New School, New Majors Coming in 2013

The King's College plans to offer three new majors under one new school, tentatively by Fall 2013. The School of Public Service would offer Liberal Arts, Public Affairs and International Affairs – three separate majors. The Council will host a public forum with Politics, Philosophy and Economics Dean Dr. David Corbin on Nov. 4th at 12:15pm (place TBA) to answer questions and explain the new programs.

The additions would increase the curriculum of King's to six majors. The existing majors include: Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE), Business Management (BM) and Media, Culture and the Arts (MCA).

TKC's Board of Trustees has voted to send required paperwork to the State of New York and then the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. These approvals are expected to be granted by February, after which the board will vote again to implement the programs.

Corbin says the School of Public Affairs is born out of the King's mission to use the biblical worldview to "transform society by preparing students to shape and eventually to lead strategic public and private institutions."

"These programs will better enable us to fulfill our mission," Corbin said.

The Public and International Affairs majors will focus on public policy and advocacy classes in domestic and international arenas, respectively. The Liberal Arts major will primarily serve transfer students, giving them more opportunity to add the distinguishing PPE core of King's to their generally broad credits earned elsewhere.

Students studying under the School of Public Service will take semester long, full time internships across the country, overseas or in New York. A completed internship will earn the student 12 credits, the equivalent of four classes. A required fifth class, an online seminar facilitated by a King's professor, will allow all the King's students interning that semester to share and compare their experiences.

"Often times when a student leaves King's for an internship, they are isolated," Corbin said. "This will keep them connected to King's, no matter if they are in Sacramento or Paris."

Other majors will technically have the same opportunity for 12-credit internships, but would have to use five electives.

New classes coming 2012-2013 particularly of interest to the PPE and Public and International Affairs majors include: Econometrics, Intermediate Macroeconomics, Philosophy of Science, Comparative Government and International Politics. Epistemology and Metaphysics are also possibilities with the expected hire of a new full time philosophy professor.

Deans began discussing the introduction of a new school via email this past summer, brainstorming "ways TKC can expand its reach, particularly to transfer students," Interim Provost Dr. Calvin White said. The provost leadership team was also asked to think about new programs of study in "an effort to add majors that will increase enrollment," White said.

While vacationing in New Hampshire last June, PPE Dean Dr. David Corbin asked himself how King's could improve.

"More than any other school I've been at, folks here are driven by the mission," Corbin said. "But there are different types of personalities, different types of people."

Corbin recalled the introduction of the MCA major in 2009, meant to appeal to creative students at King's, and thought of another personality that could thrive given the right curriculum.

"The student drawn to application more than theory," Corbin said. "The more active PPE/MCA-er ... You've read the first book, but now you don't want to read 50 more books. You want to go out into the public square and do."

Corbin and Assistant Provost Dr. Matthew Parks developed the plan for the new school over the summer, then proposed the plans to faculty in August. Faculty discussed the plans in September, and the Curriculum Committee and full faculty approved the plans in October. Corbin presented the plans to the Council last Friday afternoon.

"I think that many members of the Council were surprised by the news," Student Body President Madison Peace said.

Many Council members had questions, such as how the new majors will affect the growth of the college.

Parks and Corbin researched in June what kind of undergraduate schools current leaders in government, law, media and other influential institutions attended and found that 3% of four-year colleges and universities account for 50% of these leaders, many of which continue on to graduate schools. They also found that successful liberal arts colleges are three to six times larger than King's with SAT scores 100-200 points higher.

"We have four basic goals," Corbin said. "We want to increase our [admission] standards, grow [in number of students], prepare students for elite graduate schools and build on our curriculum."

The leaders' most popular majors are Political Science, Business and Economics. (Philosophy was tenth most popular, and History was fourth.)

"Our distinction is drawn from our common core," Corbin said. "And that's right on target."