· Bachelor of Science in sport management at California University of Pennsylvania.

· Associate of Science in allied health at Clarion University of Pennsylvania.

“These new degree programs were developed in direct response to the stated needs of Pennsylvania businesses for highly skilled workers in new and emerging fields,” said Chancellor James H. McCormick. “Several are the outgrowth of the work last year of the Task Force for Science and Advanced Technology Education, Workforce Development and Implementation Research, which met with business and industry leaders to learn firsthand from them what their needs are.

“The System is continuing to meet with such leaders through the Corporate Alliance for Pennsylvania and will continue to respond to the Commonwealth’s always changing workforce demands.”

The development of the new pharmaceutical product development degree at West Chester University grew directly out of a request by the president of Centacor Inc. of Malvern, who asked university officials to consider a program that would respond to the industry’s need for broadly prepared college graduates who would pursue careers in the biopharmaceutical industry.

The program was developed by science faculty with input from a number of pharmaceutical companies in Southeastern Pennsylvania, including Centacor, DuPont, Merck, Puresyn, Convance, Cephalon and Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories. The curriculum will include two summers of cooperative learning experiences in an industry setting and three capstone courses on drug design. The university projects that 20 students will enroll in the program each year.

The new chemistry-forensic sciences degree program at Edinboro University will train students to work as forensic and criminalistics practitioners. Federal and state departments of labor have indicated there is a current shortage of adequately trained persons in this growing field. The lack of such professionals will continue as technological innovations outpace the number of candidates completing forensic science programs.

Criminal investigations and insurance reviews increasingly demand highly technical and scientifically precise reports. Accordingly, subject matter specialists and scientific professionals are replacing traditional police investigators throughout the country. Students who enroll in the new program will be required to complete 32 credit hours in chemistry and 15 hours in criminal justice. They also will have to complete a six-week internship in order to gain practical field experience before earning their degree.

Slippery Rock University’s new program in information technology will provide students the opportunity to learn information gathering, retrieval, management and storage capabilities. Graduates will be equipped with the tools and techniques needed to create and maintain highly interactive computer systems that support World Wide Web pages.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that throughout the next decade information technology workers will be in greater demand than those in nearly every other field of employment. Students who earn a bachelor’s degree in the new program at Slippery Rock will be proficient in systems administration and security, data collection and manipulation and the prevailing computer programming platforms.

California University will offer its new sport management program in conjunction with Slippery Rock University. The degree will provide those seeking positions in the sports field with experience in business management and finance, sports psychology, media relations, marketing and legal issues. A recent study estimated the availability of approximately 4.5 million sport management jobs in the United States.

Initially, Slippery Rock University will deliver three core courses in the program to California University via distance education technology. As the program is expanded, the universities will explore additional means of resource sharing and faculty exchanges.

Clarion University since 1988 has provided general education courses to students enrolled in the West Penn Hospital School of Nursing in Pittsburgh. Students enrolled in the West Penn program earn a diploma upon graduation.

The new program will allow those students to earn an associate degree in allied health from Clarion University as well. Approximately 20 students will be enrolled each year. The course requirements will include 32 credits of general education from Clarion University and 30 credits from a National League for Nursing diploma school such as West Penn. The program eventually could be expanded to include one or more of the 26 other diploma nursing programs in western Pennsylvania.

The State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth, offering more than 215 undergraduate degree and more than 100 graduate degree programs. Nearly 350,000 System alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield (Lock Haven), Kittanning and Punxsutawney (Indiana) and Oil City (Clarion) and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg and the University Center for Southwest Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh.