National Hispanic University received a grant in 2003 from the Department of Education through its Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program to create a 3+2 engineering program with San Jose State University.  David Johnson and William Cruz of NHU put together a curriculum for NHU based on the pre-requisites a student would need in order to enter SJSU’s engineering program as an upper division student.  SJSU offers 12 engineering specializations.  Two of the specializations require several pre-requisite classes that the other specializations do not.  It was deemed too rare an event that students would go into one of these two areas to justify offering these specialized courses at NHU.  Thus, the curriculum that emerged provides the prerequisites to be able to enter upper division work in engineering at San Jose State in 10 of the 12 specialty areas.  The courses provided include physics, chemistry, mathematics, and four engineering courses that are required in all of the specialty areas.

      The curriculum was presented to, and approved by, the NHU Curriculum Committee, the Faculty Senate, and the President between December 2004 and March 2005.  WASC was also informed of the curriculum during this period, and an approval letter was received from WASC.  A department chair was hired, and classes began to be offered during the 2005-2006 school year.  And classes are again being offered in the 2006-2007 school year.  The classes were originally housed in a newly-created Department of Mathematics and Science.  The classes were offered in two forms—an A.S. degree in Mathematics and Science and an A.S. degree in Mathematics and Science with Engineering Emphasis.  The difference between the two degrees is that those taking the engineering emphasis take the engineering classes along with chemistry, physics and mathematics.  Those working toward the A.S. in Mathematics and Science do not take the engineering courses.

      The chair of the department left the university after the fall semester of the 2005-2006 academic year.  A search for a new chair was undertaken.  David Johnson was appointed chair in September 2006.  A decision was made by the provost after the chair’s departure to combine the Mathematics and Science Department and the Computer Science Department.  The result is a single department whose class offerings encompass mathematics, the sciences and computer science.

      While the necessary coursework was put in place in 2005, a formal agreement with SJSU on the 3+2 program has not been completed.  The presidents of the two institutions had agreed to create the program in 2003.  But NHU’s president passed away and SJSU’s president left his position after the initial agreement was made.  The current presidents of NHU and SJSU have renewed the agreement to move toward formalization of the program.  Difficulties encountered have been procedural.  Officials of the California State University system had made a decision to work toward a common set of course standards for classes on all its campuses.  The rationale was that, with common standards, it would be possible for institutions wishing to articulate with the California State University system to carry out one articulation and have it apply to all the campuses in the system.  The practice had been to articulate with each campus separately.  This decision delayed completion of articulations for approximately two years.  Recently, however, NHU’s articulation officer, Michael Jordan, succeeded in articulating all the mathematics, science and engineering courses but one with San Jose State.

      The remaining outstanding item with respect to the program is the formalization of the agreement to recognize the program as a legitimate NHU/SJSU partnership.  David Johnson has informed Dean Belle Wei that he wishes to discuss this formalization.  A date to re-open the discussion has not been set.