Texas Wesleyan will offer a degree in criminal justice beginning June 1.
Currently, criminal justice is an emphasis offered under the sociology major.
“We needed the new criminal justice degree to improve the marketability of our students,” said Dr. Greg Gullion, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice. “A lot of students who graduate with a sociology - criminal justice degree have had difficulty getting careers. A lot of these people want to go to work in law enforcement, and the employers don’t even know what a SCJ degree is.
“Why should they hire someone with a SCJ degree when they could hire someone with a CJ degree,” he asked.
SCJ students have the option to remain with their current degree or switch to the new major, and 99 percent of them have chosen to switch over, Gullion said.
Brenda T. Matthews, chair of social sciences, said the criminal justice major is an asset for the social science department.
“All of our programs are growing, and the CJ major is expected to grow by 50 percent within a few years,” she said.
The new degree will not add any time to a student’s stay at Wesleyan.
A student graduating in December can switch to CJ and still graduate. Students graduating this May, however, are not eligible for the new major.
Lavena Hernandez, senior SCJ major, is graduating in May and said she is hoping that the deans will reconsider since she and other SCJ majors have taken the same classes that the new degree is requiring.
Allison Tidwell, senior SCJ major, said employers are very confused as to what a SCJ degree is.
“The job market is much better and more open to you if you’re a straight CJ student,” Tidwell said.
Gullion said the number of jobs in criminal justice will increase by 27 percent in the next 10 years.
“There will be a huge influx of students coming to Wesleyan in CJ because they know it’s going to pay off career wise,” he said.
The criminal justice field has become more academic, and they need good, quality people who are very highly educated and want to go out and make a difference, he said.
“We need good people that know what they’re doing,” Gullion said.
Gullion said he is very excited about this degree because of his passion for teaching CJ and seeing students succeed.
“I love teaching students here at this university, and anything that I can do to help students be successful and get a bachelor’s degree here and then leave the school and get a really fun career, I’m all for it,” Gullion said.
For more information contact Gullion at jgullion@txwes.edu or 817-531-6503.
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