Graduate Handbook

I. INTRODUCTION AND PROGRAM OVERVIEW

This handbook provides students with the information necessary to navigate through their graduate degree program at WSU. The policies and procedures in this handbook have been officially approved by our faculty and are consistent with Graduate School regulations. The following introduction provides an overview of our graduate program.

The M.A. degree in Political Science was first awarded in 1932 by the History and Political Science Department at the State College of Washington (renamed Washington State University in 1959). In 1982, the Criminal Justice Department was reorganized into the Criminal Justice Program and was housed within the Political Science Department. Henceforth, this department has been referred to as the Department of Political Science/Criminal Justice Program. The Criminal Justice Program at WSU is the second oldest program west of Mississippi. This university has granted approximately 215 M.A.s in Political Science; 276 M.A.s in Criminal Justice (prior to 1974, 93 degrees were given as the Police Science Department), and nearly 104 Ph.D.s in Political Science. The department has graduate programs on three different campuses: Pullman, Vancouver, and Spokane. The Pullman campus awards a M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science and a M.A. in Criminal Justice. The Vancouver campus grants a M.A. in Public Affairs, independently from Pullman, and Spokane offers a M.A. in Criminal Justice. The M.A. in Criminal Justice in Spokane is an integral part of the WSU graduate program and, hence, is operated under the same policies as the M.A. in Criminal Justice on the Pullman campus. In an average year, there are approximately 75 students on the Pullman campus, 20 in Spokane, and 60 in Vancouver.

In recent years, our graduate program has gone through a great deal of exciting changes and growth. Responding to the growing number of applicants and the goal of a smaller, higher quality program, we have become increasingly selective. A highly energetic and active faculty maintain these high performance standards in the classroom. With the highly competitive student body and academically active faculty we are enhancing an already strong national departmental reputation.

The major aim of all of our graduate degree programs is to provide students with a broad and thorough training in the theories and methods of political science and/or criminal justice so that they can be successful professionals in a variety of applied, educational, and scholarly settings. Our graduate programs are explicitly designed to respond to the realities of a highly competitive job market. From 1989 to 2002, we placed nearly all Ph.D. graduates who have been on the market. In addition, M.A. students who complete our program are highly sought after in applied settings.

Our faculty have been selected through a highly competitive process and come from some of the top doctoral programs in the country. A general overview of the faculty and their interests can be found in Appendix 1. Students should also browse through current faculty curricula vitae in the front office. In addition to being highly active in their fields, our faculty work closely with graduate students in teaching, advising, research and publication. Indeed, over three fourths of our faculty have co authored publications with graduate students. This level of collaboration is quite unusual in graduate degree programs of this stature.

All of our degree programs are implemented through a committee-driven system. Students need to select as soon as feasibly possible three graduate faculty to serve on their committee. This committee will help students design their program, administer their written and oral exams, and, otherwise aid in their professional development. The current Ph.D. curriculum began in 1993. Our Ph.D. is designed to give students the greatest flexibility in mapping out their program of study. Currently, the department offers a Ph.D. in Political Science and, since 2003, a separate track in Criminal Justice. Ph.D. candidates must choose three preliminary exam fields from a total of 11. These fields reflect the expertise of our faculty and include two relatively unique fields: Gender, Justice, and Politics, and Political Psychology. Ph.D. students may also design their own independent exam field, with appropriate committee and department approval.