Public Health

Covid-19 has thrust Public Health into the spotlight, but the domain of public health includes many critical issues, including mental health, obesity and gun violence. From the first quarantines to the modern movement towards universal health care, public health has fundamentally shaped societies. In this course, you'll learn the role of the state in public health, the importance of public health, and how it's provided and practiced.

No P/F.

Health Services, the means by which healthcare is provided, is a critical concept in Public Health that impacts all of us. This course will introduce you to the modern history of healthcare in high, middle, and low-income countries and explore the evolution of health services. Students will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of particular systems and policies and examine their ideal version of a health service in the context of current events.

No P/F.

An introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics. Topics include gathering, organizing, interpreting, and presenting data with emphasis on hypothesis testing as a method for decision making in the fields of business and economics. Procedures include z-tests, t-tests, ANOVAs, correlation, and simple regression.
Cross listed with ECON 2100.
Prerequisite(s): Demonstrated proficiency in high school algebra or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered each semester.)

An introduction to statistics concepts with an emphasis on applications. Topics include descriptive statistics, discrete and continuous probability distributions, the central limit theorem, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and linear regression.
(Normally offered each fall semester.)

An introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics as decision-making guides in psychology and related fields. Topics include organization, analysis, presentation, and interpretation of data with emphasis on the hypothesis testing model of inference. Specific procedures include z-tests, t-tests, analysis of variance, and correlation. A laboratory section is required for computational experience.
Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010/PSYCH 1010FYW Introduction to Psychological Science and sophomore standing.
Recommended: College level mathematics course.
(Normally offered each semester.)

This course introduces students to the statistical techniques commonly used to answer questions concerning the political world. This course teaches students how to construct and describe data, examine relationships between variables, and build and evaluate statistical models. In addition, students will learn to apply these statistical techniques to draw conclusions about the political world and make policy decisions. Throughout the semester, students will be introduced to the datasets, software, and techniques most commonly employed in the quantitative analysis of politics and policy.

(Normally offered each spring semester.)

In this course students are introduced to descriptive and inferential statistics and their applications to sociological research. Statistical procedures include central tendency measures, variability, t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation, regression, and chi square. The course also includes specific training in using SPSS for analysis.
Prerequisite(s): SOC 1110 Introduction to Sociology.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

A survey of the mechanisms of diseases and fundamental disease processes of each organ system. Special topics related to the study of diseases will be assigned.
Prerequisite(s): BIO 1090 Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology I and BIO 1100 Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology II, or BIO 3200 Advanced Human Anatomy and Physiology I and BIO 3210 Advanced Human Anatomy and Physiology II, or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered each semester.)

The study of cultural differences that influence the exchange of meaning between individuals and groups of different cultural and/or racial backgrounds. The course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the uniqueness of cultures and the resulting variations in communication styles and preferences, and to provide strategies and skills for successfully communicating across cultural barriers. Students will spend at least 20 hours during the semester working with community agencies serving clients from different cultures.

(Normally offered each semester.)

Health Communication is the study and use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health. We will be exploring a wide range of messages and media in the context of health maintenance and promotion, disease prevention, treatment and advocacy. Through readings, discussion, written assignments, along with shadowing and interviewing a variety of health care professionals, you will learn theories focusing on the communication patterns and practices that shape health care in the U.S. as well as in other cultures.
(Normally offered in the spring semester.)

The course in Public Relations is a study of the nature of public relations, the persons involved, its relationship to public opinion, and the channels of communication that are used. Special attention is given to the application of public relations strategies for particular events or organizations.
(Normally offered each semester.)

An examination of the macroeconomic theories, problems, and policies of the U.S. economy. Topics include supply and demand, a description of the main sectors of the economy, and the role of government in stabilizing the economy with monetary and fiscal policies.
(Normally offered each semester.)

An examination of the microeconomic theories, problems, and policies of the U.S. economy. Topics include the theory of the firm, market structures, and current economic issues such as income distribution, antitrust policy, poverty, the farm problem, and international trade.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 1530 Macroeconomic Principles strongly recommended.
(Normally offered each semester.)

A course designed to give the students a better understanding of how the body functions. Health and wellness involves the study of factors affecting the physical, emotional and mental well-being of individuals. Health is a state of body and mind viewed within the context of the individual, community, society, and environment. This class will offer a holistic view of how ones external and internal factors affect health.
(Normally offered each semester.)

A course designed to develop and expand information about the environment, the informed health consumer, healthful aging and community health. The course will acquaint students with the process of aging, consumer protection, the environment, and community from a health perspective.
(Normally offered each fall semester.)

A course designed to develop and expand current information about human sexuality in a practical manner. The course will present facts and statistics about anatomy and physiology, gender, sexual orientation, reproduction, sexually transmitted infections, contraception, sexual growth and development, relationships and sexual communication, sexual health, commercialization of sex and sexual coercion.
(Normally offered each semester.)

A course designed to develop and expand information about stress, mental health, and major chronic diseases. The course will present causes and warning signs of major chronic diseases and coping strategies for emotional stress.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

This is a course designed to provide students with the basic scientific principles of nutrition focusing on their personal choices and experiences. The student will develop a definition of nutrition, and learn how nutrition has evolved. The student will be introduced to the concepts of: essential nutrient classifications, defining and developing a healthy diet, recommendations for specific nutrients, eating disorders, energy balance and obesity, body composition, lifetime nutrition (infancy to older adults), and food/beverage choices and the influence on chronic disease and optimal wellbeing.
(Normally offered each semester)

A course designed to introduce students to concepts and practices relating to worksite health promotion. Students will learn how to develop, implement, and evaluate wellness promotion programs. Students will complete a 20-hour field experience in an assigned worksite in the community to provide invaluable experience.
(Normally offered each fall semester.)

The field of public health is driven by economics as much as it is by epidemiology. This course will teach you about health economics, which is the application of economic principles and techniques of analysis to health care in support of the public good. By the end of this course you will learn how to analyze the effectiveness of health policy outcomes through an economic lens, and how to use available resources to improve the quality of healthcare. This online class has optional live sessions.

No P/F.

Prerequisite(s): ECON 1530 Macroeconomic Principles or ECON 1540 Microeconomic Principles.

This course introduces students to the most important worldwide human health issues, and examines possible solutions. These issues will be examined from multiple perspectives, including biological, environmental, socioeconomics and political. Specific topics will include infectious diseases, nutrition, reproductive health, and non-communicable diseases from childhood to old age. Students will work with case studies that explore global health metrics, ethics and human rights, policies, and practices in a variety of countries. IDS-1500 will complete a reflective assignment related to their evolving perspective on global human health.

This course explores health with an emphasis on global issues. Health will be examined using the influence of social, political, economic, cultural, and geographical factors. Students will examine the basic health needs of all people and compare the availability of and types of services in different parts of the world.
Prerequisite(s): IDS 1010 Archway Seminar and sophomore standing.

This class will provide a perspective on the changes that take place during an individual's life from infancy to old age/death. Participants will study and describe the developing person at different periods in the lifespan. The processes of growth and change taking place in early, middle, and late adulthood will be considered as well as the more traditional concern with development in childhood.
Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010/PSYCH 1010FYW Introduction to Psychological Science.
(Normally offered each semester.)

An introduction to the field of health psychology, which is devoted to understanding how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they respond to illness and disease. Topics will be discussed from local, national, and global perspectives, and will include the behavioral aspects of the health care system, exercise and nutrition, health-compromising behaviors, stress, AIDS, and the etiology and correlates of health, disease, and dysfunction.
Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010/PSYCH 1010FYW Introduction to Psychological Science.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

This course will examine theories, research, and applications of development in the adult years, gaining perspective and appreciation for the developmental and aging processes that occur in this time period. In particular, the course will follow biopsychosocial perspectives with a strong focus on diversity in adult development, examining how factors might affect development differently for different people. These factors will include, but are not limited to, mental health status, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, cultural influences, sexual identity, gender identity, ability, and developmental history.

Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010 Introduction to Psychological Science/PSYCH 1010FYW Introduction to Psychological Science; PSYCH 2350 Lifespan Development; or instructor permission.

This course examines the development and implementation of public policy. We will consider the actors, institutions, and rules that create and influence the policy making process and the consequences these choices produce. There are many puzzles this course attempts to address, including why some laws pass and others fail, why some policy ideas move more quickly than others, and why some strategies for causing policy change are successful. We will learn methods for evaluating public policy and the ways citizens can work within, and outside of, government to affect change.

This seminar provides an introduction to global environmental politics. Many of the environmental problems of the twenty first century, from climate change to food insecurity to protection of biological diversity and endangered species, are global in nature, and addressing them requires international cooperation. The first part of the course provides the analytical foundation for evaluating environmental problems. The second part of the semester will apply these
analytic and policy tools to an evaluation of actors and solutions. We will look at the state and non-state actors, such as transnational social movements, civil society, NGOs and IOs, businesses and multinational corporations, and
nation-states.

This course explores religious responses to social justice issues, such as conflict, poverty, oppression,discrimination, and the environment. Particular focus is lent to the distribution of resources, gender and racial discrimination, war and other forms of violent behavior and the historical, philosophical, religious, economic, cultural influences therein. The course will also show some implications that theories and implementations of justice have that could aid in framing public policy and social justice activism around particular issues.

This course examines the demographic and social dynamics of population size, composition, and distribution. It addresses the relationships among population, human health, development and the environment. Strong cross-cultural emphasis. A major focus is the development of a semester research paper contrasting the status of the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals, environmental status, and health in a more- and less- developed country.

This course will focus on helping participants identify the numerous losses suffered in their own lives and in the lives of others. We will address the relevant methods, theories and skill base needed to provide social work intervention to the bereaved. The assessment of grief reactions and social work roles and tasks in facilitating mourning will be presented. The concepts of companioning and hospice care will be addressed. Finally, students will increase their competency with death and demonstrate increased sensitivity, awareness, and skills in coping with grief and death.

A course to synthesize and examine the body of knowledge concerning how the individual, group, family, and community systems interrelate with each other and the larger social context from the lifespan stages of birth through adolescence. Content will be drawn from the biological, psychological, sociological, eco-political, and cultural-environmental systems. The importance of professional ethics in the assessment process is also examined.
(Normally offered each fall semester.)

A course to synthesize and examine the body of knowledge concerning how the individual, group, family, and community systems interrelate with each other and the larger social context from the lifespan stages of early adulthood through aging and death. Content will be drawn from the biological, psychological, sociological, eco-political, and cultural-environmental systems. The importance of professional ethics in the assessment process is also examined.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

The course surveys the field of social work in the health care arena. A generalist social work perspective will be used to address the social work roles of assessment, intervention, advocacy, and policy analysis in the health care environment. Social work roles at the individual, group, and organizational/community levels will be addressed.
Prerequisite(s): SOCWK 1150 Introduction to Social Work and junior standing or permission of the social work program director.
(Normally offered alternate years.)