Minnesota State Mankato’s Criminal Justice Community
Public Invited to Four October Listening Sessions to Learn about Recommendations
Minnesota State Mankato’s Criminal Justice Community Workgroup Forwards Recommendations to University President After Program Review
Mankato, Minn. – A criminal justice workgroup recently completed a six-week review of Minnesota State University, Mankato’s law enforcement, corrections and criminal justice programs and forwarded its recommendations to University President Richard Davenport.
The workgroup’s intent was to identify areas in the three programs that could potentially be revised or improved to better prepare Minnesota State Mankato students in those programs to serve in multicultural, diverse communities.
The report includes four recommendation areas, next steps, a list of the 25 workgroup members, curriculum information and more.
Four upcoming free community listening sessions will be held on Zoom to share the workgroup’s recommendations with the public and to receive community feedback:
Tuesday, Oct. 20 from 1-2:30 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 22 from 4-5:30 p.m.
Monday, Oct. 26 from 12-1:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 3-4:30 p.m.
The workgroup made recommendations in four areas:
- Streamline general education requirements while addressing specific concepts and concerns;
- Evaluate program-specific curriculum for ways to incorporate public service interactions, addiction, trauma-informed training and cultural pedagogy;
- Empower faculty to include broader cultural competency and trauma-informed training throughout each program’s entire curriculum;
- Create clarity in each of the three program’s requirements so they are more clear for both students and those outside the faculty.
Each of the four recommendation areas included additional specific recommendations.
The workgroup’s University leadership team included Henry Morris, vice president for diversity and inclusion; Matt Loayza, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences; Pat Nelson, faculty chair of the Department of Government; and Sherrise Truesdale-Moore, associate professor of corrections.
Other members of the workgroup included three students and 18 professionals or community members with at least 10 years of experience working in – or on issues related to – criminal justice fields.
Members of the media with questions about the workgroup should contact Dan Benson, Minnesota State Mankato’s director of media relations, at daniel.benson@mnsu.edu.
In July, Minnesota State Mankato invited the general public to participate in four online “town hall-style” community listening sessions about the University’s review of its criminal justice programs.
Minnesota State Mankato’s criminal justice programs are part of the University’s Department of Government, which is part of Minnesota State Mankato’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with 14,604 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 30 colleges and seven universities.
