FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
ABOUT THE PROGRAM IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND HOMELAND SECURITY
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    #1.  The fastest way to get enrolled is to contact a representative of the Admissions department. Alternatively, if you want, you may contact Mike Dunn, online academic advisor, at 931-221-6484 or email dunnm@apsu.edu, and he will be able to walk you thru the admissions, enrollment, and advising processes.  Mike is really helpful if you are a great distance away and/or dealing with a real complicated situation.  The financial aid person out at the Ft. Campbell facility is kellera@apsu.edu who is at 931-221-1462 if you need to talk about that subject (more at Item #2...)

    #2.  The full Admissions process involves four steps, as follows: (a) filling out the form entitled Application for Undergraduate Admission, which can be done online in secure HTML at https://apweb.apsu.edu/) which requires setting up a login as well as a $15 fee, or in mail-in (PDF) version at http://www.apsu.edu/admissions/Application/2004_App.pdf; (b) filling out a one page form entitled Transcript Request Form for previous HS/College(s) attended, http://www.apsu.edu/admissions/forms/trans_request.pdf; (c) filling out a form entitled Certificate of Immunization (in HTML at http://www.apsu.edu/healthservices/MMR.htm); and (d) signing up for and taking the COMPASS test, if applicable, or submitting your ACT scores, or determining if you are exempt from such testing (for Math & English placement) via http://www.apsu.edu/testing/compass.htm.
    If you are "stuck" in some kind of re-admissions process due to a change in status of some sort, like a new source of financial aid (although the best contact for F/A problems is Wanda Welker at welkerw@apsu.edu), a change in residency, tuition calculation, or a problem with which term OR campus (Main campus v. Ft. Campbell) you applied for, the Admissions Dept. has a helpful page called Admissions Application Update at https://www.apsu.edu/secure/admissions/app_update.asp.

    #3. The primary point of contact for soldiers is Darci Bateman who works out of Austin Peay's Registrar office and her number is 931-221-7123 and email is batemand@apsu.edu.  There are secondary points of contact that Darci may refer you to, like Eloise Chambers at 931-221-1415 (chamberse@apsu.edu) for specific Admissions issues, like making APSU your home college, but Darci troubleshoots most issues herself, like degree plan coordination, registration acceptance/rejection issues, and SOCAD agreements.  Please note that National Guard and Reserve are not eligible for active duty TA unless mobilized or AGR status, BUT they may be eligible for TA thru the Army National Guard or Army Reserves.  Some good links to explore are the Admissions Dept. page for veterans and the military's ACES website.  The primary point of contact for veterans is Mary Cochran who works out of Austin Peay's Financial Aid and Veteran's Affairs office and her number is 931-221-1438 and email cochranm@apsu.edu.  Quite often, this VA representative will want (and get) a (prospective or actual) program of study from the CJ department to check that you are on track with your degree program and taking the right courses. 

    #4.  All course are available online, but they are also available face-to-face (or on-ground as we like to call them), and are scheduled as either one or the other, or both, across each and every eight-week term according to a Rotation Schedule which is followed pretty religiously and part of the CJ Department's Tentative Scheduling. Online offerings tend to be more numerous in the Spring terms (Jan-Mar; Apr-June) than the Fall terms (July-Sept; Oct-Dec), but only by a slight margin.  The usual proportion in a given term is for about 25% of the courses to be face-to-face, and 75% to be online.  No course is in any "fixed" format, as the format each course is offered in changes every term.  The same is true for any General Education courses needed to meet graduation requirements.  We have some majors who just refuse to take online courses, and they're progressing fine in the program.  On the other hand, we have several majors who are joining us solely online (often from great distances), and they're progressing fine also.  Our IT folks manage any problems you may have with logging into an online course, and they have put together an Orientation Guide at http://www.apsu.edu/online/orientation/user.htm.

    #5.  There is variation and nothing "typical" in how many courses one of our students will take at one time.  The maximum load at Ft. Campbell is no more than four (4) courses.  Most majors take no more than two (2) or three (3) at a time, and some (those with busy schedules) only take one (1) course at a time.  A very small number of students are approved on a term-by-term basis via the Overload Request Form (pdf) to take five (5) courses a term, and requests to take six (6) courses a term are almost never approved.  Some students pursue a strategy of "knocking off" General Education coursework first, before taking any Criminal Justice courses.  Some students pursue the opposite strategy.  Most pursue a "mixed" strategy, putting at least one General Education course in their schedule every term.  Of course, if your COMPASS test results indicate the need for any "enhanced" English or Math, you'll be blocked from registering for certain General Education courses like the sciences  and certain writing-intensive humanities (e.g., Art) unless there is prior or concurrent enrollment in an enhanced section of English or Math.  In such cases, and under some financial aid rules, you'll simply "have" to take one of these "enhanced" General Education courses your first term, unless you sign up for all criminal justice (where no blocks exist) or manage to sign up for other courses that aren't blocked until you satisfy the COMPASS requirements first.

    #6.  All registration at APSU is web registration.  Our (five terms a year, eight weeks apiece) academic schedule looks like this: (Fall I: August 18-October 11; Fall II: October 20-December 13; Spring I: January 12-March 7; Spring II: March 16-May 9; Summer III: May 26-July 18).  Five times a year, you will have to contact your advisor, give your ID number (which is an "A" number like A00012345), and receive a PIN number (which is a series of digits like 012345) and you use these numbers to register online via the AP Self Service website at http://webss.apsu.edu.  Some samples and instructions of what you would see at that website are located here.  You might also find the Registrar's page quite helpful for better understanding of the online registration process.  The "A" number never changes, but the Pin number changes every term.  There is one employee in the Registrar’s office who “throws the switch” or whatever that makes the Banner computer system recalculate random Pin numbers every term, and they do not share the exact date when that switch is thrown, but it is usually sometime about eight weeks before a term starts and then another switch is thrown opening up the pre-registration period.  Civilians are usually able to pre-register 3 weeks prior to beginning of a term, and soldiers can usually pre-register 8 weeks before a term.   There is also a walk-in, face-to-face (normal) registration period which occurs the week before a term.  During the latter half of that week, all faculty advisors hold joint office hours in a joint advising room in the main Education Center.  Your criminal justice advisor, Dr. Tom O'Connor, can be contacted for your ID and PIN number by email oconnort@apsu.edu, by phone (931-221-1477), or by dropping by his office (Building 604), but the fastest service with him is by email.  Dr. O'Connor's secretary, Gail Roach, can also assist you with getting your PIN number, and her email is roachg@apsu.edu and her phone is 931-221-1480.  Your advisor should fill out and give you (email you) a Program of Study which shows what courses you have left to take.  This can be done five times a year.  In order for your criminal justice advisor to access your records, you will need to ensure that indeed you are a criminal justice major and have him listed as your advisor.  Students themselves declare the criminal justice major by going to the online Change of Major form and putting in the following codes for new major (CRJ), concentration (HS) and degree (BS).  The other boxes don't matter all that much.  To become a listed advisee of Dr. O'Connor, you'll have to call or contact his secretary, Gail Roach, and she'll put you in the system as one of his advisees.  There is a late registration period which runs a couple of days or so after a semester starts, but it is advisable to avoid such late registrations.  Every registration has to be "validated" in some way which ensures the school is going to get paid, and this validation process is explained at the Business Office's FYI: Things You Need to Know About Registration.   

    #7.  All previous coursework from another institution, regardless of whether a student wishes to receive credit for it or not, should be submitted via the official transcript request form which is routed initially to Admissions and then to the Registrar for evaluation and input.  The whole process requires a Records Official at one site (whomever that may be) send paperwork to a Records Official at another site (the APSU Admissions or Registrar's Office).  Your advisor cannot handle, route, or guarantee anything official regarding credit for previous work anywhere.  He can "unofficially" give you an assessment, but he cannot help you get "get the stuff on your transcript" so to say.  Again, that requires a Records Official from one institution contacting a Records Official from another institution.  Backlog times vary from two weeks to a month or two, and a list of contacts in the Registrar's Office is provided below.  Credit for military training programs are based upon appropriate ACE Guide recommendations, and typically, students who have completed Basic Training are usually awarded two hours of Physical Education credit along with three hours of the equivalent of a HHP (Health and Human Performance) course.  Most military training is evaluated by rank and not purely by MOS.  Advanced military training usually transfers in as Management or Marketing credit, often amounting to about 15 credit hours, some of which may be upper level credit (depending upon rank), and also under some circumstances, some of it (lower level as well) might substitute for Criminal Justice credit (at least the Intro course and possibly some electives).  Credit for law enforcement or correctional training (page 39 of 2005-06 Catalog) is also given, and typically, nine hours of lower-level Criminal Justice equivalent credit is usually given for law enforcement training.  Criminal justice training credit gives preference to Tennessee, but reciprocity might quality stuff from other states, depending upon how the Records Officials treat the matter.  The most preference (twelve credit hours and specific, upper-level CRJ core credit) is given for attending the Nashville police academy, but samples for elsewhere are shown on the aforementioned catalog pages.  Below are your contacts for the people at APSU who do official transcript evaluations:

    #8.  According to page 52 of the Student Bulletin (pdf), a senior is someone who has earned 90 hours of college credit.  A junior has 60-89 hours, and sophomore 30-59 hours.  A lot more useful information for students is contained in the Student Bulletin (aka College Catalog) which is a long document but well worth the download.

    #9.  Credit for Life/Work/Portfolio/Experiential credit is given, but it is hard to get.  The Criminal Justice Program recognizes Experiential Credit but does not handle the process of granting it.  The procedure works as follows.  The university requires that students exhaust all of the traditional avenues first (DANTES, CLEP, challenge exams, transfer etc.) prior to starting the PLA portfolio process.   It is a time consuming process and most suitable for students with a large body of life experience and a strong ability to write, organize and reflect on their experiences.  Essentially, you would need to gather up relevant information about the experience and write some extended essays about how it relates to the course objectives and content covered in the syllabus for a related course.  See Dr. O'Connor's website for each and every syllabus and try to write your essays using course objectives as a guide.  To get the ball rolling, interested students should contact Mary Alice Burkhart (burkhartm@apsu.edu), Coordinator of Noncredit and Customized Programs, ASSU Center for Extended and Distance Education, POB 4678, Clarksville, TN 37044, 931-221-6487 or Fax 931-221-7748.

    #10.  Austin Peay does NOT have Developmental or Remedial courses.  Other schools do, so if you are "stuck" in the sense of having to complete something like DSPM0800 (elementary algebra) or DSPM0850 (intermediate algebra) that APSU does not provide, then you will need to take these courses online via RODP (Regents Online Degree Programs), the Tennessee multi-state consortium.  Their homepage is at www.rodp.org and the steps to enrolling can be found at http://www.rodp.org/enrolltoday/12steps.htm.  APSU does offer what are called "enhanced" (E) sections of MATH 1010 (Mathematical Thought and Practice) and ENGL 1010 (English Composition), but these are only face-to-face, for now.  There is another math course which satisfies the Math requirement at APSU, and that is statistics which is MATH 1530.  Every "enhanced" (E) section requires an extra couple hours of "lab" each week.  There is a procedure for requesting Exemptions from having to take such course, but be advised that the only people who can formally waive deficiency makeups are the main campus chairs, like Prof. Hoehn for Math at 931-221-7815 or hoehnl@apsu.edu and Prof. Guest for English at 931-221-7860 or guestd@apsu.edu.  At the Ft. Campbell facility, their representative is James Sanders at 931-221-1416 or sandersj@apsu.edu and you might want to talk to him first before contacting any dept. chairs.

    #11.  The chart below comes from a 2007 snapshot of the Business Office webpage where prices are subject to change, noting that in-state tuition applies to any Tennessee address and the following counties in Kentucky (Allen, Calloway, Christian, Logan, Simpson, Todd, and Trigg). Regents Online is the RODP consortium discussed in #9 above, and it's sometimes the place to look for courses, like a Science course, if you find an APSU course closed out at enrollment capacity or not offered online by APSU.  Science courses taken via RODP automatically go on your APSU transcript, and a passing grade (like with Math) is a D or higher (although English taken elsewhere usually requires a C or better). However, there is no concurrent enrollment for Regents classes.  Prices shown include all fees and charges, except for the Ft. Campbell rates where a $21 per credit hour online course fee exists as well as a technology fee of $11.25 per credit hour to a max of $112.50.

    #12.  Austin Peay State University (APSU) is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution and an equal opportunity employer committed to the education of a non-racially identifiable student body.  It's annual budget is approximately $37 million.  It is a selective admissions institution which requires a GPA of at least 2.0 and an ACT score of at least 19 (SAT equivalent = 891).  The program is a Bachelor of Science degree program in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Homeland Security.  It is housed inside Gate #4 of Ft. Campbell, KY (secure entrance) in a newly-constructed Austin Peay building adjacent to the main Education Center. Austin Peay is the only university in the country to have it's own separate building on a military post.  Ft. Campbell is one of the nation's largest Army posts, with approximately 30,000 active duty military and a large number of military dependents and retirees on and off the post, and together, these two groups comprise a significant portion of the population we serve.  The remainder come from the local community, nearby areas, or the main campus (downtown Clarksville), and consist of retired or active law enforcement, corrections or other justice-related fields, as well as civilians of all stripes interested in education preparing them for exciting career options.  A significant and rapidly growing number of students from near and far also complete the program as online students.

    #13.  In 2004, the state of Tennessee decided to create not just another generic bachelor's program in criminal justice, but one with a built-in concentration in homeland security, which in many ways would be more of a homeland security than a criminal justice degree.  General Wendell Gilbert and Rick Shipkowski assisted in putting together the initial curriculum.  Together with the insights of Gerald Beavers, program managers, and various adjuncts, the program was finalized in 2005, with connections to the newly-developed Institute for Global Security Studies (IGSS) and the Tennessee Office of Homeland Security.  Dr. Tom O'Connor has run the program since 2006.  Here's an excerpt from the final approval document: "to provide the formal education necessary to understand the nature of homeland security threats, to prepare for such events, to train for the response and recovery from such events; and to prepare for and successfully manage the broad topic of terrorism in the United States."
    The curriculum requires the delivery of sixteen (16) courses, all heavily geared toward issues or topics in homeland security and/or terrorism:

    A built-in "interdisciplinary minor" of six additional courses add to the major, making use of existing courses in other departments at Austin Peay such as Public Management, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, History, and Social Work.  Three different departments need to be represented in each student's Interdisciplinary Minor so that the student doesn't "stack up" on Criminal Justice electives only.  Projected and actual growth appear below:

    One full time faculty member was deemed adequate to support the program the first few years (supported by about twelve adjuncts), but by 2007, the need for a second full-time faculty member became apparent, and in 2008-2009, Dr. Jeff Rush joined the program.  As enrollments keep growing, additional full-time faculty positions may be added.  There is little burden on state appropriations.  Equipment and supply costs are kept at a minimum, concentrating upon academic excellence in teaching and financing through normal tuition and fees.  The program is also active in grant management, having obtained grant support in such areas as cybersecurity research, state-building, and intelligence analysis.  The program is academically housed in the Department of Public Management which has five full-time faculty with deep expertise in comparative public administration.  The program also works closely with the 101st Command at Ft. Campbell.

    For many years before the Homeland Security was built, Austin Peay at Ft. Campbell offered the A.A.S. degree in Police Science and Administration.  This program produced about 200 graduates over the years, and those who never completed it are welcome to transition into the new B.S. in the Homeland Security program.  Preferential treatment is given to such APSU alumni in terms of articulating their associate-level credit into to the baccalaureate program.  Program review assessment takes place on a five-year cycle and makes use of student and alumni satisfaction surveys.  Austin Peay's office of Institutional Planning and Assessment assists with such reviews.  Annual performance reviews are also conducted.  The program is approved by Legal Affairs to participate in the following consortia or partnerships:

     #14:  The BSCJHS degree program is presently available only on the Austin Peay Center at the Fort Campbell campus.  It is NOT offered on the Main Campus (MC), although we are looking into ways to do that by 2009.  A minor has been approved to make it easier for the main campus students to participate.  Generally, what main campus students do is this:  they complete their general education requirements downtown; take a bunch of PM, POLS, and PSY courses, and then sometime in their junior year, transfer out to the Ft. Campbell campus to finish up (with the program manager substituting as many CRJ courses as appropriate for any PM, POLS, and PSY courses taken downtown).  However, a few manage to finish up without transfer, and commute to Ft. Campbell (about a fifteen minute drive) to finish up.
    The typical Program of Study in outline form looks like the following, and the most popular interdisciplinary concentration areas seem to be, in rank order: CRJ (Criminal Justice); SOC & SW (Sociology and Social Work); PSY (Psychology); POLS (Political Science); and PM (Public Management).      

DETAILED CURRICULUM OUTLINE

    #15:  The senior exit exam is required of all soon-to-graduate students, but the CJ program does not have a separate exit exam customized for itself, and instead uses the "generic" exit exam which is administered by the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness and they usually run several testing dates prior to any graduation ceremony date.  The program is designed to help those who are currently employed in a related area as well as those who have no previous related area experience.  The degree is conceived as most relevant to careers in law enforcement, at the city, county, state, and federal levels, and specifically, for those agencies seeking people qualified in homeland security or those agencies which can be considered homeland security agencies themselves.  A secondary area of most relevance is business and industry.  Private sector employment opportunities are plentiful, especially in security areas, but are often overlooked as career opportunities.  The third area of most relevance is intelligence work.  Specializations are under development for our second and third areas of relevance.  Students would be wise to join (as student members) not only the two main professional associations in the field, ACJS and ASC, but also explore some of the groups which represent our secondary and tertiary areas of emphasis, like AAFS, AFIO, ASIS, IALEIA, SCIP, and WACA.  You'd be surprised at how well membership in these things "jump-starts" your career because they provide mentoring services, resume-writing help, lists of employment ads, etc., and a whole lot more.
    A generic guide to Employment Opportunities in criminal justice is provided at Dr. O'Connor's Employment Mega-Links, but the opportunities in homeland security fields are hidden behind a secure, password-protected area of Dr. O'Connor's website.  You have to officially be a major to get the password, but once you're in the secure area, you'll find links to all sorts of homeland security-related jobs in the Tennessee area, the Washington DC area, all around the U.S., and all around the world, not only with government agencies, but with many private sector agencies, some of which are major, multinational corporations who call us for recruitment purposes.  The secure area also has links to many foundations and charities which are willing to sponsor you for scholarships, fellowships, and internships.
    The field of homeland security is growing, and many schools around the country are starting up new programs.  We have always had an open approach to working with other schools and programs.  Sometimes we set up exclusive relationships with grad school programs, like our one with the Long Island Homeland Security Management Institute.  In addition, we are proposing our own Master's level program, which will be an MPA degree with a concentration in Disaster Management.  There are several Criminal Justice topics infused within this program, both at the level of core and electives.

    #16:  The new Banner computer system (aka AP Self Serve) implemented in late 2007 doesn't provide academic advisors with a good way to evaluate transcripts, especially when substitutions have been filed.  No longer do advisors have access to what used to be called SIS code 651 which tracked substitutions.  A "substitution" form is still initiated from the advisor's office, routed for the appropriate signatures of a Chair or Dean, and then logged by the secretaries, but once it goes downtown to the Registrar's office, there's no good way of telling if the substitution was officially approved or not in the main Records system.  APSU is working on a way to get substitution records in Banner, but that may take a while.  It does no good anymore to call your advisor to see if some substitution went thru.  The Office of the Registrar has put together a way for students to call them and check, and in mid-2008 has instituted a policy of email verification.  The letters after each contact represent a Registrar contact who is responsible for those students whose last names begin with that letter, as follows:

Last updated: June 28, 2008
Not an official webpage of APSU, copyright restrictions apply, see Megalinks in Criminal Justice
O'Connor, T.  (Date of Last Update at bottom of page). In Part of web cited (Windows name for file at top of browser), MegaLinks in Criminal Justice. Retrieved from http://www.apsu.edu/oconnort/rest of URL accessed on today's date.