I’ve been very excited about the enthusiasm of the leaders of the Cal Poly Neuroscience Club about getting to work on the long-awaited Neuroscience Minor. With our polytechnic mission, having Neuroscience programming for students is a natural. Yes, our budget is not exactly in a happy place, but we think we can put together an array of existing courses across several departments that will give our students great exposure to the field. We’re modeling as best we can the course array offered at UCLA (okay, it’s my alma mater three times over, but it also has some great neuroscience going on). The Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience has also been a valuable source of information.
The biggest job we face is to run a formal assessment of student demand for the program. We know it’s out there–my BioPsych students are always asking about what they can take next–but we have to document numbers for our administration. Still, it’s a great opportunity for students who want to get some practice in questionnaire design and implementation.
So hopefully, in the not too distant future, we’ll be able to give students not just the courses, but the label and identification they’ve wanted for a lot of years. Hats off to Cal Poly alum Zac Tabb, now serving in the Peace Corps in Africa, and current president Bryan Brandon and his hard-working officers for helping to make this a reality.
