It is the purpose of the Grand Valley State University School of Criminal Justice (SCJ) to teach, prepare, advise, and assist students in their efforts toward becoming informed citizens and making positive contributions in their chosen vocations within the criminal justice or legal system. For this reason, the SCJ offers two areas of undergraduate study: criminal justice and legal studies. In either area, students may choose to pursue a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree; each program entails a variety of required and elective courses to educate students as critical thinkers and to provide them with a comprehensive knowledge of the field.

 As of December 15th 2015 the School of Criminal Justice supports a criminal justice Major and three minors: 1) traditional Criminal Justice Minor; 2) Information Security Systems (a minor joint program with the GVSU Information Technology Department); and, 3) Juvenile Justice. At present, a diverse faculty (14 tenure/tenure track and 2 visiting professors) offers a broad array of contemporary courses in the Criminal Justice field. These faculty currently serve enrolled student 833 majors, 305 enrolled student minors, in addition to several thousand GVSU students seeking a general liberal arts education each year.

 In addition to the undergraduate degree programs, the SCJ offers a Master of Science (M.S.) in Criminal Justice that is designed to further prepare students in becoming criminal justice leaders, planners, practitioners, and academicians. This degree program seeks to create a dynamic community of criminal justice professionals and scholars who will work in concert to offer innovative strategies for advancing and improving current criminal justice programs and practices. Graduate courses provide students with opportunities to apply concepts of ethics, political and social justice, historical analysis of institutions and policy, leadership and management, theories, and scientific research. The MCJ =curriculum also prepares students interested in pursuing a doctoral education with appropriate theoretical, research, analytical, and critical interpretation skills.

The faculty and staff demonstrate that the School of Criminal Justice strives to ensure that educational offerings, policies, and procedures for all degree and non-degree programs are of high quality, rigorous, and equitable regardless of delivery format or location, and lead to degree completion. The faculty and staff also show that the GVSU General Education program provides students with opportunities to gain and develop skills and knowledge that will prepare them to be productive global citizens, and that program assessment has been and continues to be ongoing process and an integral component of the culture of the SCJ. Lastly, this self-study describes multiple related educational activities conducted by the SCJ in support of its mission. They include: services for students who are not fully prepared for college-level study, internships, and service learning opportunities. Through these related educational activities, the SCJ demonstrates both commitment to student success and diversity and responsiveness to the evolving needs of the broader community.

 2. Context for planning

In the Fall 2015, the SCJ Unit Head, Dr. Kathleen Bailey, advised the faculty during unit meetings that the SCJ must prepare and submit a strategic plan self-assessment report at the end of the of the fall 2015 semester. In early September, the leadership team, including the Director of the School of Criminal Justice, Dr. Kathleen Bailey, SCJ Undergraduate Coordinator, Dr. Brian Johnson, Graduate Coordinator, Dr. John Walsh, Legal Studies Coordinator, Ruth Stevens, JD and the Director of the Criminal Justice Training, Williamson Wallace, JD met and began to establish a plan to be inclusive in the development of the strategic plan.  It should be noted that all components of this of this strategic plan development required faculty collegiality, discussion and teamwork.

First each coordinator or director met with their committees to work on developing 5 objectives and actions for each program. Once all objectives and actions were completed in each committee, the results were disseminated to the all the other committees for review and revision suggestions. Once the reviews and revisions were suggested, each committee reviewed and either revised their objectives and action plans or provided comprehensive rationale as to why the suggestions where rejected. On October 14th 2015 at the full faculty and staff unit meeting the strategic plan was again discussed and final revisions were agreed on. At this same meeting the final plan was approved by the faculty.