News by Callie Fahsholz

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous News | Send mail to The Voice MBC considers new majors in the 10-year plan In June, 2001, Multnomah Bible College was granted candidacy status in its quest for regional accreditation with NASCU. Multnomah has since worked to strengthen the general education department and has formed a 10-year plan to investigate new majors. The general education requirements, as of fall 2002, are at 57 credit hours with a number of new courses such as fine arts, philosophy and ecology. As of last fall, incoming freshmen benefited from the strengthened general education program. As part of a 10-year plan, Multnomah, headed by academic dean Dr. Wayne Strickland, will appoint committees to investigate adding a number of new majors. These majors include elementary education, which would enable students to get teaching certificates with the State of Oregon while at Multnomah; English literature, psychology, Hebrew and possibly nursing. Research is also being done on the possibility of adding TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) to the intercultural studies major. Dr. Strickland reminded students that these changes are only possibilities. Additional majors may be added as soon as 2006, but many will not be implemented until exhaustive research has been done to see whether these changes are the right fit for Multnomah. If they are, then Multnomah could implement these mjors by 2011. "These ideas are very conceptual," Dr. Strickland said. "We are interested in these ideas, and we think they would be a good fit for Multnomah." In determining whether to add each major, the board will appoint people to conduct feasibility studies into each program's effectiveness, what the program will accomplish, the requirements and the financial implications. The feasibility study for the elementary education major may be completed as soon as June, 2003. "We want to look at ministry a lot more broadly," Dr. Strickland said. The idea is that ministry is more than being a pastor, youth pastor or teacher. We want to show the wide variety of ministries that are out there, he said. "We are not moving toward being a Christian liberal arts school," he said. "We will still be a Bible College." Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous News | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2003 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.