sophomore year. This year, there
were 131 complete applications.
Harper said there continues to
be a lot of interest in the program,
even inquiries from high school
students who have heard about
the new major and are wondering
what they can do to be accepted as
sophomores.
“The group of applicants were
all, I would say, stellar applicants
— people with a lot of great
experiences, a lot of really beneficial
coursework,” he said. “It was a
quite impressive group. In terms
of what we’re looking for, we really
do take a holistic approach to the
review process. We’re not just
looking for some particular GPA
cutoff. We are really looking at
well-rounded students that have a
good understanding of what public
health is and what public health
does, and a real commitment and
compassion for public health.”
Harper referenced a set of
guiding principles, which can be
found on the program’s website,
and said the program looks to see
if applicants are in alignment with
them.
Such
principles
include
social justice, cultural humility
and interdisciplinary focus, among
others.
In terms of acceptance, Harper
said the program plans to keep its
acceptance rate about the same for
the next admissions cycle, about
95. He said after the first cohort
completes the program, it will likely
increase the number of students
admitted.
Logistically,
the
program
offers either a Bachelor’s of Arts
in community and global public
health or a Bachelor’s of Science in
public health sciences. According
to Harper, within each major, there
are a set of four integrated core
courses, which address various
aspects of public health, from an
interdisciplinary and integrated
lens.
“In graduate training in public
health, you would take a course
on epidemiology, a course on
biostatistics, a course on health
management, things like that,”
Harper said. “What we’re doing
is combining different aspects of
public health and putting them
together because at the core of our
program, we’re really focusing on
what we call liberal education.”
Liberal education, according to
Harper, is an approach to learning
that helps prepare students to deal
with complexity, diversity and
social change.
“We’re not just teaching public
health skills,” he said. “Some types
of undergraduate public health
programs teach skills and they’re
more of a skills training degree, then
you get some kind of certification.
We want students to be able to think
in innovative and complex ways
about the public health challenges
that we currently face but then we
want to prepare them for the future
public health challenges. ”
Though the program is only in
its first year, Harper said, based
on statistics from other schools’
public health programs, some
students are expected to go into
medicine or other health-related
fields, some go into graduate
programs
in
public
health,
others go into the workforce —
departments of public health,
the Peace Corps or working in
nonprofit organizations with a
health focus — and some even go
into law, engineering and other
fields.
Faculty for the program will
consist of faculty from the Public
Health School, who teach graduate
courses
and
have
real-world
experience in the field of public
health.
Harper
said
the
goal
of
the
program
is
to
take
an
interdisciplinary approach to think
about critical public health issues.
He the program will attack issues
from multiple perspectives using
different lenses. He said he thinks
students will feel stimulated in
classes to think about things in a
different way.
Harper said the program will be
evaluated over the course of the year
and it will be seeking feedback from
its first cohort about strengths and
weaknesses to make improvements
and provide the best educational
experience possible.
This
semester,
Harper
is
teaching a new course developed
for the program, called Community
Culture and Social Justice in Public
Health. It is required for the B.A.
students; it can be taken as an
elective for the B.S. students and
is also offered to non-public health
students.
“The course will really be an
opportunity to explore, interrogate,
understand, work with different
concepts of community, of culture, of
social justice, because a lot of people
use these terms in public health
and elsewhere, but don’t often have
an in-depth understanding and
meaning of (them),” he said. “I want
to demystify and really have people
think in a critical manner. I think
overall we really want students to
come out of this class being able to
engage in a critical analysis of the
field of public health.”
It is important to look at different
public
health
challenges
and
the ways in which they’re being
addressed by the nation, to find the
flaws and strengths, both locally
and globally, said Harper.
“There’s ways in which we are
doing public health work in other
countries and is it really done in a
manner that is building capacity
or is it a way that is making other
countries dependent on us?” he
said. “So it’s really that critical
process of really thinking about all
of these different aspects of public
health intervention.”
Aya Takai is a junior public
health major who transferred from
Oakland University. She was in a
pre-professional health sciences
program at Oakland and was a
competitive figure skater for 15
years.
4A — Tuesday, September 5, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
LSA sophomore Caroline
Ordway
studies
computer
science and said she looks
forward to a faster and more
efficient printing process.
“I think (these updates)
have
the
potential
to
improve the efficiency of the
printing process,” she said.
“It simplifies the process of
needing your computer or
having to go onto a University
one, especially if you are in
an area without access to a
campus computer.”
Bob Jones, ITS interim
executive director of support
services, said his main goal is
accessibility.
“With
the
availability
of
Follow
Me
printing,
application
streaming
to
personally managed devices,
and cloud storage services
like Box and Google Drive, we
aim to make many of the Sites
capabilities available on most
devices, anytime, anywhere,”
he said.
According to the release,
updates for the fall term
include
Windows
10
operating
systems
on
all
campus PCs, access to U-M
Box and U-M Google Drive
as network drives and new
hardware
and
software
updates on more than 2,000
campus computers at almost
100 locations.
COMPUTING
From Page 1A
HEALTH
From Page 1A
way,” Sreedhar said.
Designed as a Welcome Week
event, Sreedhar said, one of its
main purposes is to introduce
incoming freshmen the resources
available on campus for LGBT
students. Shreedhar said the tents
are placed on Palmer Field because
many freshmen live on the Hill
and will be easily seen by incoming
students walking around their
dorms.
LSA senior Victoria Johnson
attended the event as a freshman
and this year represented the
Coalition for Queer and Trans
People of Color as a co-chair. She
said Pride Outside helped her find
the coalition and the timing of the
event couldn’t be better.
“It can be hard and daunting,
especially
as
an
incoming
freshman, trying to find your
community and find people that
you want to socialize with and
hang out with,” she said. “Having
events like this, especially during
Welcome Week, this is the time
everyone’s going to come out.”
When President Donald Trump
proposed the transgender military
ban back in July, many transgender
students and allies on campus
reacted adversely to the news.
Johnson said pro-LGBT events like
Pride Outside can contribute to a
positive community on campus.
“People need community now
more than ever,” she said. “Having
events like these is super important
to show that there are people here
who are going to support you and be
there for you and even when it feels
like everything is going wrong and
the world is crumbling apart, you
still have these people you can turn
to.”
LSA senior Yong-Joon Kim
volunteers with the Sexual Assault
Prevention and Awareness Center
and represented the organization at
a booth at Pride Outside. He echoed
Johnson’s sentiments and said the
event is crucial for newer students
trying to find resources.
“Marginalized identities, as we
know, on this campus have been
facing a lot of hate and negative stuff
going on right now so just having an
event during Welcome Week that
allows LGBT students to know
they’re welcome on this campus,
especially one that’s catered by the
student governance organizations,
definitely helps show unity and
acceptance on this campus,” he said.
According to the 2015 Campus
Climate Survey, lesbian, gay or
bisexual students were 2.5 times
more at risk for sexual assault than
heterosexual students. By working
with SAPAC, a University sponsored
program, Kim said it shows how the
University is dedicated to helping
LGBT students feel free to speak
about sexual assault.
LSA freshman Cheyanne Killin
said the large-scale event showed
her how many resources she
actually has on campus from clubs
and students alike.
“I think it’s really nice to have
this inclusion here,” she said. “It’s
such a positive space and coming
from a community where I didn’t
have that ability to be proud of who
I was, this is just massive to know
that I’m supported here.”
PRIDE
From Page 1A
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com