The College of Veterinary Medicine recently introduced a public health minor as part of its undergraduate studies program.
This minor is open to all undergraduate students in any college.
Ken Nusbaum, program coordinator, pushed for the minor to be introduced at Auburn.
"We began working on introducing a public health minor two or three years ago." Nusbaum said. "It is a national attempt of the American Association of Colleges and Universities to make public health part of the undergraduate curriculum. It seemed Auburn should be part of this trend."
Jim Wright, professor of pathobiology, explained the course sequence for the minor.
"The core courses are taught at the vet school in the summer only," Wright said. "Introduction to Public Health, which is taught by a range of faculty, is one of the core courses. The second course is Introduction to Epidemiology. I teach it and Dr. Jim Wenzel, clinical sciences professor, teaches it as well. Dr. Rene Mceldowney, political science professor, teaches the third course, Global Health Systems.
The idea is that someone can take the summer semester and get all the core courses out of the way for the public health minor."
The minor amounts to 15 credit hours, with service learning being a part of the curriculum.
"The three core courses are three credits each, the service learning requirement is three credits and there is one three-credit elective," Wright said. "The elective must be one that is not a requirement for a student's major. It can be a broad area of classes. For example, courses in civil engineering, psychology and pre-nursing can be used because public health is a broad learning experience."
The professors teaching the minor are from many departments on campus.
"We have lecturers from almost all colleges on campus," Nusbaum said. "This is a very collaborative minor. We have a lecturer from kinesiology, one from food and nutrition, psychology, a couple from the College of Veterinary Medicine and one professor from liberal arts who teaches all comparative and global classes. It's a minor that isn't soaked in science, but it covers a lot of sciences."
Nusbaum explained why a public health minor is invaluable to a student's education.
"If you think about it, what aspect of our existence isn't involved in public health?" he said. "If you're a civil engineer, you're involved in public health. If you're a historian, the history of public health tells us how we treat our minority populations. If you're a journalism major, writing about the state of public health and communicating with the public about AIDS, SARS and other diseases are important. This minor will give students an understanding of the diseases that have a local impact in the Auburn area and have national and international impact as well."
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