International Debate

Xavier’s Social Science College Loses Social Science in Name International Debate
Paul Gore is dean of Xavier University's newly named College of Professional Sciences

Xavier’s Social Science College Loses Social Science in Name

October 14, 2015 1883

Paul Gore

Paul Gore is dean of Xavier University’s newly named College of Professional Sciences

Xavier University, a venerable Jesuit university in Cincinnati, Ohio serving more than 6,500 students, has renamed its existing College of Social Sciences, Health and Education as the College of Professional Sciences. The change took effect earlier this week; Paul Gore, a counseling psychologist who came to Xavier in July from the University of Utah, will continue his role as dean of the ‘new’ school.

The college includes a number of disparate undergrad and graduate programs, such as athletic training, criminal justice, education, health services administration, nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, radiologic technology, social work, sport management and sport marketing for undergrads. Its graduate programs include criminal justice, counseling, education, health services administration, human resource development, leadership studies, nursing, occupational therapy, psychology and sport administration.

In a release announcing the change, Gore focused on the synergies of the various programs in population health and community engagement. “By focusing on the health of an entire population, proponents of population health embrace a holistic perspective of the people who make up society, consistent with the Jesuit value of care for the person,” he was quoted.

While removing the words ‘social science’ from a school’s name is not common, there are several instances of colleges adopting the term ‘professional sciences,’ such as South Carolina State University’s College of Business and Applied Professional Sciences in the United States or Maharaja Ranjit Singh College of Professional Sciences in India’s Madhya Pradesh state. But the South Carolina university also hosts a College of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, while the Indian school focuses on more science and technical pursuits.

There have also been ‘professional science’ master’s degrees offered since the mid-1990s and now available from almost 350 programs at more than 150 institutions. But those programs, originally started courtesy of push by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to enhance the career prospects of scientists who expected to work in industry, not academe, almost solely serve STM.

That applied focus is shared by the college at Xavier, as the university’s provost and chief academic officer, Scott Chadwick, explained in describing Dean Gore: “Through his leadership I am confident that our faculty will partner with corporations and non-profit organizations to create exceptional academic programs.

Before coming to Xavier, Gore was the training director for graduate programs in clinical mental health and school counseling in the faculty of the Department of Educational Psychology at Utah, where he had been since 2006. Prior to that, Gore had directed the Career Transitions Research Department at ACT, Inc. and taught at Southern Illinois University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He earned a Ph.D. from Loyola University Chicago and a bachelor of science from St. Louis University, both Jesuit institutions.


Related Articles

Those ‘Indirect Costs’ Targeted by DOGE Directly Support America’s Research Excellence
News
February 12, 2025

Those ‘Indirect Costs’ Targeted by DOGE Directly Support America’s Research Excellence

Read Now
What Would Be the Point of Abolishing the US Education Department? An Anthropologist Explains
Public Policy
February 10, 2025

What Would Be the Point of Abolishing the US Education Department? An Anthropologist Explains

Read Now
An Investigation Showing How Fake Academic Papers Contaminate Scientific Literature
International Debate
February 5, 2025

An Investigation Showing How Fake Academic Papers Contaminate Scientific Literature

Read Now
Palestine – Donald Trump’s Vietnam?
News
February 5, 2025

Palestine – Donald Trump’s Vietnam?

Read Now
Daron Acemoglu to Receive 2025 Sage-CASBS Award

Daron Acemoglu to Receive 2025 Sage-CASBS Award

Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, who’s been dubbed one of the “World’s Top Thinkers” by the popular press, will receive to the […]

Read Now
Celebrating Excellence: The 2024 Humanities and Social Science Canada Prize Winners Announced 

Celebrating Excellence: The 2024 Humanities and Social Science Canada Prize Winners Announced 

The Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences earlier this month recognized five books and their authors that offer fresh perspective on […]

Read Now
Why Might RFK Jr Be Good for US Health Care?

Why Might RFK Jr Be Good for US Health Care?

The proposed appointment of Robert F Kennedy Jr as secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has provoked howls […]

Read Now
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments