Public Safety and Emergency Management [8008]

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Bachelor of Applied Science

(120 Credit Hours)

Program Director

Steven Girk
941-752-5495
GirkS @SCF.edu

Program Description and Goal

The Bachelor of Applied Science In Public Safety and Emergency Management provides third year college students and associate degree graduates in areas such as law enforcement, paralegal, fire science, emergency medical services, emergency management, or an Associate in Arts with an educational pathway that leads to a bachelor’s degree with workforce skills based on the Public Administration and Security Personnel needs of government and of private companies. Coursework includes the areas of general security, crisis and disaster issues, public safety, homeland security, management, administration, and terrorism prevention (including cyber-security). Graduates of this program will find employment opportunities in local, state, and federal governments, colleges and universities, and in private companies. In addition, the program is ideal preparation for further study in graduate school for programs in law, public administration, emergency management, or public policy.

This Bachelor Degree has two tracks:

The Public Safety Administration Track provides students in areas such as law enforcement, paralegal, fire science, emergency medical services, emergency management, or an Associate in Arts with an educational pathway that leads to a bachelor’s degree with workforce skills desired in public administrative positions for first responders, in government, and some highly regulated private sectors. Coursework includes the areas of public safety, homeland security, public finance, public management, administrative law, crisis and disaster issues, and terrorism prevention. Employment options include positions such as fire chief, deputy chief, battalion chief, fire inspector, fire marshal, emergency management coordinator, training officer, captain and lieutenant (fire and law enforcement), emergency management officer, state trooper, emergency management communications center chief and mitigation coordinator. Work settings include fire and rescue departments, law enforcement agencies, emergency management operations and facilities, planning and utilities departments, and private companies as security officers or emergency coordinators. In addition, the Public Safety Administration Program is ideal preparation for further study in graduate school for programs in law, emergency management or public policy.

The Homeland Security Track provides students in areas such as law enforcement, paralegal, fire science, emergency medical services, emergency management, or with an Associate in Arts with an educational pathway that leads to a bachelor’s degree with workforce skills based on the Security Personnel needs of local, state and Federal governments and private companies. Coursework includes the areas of crisis and disaster issues, public safety, homeland security, management and terrorism prevention. Graduates of this program will find employment opportunities in local, state, or Federal government, colleges and universities, and corporate security offices. In addition, the Homeland Security Program is ideal preparation for further study in graduate school for programs in law, investigations, Homeland Security, emergency management or public policy.

Separate Application

‡ Degrees/programs will require a separate application and acceptance notification from the specific department before enrollment in the desired program.

Admission Requirements

Admission requirements include:

A 2.0 GPA on a scale of 4.0;
Completion of 60 semester hours. Included in this must be ENC 1101 and MAT 1033 (or a course at that same or higher level).
Successful completion of at least 50 percent of the required 42 credit hours of electives (listed below).

Public Safety and Emergency Management Program Requirements

General Education Courses: 36 Credit Hours

General education courses from Areas I - V.

Lower/Upper Level Electives: 42 Credit Hours (27 Lower Level/15 Upper Level)

Fire science, criminal justice and emergency medical services degrees from regionally accredited colleges and universities will meet this requirement. These 9 courses for other students should reflect a “minor” area of interests such as Computer security, nursing or medical services, Social Science, Math, Business Management, or any other specialty of student interest.

27 Lower level credits (nine courses):

Any A.A. elective over and above A.A. general education requirements. To meet the requirement of A.A. elective, check the SCF Catalog. Any course that has (A.A.) after the course title in the catalog course description or any of the following courses will count. Course prefixes: ACG, ANT, BCH, BCN, BSC, BUL, CGS, CHM, CIS, COP, ECO, ETG, EUH, FIN, FRE, GEA, GEB, GEO, GER, GLY, HSC, INP, INR, ISC, JOU, MAN, MET, MMC, PLA, SLS, SPC, SPN, STA.

15 upper level credits (five courses) Choose from the following list:

BUL 4333 - Contract Negotiation and Administration (3 Credit Hours)
CJE 3361 - Management of Specialized Law Enforcement Units (3 Credit Hours)
CJE 4668 - Computer Crime (3 Credit Hours)
DSC 3214 - Catastrophic Event Response Planning (3 Credit Hours)
DSC 3243 - Industrial Security (3 Credit Hours)
DSC 4038 - Terrorism and Emergency Management (3 Credit Hours)
DSC 4594 - Intelligence Analysis (3 Credit Hours)
ETI 3647 - Supply Chain Management (3 Credit Hours)
ETI 4448 - Applied Project Management (3 Credit Hours)
FIN 3400 - Financial Management (3 Credit Hours)
GEY 3001 - Aging and Special Populations (3 Credit Hours)
GEY 3302 - Communicating with Older Adults (3 Credit Hours)
ISM 4382 - Global Information Systems (3 Credit Hours)
ISM 4480 - Electronic Commerce Systems and Strategies (3 Credit Hours)
MAN 3240 - Applied Organizational Behavior (3 Credit Hours)
MAN 3303 - Management and Leadership Practices (3 Credit Hours)
MAN 3503 - Managerial Risk Analysis and Decision Making (3 Credit Hours)
MAN 3504 - Operations Management (3 Credit Hours)
MAN 4102 - Managing Cultural Diversity (3 Credit Hours)
MAN 4520 - Quality Management (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 3311 - Program Planning and Evaluation (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 3332 - Strategic Planning (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 3874 - Community Relations Theory and Practice (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 4204 - Public Finance (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 4414 - Human Resource Management Skills (3 Credit Hours)

Upper Level Core Courses: 42 Credit Hours

(27 Common core credits required for both tracks and 15 speciality credits for each track)

Common Core Courses (27 Credit Hours)
DSC 3013 - Introduction to Homeland Security (3 Credit Hours)
DSC 3554 - Critical Infrastructure and Risk Analysis (3 Credit Hours)
FES 3833 - Emerging Issues in Environmental Disaster Management (3 Credit Hours)
FES 4014 - Evolution of Emergency Management (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 3820 - Foundations of Public Safety Administration (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 3821 - Contemporary Issues in Public Safety/Homeland Security (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 4046 - Values, Ethics and Conflict Resolution (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 4603 - Administrative Law (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 4878 - Public Safety Administration/Homeland Security Capstone (3 Credit Hours)

subtotal Credit Hours: 27

Homeland Security Track

Core courses (15 Credit Hours)

DSC 3243 - Industrial Security (3 Credit Hours)
CJE 3361 - Management of Specialized Law Enforcement Units (3 Credit Hours)
DSC 4038 - Terrorism and Emergency Management (3 Credit Hours)
DSC 4594 - Intelligence Analysis (3 Credit Hours)
CJE 4668 - Computer Crime (3 Credit Hours)

Subtotal Credit Hours: 15

Public Safety Track

Core courses (15 Credit Hours)

DSC 3214 - Catastrophic Event Response Planning (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 3311 - Program Planning and Evaluation (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 3874 - Community Relations Theory and Practice (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 4204 - Public Finance (3 Credit Hours)
PAD 4414 - Human Resource Management Skills (3 Credit Hours)

Subtotal Credit Hours: 15

Graduation Requirements for Bachelor’s Degrees

The following general requirements for graduation from SCF must be met by all candidates for the Bachelor of Applied Science and Bachelor of Science degrees. Additional requirements may exist for individual programs.

Students must satisfactorily complete 120 credit hours. For residency purposes, a minimum of 30 credit hours required for graduation must be completed at SCF. All other specific degree requirements also must be met. Developmental education (formerly college preparatory) instruction may not be counted toward fulfilling the total number of credit hours required for residency purposes or graduation.
For purposes of conferring the bachelor’s degree, students must complete at least 30 credit hours of courses numbered 3000 level or above. Of these, at least 15 credit hours must be taken at SCF.
Students must achieve a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 or higher on a 4 .0 scale for all work completed at SCF and a 2.0 grade point average or higher for combined coursework with SCF that includes all transferable credits.
Students must earn a grade of C or better in all upper division program requirements.
Students must complete the general education requirements (36 credit hours) as defined in the Associate in Arts degree. Students who transfer to SCF with either an Associate in Arts degree or a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution are considered to have met the general education component of the degree. Courses will be reviewed for equivalency for students who transfer without an Associate in Arts or bachelor’s degree.
Students must have completed Florida’s foreign language requirement prior to the completion of the bachelor’s degree. Students may meet this competency by: A) successful completion of two years (four semesters) of the same foreign language officially documented on a high school transcript; or B) successful completion (grade C or better) of two semesters of the same foreign language at a college or university officially documented on a college/university transcript; or C) education completed outside the United States as documented on an official foreign high school transcript that reflects a primary language other than English; D) or Successful completion of two foreign language equivalents through Advanced Placement (AP), College Level Examination Program (CLEP), International Baccalaureate (IB), Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE), or UEXCEL exams. One or more of these exams can be in combination with successful completion of college/university credit in the same foreign language subject area. Official transcripts from a high school, college and/or university and/or official examination results must be submitted to the educational records office.
For students wishing to pursue another bachelor’s degree, the student must complete a minimum of 15 additional credit hours beyond the first bachelor’s degree as well as any other degree requirements and graduation requirements listed above for the second program.

SCF reserves the right to make changes in the regulations, offerings, requirements and any provisions announced in this Catalog at any time as circumstances require.

Note(s)

(Note the Gordon Rule and Intercultural course requirements do not have to be met for a Bachelor

Degree Program).

[8003] BAS Homeland Security and [8004] Public Safety Administration will be discontinued with the Fall 2017 catalog. The new program [8008] will have two tracks for students to choose; a homeland security track and a public safety track. Students who are currently in [8003] or [8004] can finish out their degree program, but no new students will be admitted into these programs. Students who previously earned [8003] and/or [8004] will not be eligible to earn [8008].