Acting Dean (since August 2001):
Timothy K. Barnekov
Mission statement:
The College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy (CHEP) is an interdisciplinary, professional, service-oriented college that addresses some of the central intellectual and social challenges of our time: those affecting children, families, schools, communities, the environment, consumers and service institutions and public policies. Through integrated programs of instruction, research and service, the college creates knowledge about these interconnected challenges; prepares professionals who will assume leadership positions in society; and collaborates with others to enhance human development across the life span, strengthen educational policies and practices, improve the quality and delivery of consumer goods and services and encourage effective policies and management in public, private and nonprofit organizations.
Departments and schools:
Consumer Studies Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management
Individual and Family Studies
Education
Urban Affairs and Public Policy
Student enrollment (full-time and part-time, as of fall 2000):
2,141 undergraduate
613 graduate
Full-time faculty (as of fall 2000): 113
Significant events and accomplishments:
- The Colleges of Education, Human Resources, and Urban Affairs and Public Policy merged on July 1, 1997, to form what is now the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy.
- CHEP's research and public service centers, in which undergraduate and graduate students work with faculty and staff, annually provide research expertise and educational services to more than 500 agencies and organizations.
- Last year, CHEP faculty and staff taught more than 7,000 practitioners through professional development programs in education, human services, public management, nonprofit administration, community development and other fields.
- The most recent review of graduate public policy programs by U.S. News & World Report ranked graduate programs in CHEP's School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy seventh in the nation in urban policy, 26th in public administration and 52nd among schools of public affairs generally.
- CHEP's Delaware Center for Teacher Education coordinated arrangements for UD's first accreditation review by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, which, in May 1999, fully accredited all UD teacher education programs and indicated "no unmet needs on any dimensions for any program."
- The endowed CHEP Undergraduate Research Scholars Fund was created to expand and enrich opportunities for students to pursue hands-on, discovery learning experiences.
- Although barely a decade old, the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management (HRIM) has been selected by the Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Motel Association as one of only 12 university programs to participate in the hospitality-related Research Institute. The department also has recently concluded a student exchange agreement with the prestigious Swiss School of Hotel and Tourism Management. On campus, HRIM's student-managed restaurant, Vita Nova, "serves a meal that's easily one of Delaware's best dining bargains," according to Delaware Today magazine. In addition, the ARAmark corporation contributed $1 million to endow a chair for HRIM.
- The Department of Consumer Studies has undertaken a new leadership education initiative that has resulted in an interdisciplinary leadership minor and a redesign of the consumer economics major to become a major in leadership and consumer economics.
- The Department of Individual and Family Studies (IFS) has approved a new interdisciplinary disabilities studies minor with support from CHEP's Center for Disabilities Studies and also has redesigned the family and community services major and the major in early childhood development and education. An anonymous gift recently created an endowment fund to support the IFS Laboratory Preschool.
- The School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, with the support of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, launched new interdisciplinary doctoral and master's degree programs in environmental and energy policy.
