The Utah State Board of Regents Friday gave Dixie State College of Utah administrators news that was music to their ears as DSC received approval to offer a new music baccalaureate degree. The announcement came during the Board’s meeting held at Dixie State’s Russell C. Taylor Health Science Center.
Class work for the new liberal arts degree program, which will be offered as a Bachelor’s of Arts (BA) or Bachelor’s of Science (BS) degree, will begin at the start of the upcoming fall semester this August.
The degree approval continues the College’s progression toward fulfilling its mission to offer core, foundational and high demand educational opportunities. With the addition of the new four-year music degree, DSC now offers students 12 bachelor’s degrees to choose from.
“The approval of this degree is an exceptionally bright moment for Dixie State College,” said Dr. Don Hinton, DSC dean of arts and letters. “From the earliest, music and the fine arts have been a major part of our campus. I keep remembering the many students who have been pleading for this degree and who have waited patiently for it. Now it is here and we are very happy.”
According to Glenn Webb, the chair of DSC’s Music Department, the new music degree will serve as an essential ingredient to an already vibrant and thriving institution. He added that having the new degree at Dixie State will give the College the ability to serve the community’s needs with graduates teaching and performing in the area.
In addition, Webb noted that the new music degree will provide all prospective music students in the Washington County School District, as well as Kane County and other surrounding areas, a local choice to continue their education, thus allowing students to pursue career goals at Dixie State instead of transferring to another institution to complete their music degree.
“This decision by the Regents is a life-changer,” Webb said. “It will change the lives of each current and future music student at Dixie State.”
Webb went on to say that DSC’s faculty is energized to provide its students with an excellent education and credits the assistance and support of Dixie State’s administration to help see this degree through to fruition.
DSC’s new music degree features a core of music courses giving students a fundamental background and will instructs students in foundational areas, including theory, history, performance, keyboard, and pedagogy. The programs and curriculum will provide students with an ideal training environment for aspiring performers and those seeking music graduate studies or professions in related fields.
In 2000, Dixie State College was granted license to begin offering bachelor’s degrees in high demand areas, which initially included business administration and computer & information technology.
Several other degrees have since followed, including elementary education (2002), nursing (2004), communication & new media (2005), English (2006), biology (2006), dental hygiene (2007), accounting (2007) and aviation management (2007). Also in 2007, DSC received approval by the Regents to offer a comprehensive communication baccalaureate degree, replacing the communication and new media degree, which will be discontinued on the recommendation of the Regents and Commissioner’s staff.
Last fall, DSC began class work in its integrated studies degree consisting of common core and select concentrations in nine of disciplines, including business, communication, computer and information technology, English, biology, mathematical sciences, psychology, fine arts and Spanish. In addition, Dixie State recently received approval for two additional degree programs from the Utah State Board of Regents. The two programs, a physical therapist assistant associate of applied science degree program, and a new finance emphasis in DSC’s Business Administration baccalaureate program, are slated to begin this fall.
In addition, DSC was given the green light by the Regents to offer a secondary education teaching (SET) licensure program this past December in three emphases; biology, English education and integrated science. Class work for those programs will begin at the start of the 2008 fall semester next August.
In 2005, the Board of Regents approved a change in mission for Dixie State College, allowing the college to begin offering bachelor’s degrees in “core” or “foundational” areas consistent with four-year colleges. Dixie State College also continues to function as a comprehensive community college as well, offering associate degree and certificate programs to its students.
The overall strategic goal for Dixie State College is to offer core and high demand educational opportunities at both the associate and baccalaureate levels that are consistent with and responsive to the needs of the community. Future programs for Dixie State College will likely center in three primary strategic clusters, which include business & technology, health care & public safety, and education.
