Department of Chemistry and Physics - Fayetteville State University

Announcements

Fall 2011 Registration

Pre-registration for Fall 2011 classes has been underway since April 11, and will continue until July 29. Bill clearance for all pre-registered students must be completed by 5:00 p.m. on August 1, 2011. If your bill has not been cleared by that day and time, you will be dropped from all classes for which you pre-registered. Registration for classes begins on August 8 and ends on August 17.

As in the past, you will need an Alternate Pin in order to enter the Add/Drop page for registration. If you do not have your Alternate Pin yet, contact the Fire Science Program advisor, Ronald Johnston (rjohnston@uncfsu.edu), in order to receive advisement and request your Alternate Pin before June 30. After June 30, contact Ms. Brenda Fuller, Administrative Assistant to the Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Physics, at bfuller@uncfsu.edu. E-mail is the best means of getting your Alternate Pin. You will receive a return email with your PIN enclosed.

Permission Form: Pursuing Courses at Other Institutions

Please take a minute to review your degree plan and determine what courses you will be taking at the community college level now that you are a student at FSU. Per FSU policy a student can take coursework at other accredited institutions while enrolled at FSU, however, permission must be granted. This permission process comes in two forms. If you attend Asheville-Buncombe County Community College, Fayetteville Technical Community College, or Forsyth Technical Community College, then you fall under the guidelines of the Dual-Enrollment Articulation Agreement that exists between these three schools and FSU. If you are not at one of these three institutions, then you must have on file with the institution at which you wish to take courses and at FSU a form entitled Pursuing Courses at Other Institutions. Here is how you should proceed regardless of which situation you are in related to schools.

Determine the courses you still need to complete at the community college level, and list them by course prefix and number along with the title of the course.

Email this list to the Director of the Fire Science Program. Include your full name and banner ID in the email along with the name of the institution in which you wish to register to complete these courses. The program director and/or his staff will transcribe the information onto the FSU form and submit the form for the necessary signatures and approvals. This is an important item to have in your file, especially if you are nearing graduation. It is very important that you complete all courses that are not through FSU the semester before you register for your last classes at FSU before graduation so that all transcripts can be order to show the completion of the new courses. Thanks.

Make www.uncfsu.edu/chemistry/fire/ your browser page

Save www.uncfsu.edu/chemistry/fire/ to your favorites! As you may have noticed the original Fire Science web page has been moved so that it is a part of the Department of Chemistry and Physics web page. The Fire Science Program is one part of the Department of Chemistry and Physics, so it is only logical to include this web page along with other web pages that are part of the department as well.

Completing your Curriculum Plan?

If you are finishing your final courses with FSU this summer, you are a potential December, 2011, graduate. If you are finishing your final courses during the Fall 2011 Semester, you are also a potential December, 2011, graduate. If you meet either of these descriptions, please contact the Fire Science Program director so that your status can be verified and your file can be updated, and the proper paperwork can be prepared and submitted to the Office of the Registrar.

If you have not already done so, you need to:

Ask the program director to send you a signed copy of your Curriculum Planning Guide and Degree Audit to indicate that you are in your final classes in order to complete the B.S. in Fire Science. A signed copy of your degree audit must be submitted with your application for graduation.
Go to the Registrar’s web page, get the Application for Graduation, fill it out, print it, and mail it to the address given in the instructions along with your fee of $50.00.

Finally, a hearty congratulation to our eleven (11) Spring 2011 Graduates! You see it can be done! Sometimes it takes perseverance and patience, but the goal is obtainable.

Fire Science Program Changes

IMPORTANT NOTIFICATION:

As you began to request information and your Alternate Pin for registration purposes for the Fall 2011 semester, you also received a new Curriculum Plan based upon the major listed for you in Banner. If you did not receive a new Curriculum Plan, contact the Fire Science Program Director through Ms. Brenda Fuller (bfuller@uncfsu.edu) and give her your name and Banner ID number, and she will pass that along to the Director so you can get one as quickly as possible. As you will probably notice, there are some new courses in the Major Requirements.

Some additional changes are coming in Part A: (the) University College Core Curriculum as well. These changes were deemed necessary to make the Fire Science Program easier to navigate from the day a new student is accepted into FSU and declares Fire Science as his/her major. These changes WILL NOT require any additional courses for those already in the program. These requirements were already there, but other courses were in those places. These changes should be reflected in the next FSU Catalog.

Here is a rundown of changes that have been made and implemented beginning with the Summer 2010 session.

SOCI 412 Racial and Ethnic Issues has been replaced by FSCN 408 Fire Service Diversity
PSYC 300 Personal Adjustment has been replaced by FSCN 360 Fire Service Ethics.
FSCN 345 Fire Fighter Fitness and Health has been added to fulfill the FSU HEED/PED requirement. This change was necessary because the university would not approve the continued use of the CPR Certification as a substitution for the PE/Health requirement. Students who do not have PE/Health credit hours will be required to take FSCN 345 or take HEA 110 or PED 110 at the community college level. However, all interested students are encouraged to take the FSCN 345 course.
PSYC 350 Industrial and Organization Psychology has been replaced with FSCN 440 – Fire Service Organizational Dynamics. The approval for FSCN 440 was completed in April, 2011, so it might be available during the Spring 2012 Semester.

The following excerpt from "FSU Program Change Proposal" offers our reasoning why these changes were necessary.

Purpose:

To offer courses in the Fire Science Management Concentration that provide a greater focus, at the micro level, which can/will better suit the requirements of the specific skills, knowledge and abilities that fire service management positions require.

The primary learning outcomes of the Fire Science program include:

The ability to employ critical thinking skills into the personal and professional life.
The ability to problem solve as it pertains to personal and professional challenges.
The ability to communicate more effectively, verbally and in writing, from a position of informed understanding in the areas of ethics, politics, management, leadership and global perspectives.

Rationale:

The FSU Fire Science program first offered classes in the summer semester of 2007. As is the case with all new programs, the curriculum, learning outcomes, management process and university support mechanisms required evaluation and revision. The curriculum has now completed the first cycle and while the student feedback regarding the programs academic quality has been very positive; some suggestions for critical changes were noted:

Students transferring into the FSU Fire Program do not possess a health/physical education course (2 credit hours required). PE/Health is not a requirement in their prescribed NCCC AAS program of study.

Heart attacks are the American fire service's leading cause of line-of-duty death and mental/emotional stress is considered to be a contributing factor in the development of heart disease.

Therefore, FSCN 345 Fire Service Fitness and Wellness is being proposed, as a new fire program course, in an effort to increase the student's awareness and understanding of this life-threatening challenge. The key goal is to provide practical knowledge and strategies that will provide the FSU fire science student with the necessary tools to become a change agent within their respective organizations.

SOCI 412 Racial and Ethnic Relations provided the fire science student with a valuable and insightful examination of the dynamics of human interaction from a racial and ethnic perspective. This global view is extremely important, in that a macro perspective can often lead to an enhanced micro perspective. However, in the case of the FSU fire science student it is probably more valuable to understand the micro-level dynamics and move to the macro-level dynamics of racial and ethnic relations. This opinion is drawn from a practicality position, in that the fire service micro environment, with all of the fire service challenges, is where this student lives and works. It is from the micro-level that the fire science student can better relate, understand and apply the issues of a rapidly evolving diverse work world and then move to the more global application. Therefore, FSCN 408 Fire Service Diversity (was) proposed in an effort to provide greater focus on the particular racial and ethnic issues pertinent to the American fire service.

While PSYC 300 Personal Adjustment provided the fire science student with a greater understanding of the psychological self and is a valuable and pertinent course for any person attempting to acquire a better understanding of self in the world and workplace, the fire science student will receive an enhanced value-added perspective through FSCN 360 Applied Fire Service Ethics.

PSYC 350 Industrial and Organizational Psychology provided the fire science student with an understanding of the psychological factors that influence one performance in work settings, especially related to how group processes, employee motivations, leadership, selection, and training place emphases upon jobs and organizations. FSCN 440 Fire Service Organizational Dynamics will provide a greater focus on the particular organizational theory and organizational culture pertinent to the American fire service. The fire service is a micro-environment with its own culture. It is where the student lives and works, and it is where the knowledge gained is put into practice. It is believed that through the study of the micro-level nature of the fire service culture, students will be better able to relate, understand, and apply the issues of an evolving industry.

The FSU Fire Science program, with concentrations in Fire Service Management and Fire Investigations was specifically undertaken with the support and partnership with the Fayetteville Fire Department. The Fire Station at FSU was funded by the City of Fayetteville. Further, in the initial request for permission to offer a new program submitted to the UNC GA, the additional support of the NC Fire Chief's Association was noted. As partners in this endeavor, it is inherent upon FSU to provide a curriculum that will specifically meet the higher educational needs of the North Carolina Fire Service. The approval, adoption, design and offering of these three new courses will increase the effectiveness and utility of the Fire Science baccalaureate degree.