writer, a juvenile probation officer 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:20.000 and of course faculty who have served a law enforcement officers. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.000 This means that it is very likely that at least one person in our 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:27.000 department who is going to be teaching your classes has expertise 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:30.000 in one of your areas of interest. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.000 Also one of the cornerstones and sort of the 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:35.000 bragging points of our department is practicum. 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:39.000 And practicum is a program requirement which means you have to 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:44.000 complete an internship or practicum experience with a CJ agency 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.000 typically in our senior year for a minimum of 132 hours 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:50.000 but it could be as much as 264. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.000 The advantage, of course, of completing 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.000 a practicum or internship is that you get hands on 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:60.000 experience in what could potentially be your future career. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.000 You get to build connections to get hands on training 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.000 and skills and you get to essentially bridge the gap between your 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.000 education here and your career of choice. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:11.000 Now in order to find placement 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.000 students typically attend job fairs. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:16.000 We actually have a criminal justice specific job fair 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:19.000 here at Western. Students also use their own connections and, 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:24.000 of course, you are expected to work with your practicum coordinator 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:26.000 and also your academic advisor to start thinking about 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:28.000 where you're going to be placed for practicum. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:31.000 In terms of requirements, you have to be at least a junior 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:34.000 and have a GPA of 2.67 or higher to participant. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:36.000 But if you don't have that GPA 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:38.000 there's also a petition process that you can go through. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:40.000 In some instances, students are not able to complete practicum 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.000 because of different reasons so we have an alternative. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:45.000 So make sure that you talk to again either you academic advisor 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:49.000 or the practicum coordinator about this choice. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:51.000 I want to talk about the requirements of 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:53.000 the criminal justice degree specifically. 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:56.000 You need a total of 72 credits for this degree. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:60.000 And 48 of those credits come from a list of core courses. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.000 And I'll just mention a few things about some of the classes 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.000 here that are important to remember. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:08.000 First, CJ 213 is an introductory course 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.000 students take typically in their first or second quarter 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.000 and this class is a pre-requisite for many of the other CJ classes. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:17.000 CJ 267 is a writing class in CJ. 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:19.000 And you have to have completed 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:23.000 your writing 122 general education requirement or higher 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:24.000 in order to get into this class. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.000 Similarly, CJ 327 Research Methods 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:32.000 is a pre-requisite for CJ 427 which is Quantitative Methods 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.000 Now CJ 407 is a Senior Capstone class. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.000 It's an end of experience class 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.000 that you're going to be taking in your senior year. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:43.000 That class is completely unrelated to CJ 409. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:47.000 CJ 409 is the class that you take while you're completing 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.000 your practicum hours in order to receive credit. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.000 Aside from the core classes that again 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:54.000 everyone takes in order to receive the degree. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:56.000 You have one of 4 different choices 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:60.000 for the remaining 24 credits to get you to your 72 credits. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.000 You can "A" take 24 upper division electives 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:07.000 from the criminal justice discipline or you can also take some 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:10.000 social science course in order to get 24 credits or more. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.000 You also have the choice of course as I mentioned earlier 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:16.000 to complete a concentration in Juvenile Justice, Homeland Security 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.000 or Forensic Anthropology and the list of classes to do so are listed here. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:24.000 As I mentioned you also have the choice to complete a minor. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.000 And I'll just mention a couple of things about minors. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.000 The university doesn't require them and 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:32.000 this is also not a program requirement but because you have 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:35.000 a certain number of open or general elective 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.000 credit that you have to complete to get you to your 180 credits. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:40.000 It is often in student's interest 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.000 to choose a minor although this is something you have to talk about 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:45.000 with your academic advisor on whether 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.000 this is a good choice for you or not. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:50.000 Now this is kind of what your trajectory looks like as a CJ student with us. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:56.000 As a freshman, sophomore the biggest priority should be on completing 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:58.000 your general education classes. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:06:60.000 And I'm sure you're going to be receiving a lot of information 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:03.000 about general education so I'm not going to get into details here. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:07.000 You should really take your first-year seminars during your first year. 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:08.000 This is a university requirement. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:12.000 And I also suggest that you take your writing 122 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.000 or writing 115 or 122 during your freshman year because this class can 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:20.000 be a pre-requisite for many other classes like CJ 267 as an example. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:22.000 We also recommend that you take 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:24.000 the lower division criminal justice classes 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:30.000 Also the 200 level classes, including 213, 214, 219, 25, 267 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.000 during your freshman and sophomore year. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:34.000 Also you have to complete your CJ profile 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:36.000 form during your sophomore year. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:39.000 This is a form that I believe is online. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:41.000 During your junior year you're going to continue to work 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:44.000 through the remaining of the CJ core classes. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.000 Also if you have any CJ electives that you need to take 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:49.000 or you end up choosing a minor or concentration 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:51.000 you continue to work through those classes 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:55.000 and it's also a very good idea if you haven't done it at this point already 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:58.000 to start really preparing and applying for practicum placement. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:07:62.000 In your senior year, again you continue to work through your CJ classes 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:04.000 electives and minor classes, if you choose a minor. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:09.000 You also complete your senior capstone class, again that's CJ 407 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:12.000 And it's important to note that this is an end of expereince 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:16.000 class for CJ students which cannot be substituted. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:17.000 You have to take this class. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:21.000 And it's very often if not almost always available online. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:24.000 Now you also complete your practicum and this can be done 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:27.000 again either in your junior or senior year 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:29.000 but most of our students complete it during their senior year 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:31.000 because in many cases they can be 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:34.000 offered to apply or offered a position 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:35.000 during or right after their practicum. 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:38.000 So we encourage students to do this in either their junior and senior year. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.000 But again talk to that practicum coordinator about this. 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:44.000 Also in your senior year, of course, you apply for your degree 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:47.000 for graduation and then you're all finished. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:52.000 Now I think there are some really important resources in order for you 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:54.000 to be successful as a criminal justice student in our pgoram. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:56.000 And I'll talk about those three resources briefly here. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:59.000 First, remember that one of the biggest advantages of being a 00:08:59.000 --> 00:08:63.000 criminal justice student is that you will get in house advising. 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:04.000 This means that you're being advised 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:08.000 by someone who is faculty here and remember 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:12.000 that every quarter before you are able to register for classes 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:13.000 you have to meet or communicate with your 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:15.000 CJ advisor in order to get your 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:18.000 academic hold lifted. Also, 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:20.000 the university recently started using 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.000 a college scheduler tool and I'm not going to get into the details 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:27.000 her because of time but there's a video available on the Western 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:30.000 website and also on YouTube that teaches you how to use this resource. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:33.000 Essentially, you're able to plan you schedule ahead of time. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:37.000 And you're able to share that class schedule with your advisor as well. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:41.000 Lastly, degree tracks is a tool that allows you to track 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:44.000 your progress in terms of all of your different requirements 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:47.000 for graduation, all the way from the time you are a freshman 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:51.000 until the time you graduated. Again there is a really useful video on 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.000 how to use this tool that you can access at any time. 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:58.000 I'm going to go over a few screen shots of what degree tracks is 00:09:58.000 --> 00:09:61.000 and some of its more important features. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:04.000 First, at the very top of the page here you can see 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:05.000 the degree that you're pursuing in this case 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:07.000 or the dummy profile that we're using. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:10.000 This is a student who is pursuing a criminal justice degree 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:15.000 who is a junior and the name of this student's academic advisor 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:17.000 is listed here so this is a really good way to check 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:19.000 who your academic advisor is if you don't know. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:23.000 Ok, in the middle of the page you can see here your university 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:28.000 requirements for graduation. You have to have at least a 180 credits 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.000 and a minimum of 60 upper division credits. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:34.000 These are 300 and 400 level courses. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:39.000 Remember that if you look at the core classes for your degree 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.000 most of those 60 credits are going to come from that list. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:44.000 In other words, the 60 upper division 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:47.000 credits are built in to most of the programs at Western. 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:49.000 So you don't have to go out of your way and take an additional 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:55.000 Lastly, for those of you that are transfer students remember that 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.000 minimum of 45 of the last 60 credits that you take 00:10:59.000 --> 00:10:61.000 need to be taken here at Western in order to graduate. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:04.000 This is a residency requirement. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.000 When you scroll down the page on degree tracks 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.000 the next thing you're going to see are the requirements for your major. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:12.000 In this case, it's criminal justice and something 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:15.000 important that I want to mention here is that degree tracks is specific 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.000 to the academic your when you came in as a student. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:23.000 In this case, the academic year is 2019-20 so 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:26.000 when you look at your degree tracks this may look slightly different. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:29.000 Again this is the list of core classes for the major. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:31.000 In this case, this person is pursuing a traditional criminal 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:35.000 criminal justice degree. So this person needs to take 24 credits in 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.000 in upper division CJ classes for social science classes. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:42.000 If you scroll down the page you're going to see 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:44.000 your general education requirements. 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:46.000 And I'll mention a few important things here. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:49.000 First, we highly encourage you to take your math 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:51.000 during your first year as a student here because students 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:55.000 tend to forget a lot of their math skills the longer they wait 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.000 The minimum requirement is math 105 or higher. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:11:61.000 So we suggest you take that as soon as possible. 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:06.000 Similarly, for writing, the requirement is writing 122. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:08.000 In many cases student have to take a pre-requisite 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:12.000 which is writing 115. Again this is a class that is going to 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:16.000 help you build writing skills that is important for other courses. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:20.000 And it can also be a pre-requisite for other classes you need to take. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:23.000 If look toward the end of the page here in the social, historic and 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.000 and civic perspectives notice that CJ 213, 219 and 220 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:31.000 are listed as classes that work to meet this requirement. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:33.000 This means that if you're a CJ student 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:35.000 you don't really have to take anything in this category 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:37.000 because you're going to be able to double dip. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:40.000 Which means that you can use the same classes 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:43.000 that you took for the major and count and satisfy this requirement. 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:47.000 That is not something you can do between your major and your minor 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:50.000 only between major and general education. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:53.000 Similarly, at the end of the page here in the citizenship, 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:56.000 social responsibility and global awareness category 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:60.000 CJ 267 counts as a class that can be 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.000 used to meet this requirement. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:04.000 Once you take that class you're going to see a green check mark 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:06.000 both in the category and also in your 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:09.000 CJ 267 class on the list of core classes. 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:12.000 Again, I would like to welcome you to Western Oregon University 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:14.000 Department of Criminal Justice. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:16.000 We look forward to you being a part of our program. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:18.000 Thank you for watching this short video.