Bachelor of Arts in Political Science

at State University of New York College at Brockport USA

African and African-American Studies offers students a broader and deeper understanding of our world. We promote global and inclusive perspectives—drawing from history, literature, the arts and the social sciences—to explore the realities and life experiences of Africans and African Americans. For students of any ethnic background, a major in AAS offers a uniquely rounded liberal arts education that can lead to a wide variety of career options or further studies.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Articulate the purpose and history of the field of African and African-African American Studies, and its proclivity to offer a corrective to mainstream representations of Africa and Africans.
• Interpret the Africana experience by applying methodologies and perspectives in African and African American studies.
• Identify key themes on how race, ethnicity, class and gender impact issues in African and African American Studies from a variety of disciplinary approaches.
• Analyze the historical experiences of African people on the continent of Africa and in the Diaspora, underscoring crucial themes relevant to their experiences.
• Analyze the literary expressions and contributions of African people on the continent of Africa or in the Diaspora, including analysis of seminal literary treatises from ancient times to the present.
• Analyze the experience of African people on the continent of Africa or in the Diaspora from the perspective of the social sciences.
• Apply the skills and knowledge acquired in their studies to practical use, such as going on for further study or serving as agents of change in their own settings and communities.

The program is designed to help students become scientifically and humanistically prepared to become professional nurses. The program also provides a foundation for graduate study in nursing. Beginning practitioners are most frequently employed in either hospital or community settings. Hospitals offer challenging opportunities for the baccalaureate graduate as do long-term health care facilities. In the community, nurses are employed by public health departments, health maintenance organizations, community and migrant health centers, outpatient clinics, physician’s offices, voluntary health organizations and hospice car settings. Increasingly, nurses have opportunities to participate in entrepreneurial endeavors as independent health care providers. The armed services also offer excellent career opportunities for graduates.

Licensed RNs with an associate's degree who wish to pursue their Baccalaureate degree in Nursing should review the RN-to-BSN Fast-Track major. Students that already have a Bachelor's degree and are interested in earning a nursing degree should review the Nursing Accelerated (Second Degree) BS to BSN.

What You’ll Learn

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Integrate theories and concepts from nursing, the liberal arts, sciences, and humanities into professional nursing practice in a world of global interdependence.
• Provide safe and holistic patient centered care for all ages in a variety of health care settings utilizing the nursing process, informatics, and emerging technology.
• Provide evidence based care of patients patients across the lifespan for the delivery of optimal health care.
• Articulate a professional philosophy that reflects autonomy, advocacy, social justice, accountability, responsibility and ethical decision making in the provision of patient centered care.
• Communicate and collaborate with individuals, families, communities, population and interdisciplinary team members fostering open communication, mutual respect and shared decision-making.
• Integrate processes and skills of critical thinking, management, and leadership to promote and continuously improve the quality and safety of health care delivery.
• Evaluate nursing care outcomes within the context of clients' values, preferences, and well-being.

The Department of Women and Gender Studies works to make the diversity of women’s and gendered perspectives visible and to promote student success within an academic, professional, and personal context. The major curriculum seeks to provide students with the occasion to investigate the intersections of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, sexuality, and ability as dimensions of social identity, and as considered at local, national, and transnational levels.

This interdisciplinary major offers students a well-rounded undergraduate education leading to expertise in a wide variety of skills that prepare students for career and graduate school success. Students have an opportunity to understand themselves and their society within an inclusive view of the human experience.

Recent Women and Gender Studies graduates have gone on to highly competitive masters and doctorate programs in law, sociology, gender studies, history, social work, communications, public health, and English at nationally recognized research universities. Graduates stepping into the workforce have assumed careers as crisis counselors, government officials, librarians, human rights activists, and Peace Corps/AmeriCorps volunteers.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Describe why centering anti-racist and decolonizing work is essential to effective social justice work and feminist thinking.
• Explain how patriarchy and other sex/gender systems of power intersect with other systems of power.
• Theorize ways in which bodies and social identities are culturally and historically constructed and shaped.
• Identify and critically evaluate research and scholarly arguments within the field of Women and Gender Studies.
• Identify and analyze language, media representation, and dominant forms of communication to produce an original argument about how power and privilege operate in society.
• Apply collaborative strategies and knowledge of Women and Gender to imagine and create transformative feminist futures.

The 36-credit Master of Arts in Dance is a graduate program that offers students an opportunity to focus on intensive scholarly study in dance. Students may also develop an interdisciplinary focus in dance/movement studies, which might include coursework and research in areas such as theatre, music studies, recreation and leisure studies, health and wellness, or women/gender studies.

While at Brockport, graduate students may perform in faculty and guest artist work, choreograph their own work, or assist in directing departmental touring performances. They may also travel to regional/national conferences and festivals; to countries with complimentary foreign study programs such as Ghana, England, Brazil or Norway; or to New York and other locations for approved and credited apprenticeships, internships or dance study.

Upon completion of their degrees, Brockport MA students go on to become college and university faculty; PreK-12 teachers; performers and choreographers; dance administrators; private studio directors; independent movement practitioners; and teaching artists.  Others pursue doctoral degrees in dance or related fields.

The Department of Dance offers an MA in Dance, or an MFA in dance. The Department of Dance seeks to provide a rigorous and nurturing environment for the development of artists, scholars, choreographers, and educators. We support creativity through conceptualization and performance.

The department has some of the best dance facilities in the country, including its own fully equipped 300-seat proscenium dance theater, a 270-seat large-space studio theater, five studios, a body-conditioning lab, and computerized music and design studios. Faculty and professional staff are nationally and internationally recognized in their areas of expertise and are leaders in professional organizations such as CORD, NASD and NDEO. SUNY Brockport is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Dance.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Apply artistry and individual expressivity across a range of movement aesthetics.
• Embody physical mastery of a variety of contemporary dance idioms.
• Generate and design choreography that demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of compositional tools and aesthetic framework.
• Articulate a critical understanding of aesthetics regarding dance styles through dance making, and/or oral and written forms.
• Summarize and synthesize concepts regarding history, aesthetics, and culture of dance.
• Identify and investigate an individual research agenda in creative and/or written scholarship.
• Situate individual interests in the context of the larger dance field.
• Exhibit appropriate professional conduct throughout choreographic process, performance, collaboration, and production.

The 30-credit Consumer Health program within the Department of Public Health and Health Education provides students with foundational knowledge of public health. The Consumer Health Concentration can complement a related second major, such as Psychology, Recreation and Leisure Studies, or Women and Gender Studies.

The program consists of Required core courses and content electives focused on various dimensions of health. Students interested in becoming a public health educator or sitting for the Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) Exam should speak with an advisor about our professional program in Public Health Education.

Student Learning Outcomes

The Public Health Education program is aligned with the seven Areas of Responsibility as defined by the National Commission on Health Education Credentialing.

Public Health Major

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Assess individual and community needs for health education
• Plan health education strategies, interventions, and programs
• Implement health education strategies, interventions, and programs
• Conduct evaluation and research related to health education
• Administer health education strategies, interventions, and programs
• Serve as a health education resource person
• Communicate and advocate for health and health education

Consumer Health Concentration

The Consumer Health concentration is aligned with three of the seven Areas of Responsibility as defined by the National Commission on Health Education Credentialing.

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Administer health education strategies, interventions, and programs
• Conduct evaluation and research related to health education
• Serve as a health education resource person

The study of philosophy is excellent preparation for a career in any field that requires clear, analytical thinking, writing, and speaking, including law, government, teaching and education, the ministry, business and management, publishing, and many other fields. Philosophy is traditionally considered the premier major for those planning to apply to law school. Philosophy majors score on average significantly higher on the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) than do the majors in any of the humanities or social sciences, including political science, history, and English; and philosophy majors on average are accepted to law school at higher rates than are students majoring in many other popular pre-law fields. Philosophy is also an excellent double major.

The Department of Philosophy sponsors the College's chapter of Phi Sigma Tau, the International Honors Philosophy Society, which recognizes student academic excellence. The Department also operates the Center for Philosophic Exchange, which sponsors free public guest lectures on campus by distinguished philosophers and publishes the on-line journal, Philosophic Exchange.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Present a philosophical problem, by (1) concisely and precisely stating a philosophical problem to be resolved by an argument or essay, (2) explaining why the problem is significant, (3) explaining the scope of the problem, (4) defining any terms necessary for understanding the problem.
• Explicate the meaning of a philosophical theory by (1) correctly deducing the logical implications of that theory, (2) describing those implications in terms of specific examples, (3) recognizing when another statement or theory contradicts the relevant theory explicitly, (4) recognizing when another statement or theory contradicts the relevant theory implicitly.
• Demonstrate understanding of evidence by (1) correctly stating what counts as relevant evidence for a philosophical position, (2) correctly stating what counts as relevant evidence against the argument for a philosophical position and recognizing that evidence as such, (3) explaining why any cited evidence is relevant or irrelevant to a philosophical position, (4) distinguishing evidentiary claims about a philosophical position from rhetorically persuasive but specious claims about a philosophical position.
• Demonstrate knowledge of logic, by (1) recognizing arguments, (2) constructing good arguments, (3) evaluating arguments, (4) avoiding fallacies (e.g. begging the question).
• Demonstrate knowledge of dialectical method in philosophy, by (1) formulating possible objections to the thesis of an essay, (2) formulating possible objections to the argument for the essay's thesis, (3) responding to possible objections to the essay's thesis by showing that they are mistaken, (4) responding to possible objections to the argument for the essay's thesis by showing that they are mistaken.

Water resources majors must earn a minimum of 42 credits in required core courses. Additional requirements are two semesters each of calculus, college chemistry with lab, and college physics with lab. This major prepares students for careers in hydrology, resource management, and pollution control; the course of study includes courses recommended for federal employment as a hydrologist. The major is offered to meet the growing demand for hydrologists and other water resources professionals by federal, state and local government agencies; private sector environmental and consulting firms; and industrial and educational institutions.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Explain the manner with which variables and data, relevant for water resources, are properly collected using discipline appropriate methodology (fieldwork, instrumentation, remote sensing, or derived products from models).
• Properly interpret water resources data using discipline-accepted qualitative analysis.
• Properly interpret water resources data using discipline-accepted quantitative analysis.
• Define a scientific question and develop a methodology for answering it.
• Locate, evaluate and interpret primary source scientific literature.
• Effectively express water resources concepts and research results following the accepted written format for the discipline
• Explain water resources concepts and communicate research results following the accepted oral format for the discipline.

This major allows a typical student to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology from SUNY Brockport upon the satisfactory completion of all program requirements. A typical student fulfills the General Education and major requirements during the first three years. The fourth year, Clinical Year, is completed at an approved clinical site (Hospital/Medical Lab) and includes both theoretical study and practical work. The BS in Medical Technology is awarded upon the satisfactory completion of these program requirements. Completing the Clinical Year (sometime referred to as internship) makes the student eligible to take the National Registry Examination, which the student must pass to be certified as a Registered Medical Technologist.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Define and accurately use biological terminology and nomenclature.
• Evaluate and analyze biological problems using knowledge of cell structure and function.
• Integrate interdisciplinary concepts to assess tissues, organs and systems.
• Evaluate and analyze biological problems using knowledge of genetics and evolution.
• Compare and contrast origins and diversity of life to explain life processes.
• Competently employ common laboratory equipment.
• Analyze and interpret scientific data, using relevant computer skills.
• Use quantitative reasoning to analyze complex biological problems.
• Apply biological knowledge to societal issues.
• Apply clinical knowledge of Medical Technology as demonstrated by satisfactory score on the New York State Licensure Examination.

The Department of Dance at SUNY Brockport seeks to provide a rigorous and nurturing environment for the development of artists, scholars, choreographers, and educators. We support creativity through conceptualization and performance. The Department of Dance comprises artists, scholars, and educators who train dancers on the graduate and undergraduate level for a wide variety of careers in the arts.

The department has some of the best dance facilities in the country, including its own fully equipped proscenium dance theater, a large-space studio theater, five studios, a body-conditioning lab, costume and scene shops, and computerized music and design studios. Faculty and professional staff are nationally and internationally recognized in their areas of expertise and are leaders in professional organizations such as CORD, NASD, and NDEO.

Undergraduates with a strong foundation of dance training are invited to participate in the program by auditioning to enroll as dance majors or minors in the BA or BS programs, and are eligible to apply to the BFA program in the second semester. Additionally, the department offers three graduate degrees and serves a large number of students through courses that fulfill General Education requirements.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Apply artistry through qualitative and rhythmic phrasing, dynamic range & individual expressivity.
• Embody consistently clear physical knowledge, movement accuracy and technical expertise of contemporary dance idioms.
• Create choreography that integrates imaginative and structural concepts.
• Articulate an understanding of aesthetics through dance-making and/or oral and written forms.
• Summarize and synthesize concepts regarding history, aesthetics, and culture of dance.
• Analyze human movement from varied theoretical and experiential perspectives.
• Identify individual interests and abilities in order to situate within larger dance field.
• Exhibit appropriate professional conduct throughout choreographic process, performance, collaboration, and production.

As the nations of the world become more interconnected and interdependent, proficiency in other languages is a vital skill that allows you to engage with the world in a more immediate and meaningful way. French language and culture studies prepare you for future opportunities to compete and succeed in the global economy. Through interdisciplinary instruction and the development of intercultural understanding, our curriculum is designed to help you become proficient in French and prepares you to reach your career aspirations in your chosen field of interest. We encourage our students to double major and to participate in study abroad programs in French-speaking countries sponsored by the Center for Global Education and Engagement.

The French major consists of 33 credits and enables students to acquire an advanced level of proficiency in the language. Literature and culture courses are designed to provide a historical, political and social overview of the French-speaking world. All courses are taught in French unless otherwise noted. As with all other undergraduate degrees, students in this major must also complete the General Education program requirements.

Recent Modern Languages and Cultures' graduates have gone on to highly competitive Master's and PhD programs in Higher Education Administration, TESOL, French Literature, and Counseling at recognized research universities. Others have joined the workforce as Bilingual, French, and Spanish elementary and high-school teachers in Rochester and around NY state, ESL teachers for adult learners, translators, interpreters for defense attorneys, social workers, law enforcement officers, and health professionals.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of a baccalaureate degree in French, graduates will be able to:

• Narrate and describe using a variety of time frames, extended discourse, and specialized vocabulary.
• Deliver oral presentations on a wide variety of topics, using a variety of strategies to tailor the presentation to the needs of their audience.
• Narrate and describe in all major time frames with good control of aspect and a range of general vocabulary in writing for personal and professional needs.
• Identify the main facts and many supporting details in conventional narrative and descriptive oral texts.
• Identify some of the essential points of argumentative texts in areas of special interest or knowledge.
• Explain key perspectives of some French-speaking cultures within a comparative framework and connect them to cultural products and practices.
• Interpret and synthesize ideas and critical issues from a wide range of historical and contemporary cultural artifacts.