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St. Cloud State University

St. Cloud State University

Newsletter

Although we are a leading Criminal Justice undergraduate and graduate education provider, we recognize that to continue to meet our goals, we will need to be proactive in the delivery of occupationally-related courses to supplement the liberal arts-based education for our students. "Our goal is to have all our degree programs online within one year", said Bob Prout, Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice. We have had a very successful run since our beginning in 1972. Today, there are more than twenty-two hundred SCSU Criminal Justice bachelors and masters degree graduates in positions in virtually all counties in Minnesota, as well as in almost all other states and in dozens of other nations.

We have been able to assemble some top-flight faculty, and we could choose to rest on our accomplishments and continue exclusively with our traditional face-to-face course offerings. However, we recognize an increasing share of undergraduate and graduate students will choose to complete part or all of their course work online. We have the faculty, the curriculum, and the technical support to provide a quality online environment.

"Society, SCSU, and our students win when we cooperate in offering more occupationally-related, technical and professional courses", Prout said. As an example of this cross-departmental relationship, he cited the close cooperation between the Geography and the Criminal Justice Departments in the development of a Global Information System crime-mapping course.

Prout provided the following examples of recent developments in the Department of Criminal Justice :

  1. Under the direction of John Campbell, former dean of the FBI Academy, the first cohort of ten Public Safety Executive Leadership students completed their graduate degrees. Several of the public safety in-service members of this group live and took all of their classes in the Winona area, proving the feasibility of distance education for completing this new Criminal Justice Department graduate degree. A new cohort is underway in Duluth, and one is expected in Bemidji next semester.
  2. John Campbell coauthored Into the Minds of Madmen: How the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit Revolutionized Crime Investigation. The book describes the pioneering work of the Behavioral Science Unit when John was its Director in the 1980's.
  3. Dick Andzenge and Lee Gilbertson took a group of students to Dubrovnik, Croatia in May to attend the 20th Annual Conference on Victimology, Victim Assistance and Criminology. Dick is one of six international directors of this organization.
  4. Richard Lawrence completed work on a 2nd edition of School Crime and Juvenile Justice published by Oxford University Press. Richard also consults with schools regarding school safety and violence prevention.
  5. A Louisiana civil case resulting from a night depository homicide in which Barry Schreiber testified as an expert witness (Pinsonneault v. Merchants and Farmers Bank of Leesville, Louisiana) went to the Louisiana Supreme Court, where the Court affirmed the verdict of the trial court. Barry also acted as an expert witness in the recent antitrust litigation, WalMart v. VisaCheck/MasterMoney, in United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The action resulted in a multibillion dollar settlement.
  6. Steve Hennessy joined the Department last year after six years with the FBI, twenty years with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (retiring as Deputy Superintendent), and ten years as Director of Training with the twenty-eight hundred officer Phoenix Police Department. Steve is President of the Police Futurists International organization.

Prout said, "On several fronts, the Department of Criminal Justice is making progress, and planning for continued success in the decade ahead".