9/18/24

By University Communications

HAYS, Kan. - A newly launched program at FHSU will help students “hit the ground running” in the critical field of solving crimes. To introduce students to FHSU’s new bachelor’s degree in Criminalistics, the departments of criminal justice, chemistry, biology, and geosciences hosted an open house in September.

CRJ 210 Criminalistics, developed as a required core course for the program, will be taught by Dr. Morgan Steele, assistant professor of criminal justice. The course will offer an introduction to the different sciences that students can choose for program concentrations.

“The course sets students up to see how what they do in the lab will be useful in courtrooms, in the field, and in investigating different types of crimes,” Steele said.

Steele said he typically sees students double majoring in biology or chemistry together with criminal justice.

“Having a major built-in (criminalistics) is going to help them streamline their process without cutting back on their science or criminal justice education,” he said. “In addition, transfer students can hit the ground running because of the KBOR general education core program.”

Concentrations in criminalistics include forensic chemistry, forensic biology, and crime mapping and spatial analysis. These concentrations can lead to potential careers in crime lab analysis, chemical safety, DNA analysis, or crime data analysis.

What sets the criminalistics program apart from programs offered at other institutions, Steele said, is that the program is “truly a multi-disciplinary program.”

“Teaching forensic science is usually in chemistry or criminal justice,” he said. “It’s rare that it is in all three primary departments (chemistry, biology, and geosciences).”

In addition to the benefit to students, skills learned through the program will benefit law enforcement agencies.

“This is especially true in rural areas where agencies can’t create a specific position for a criminalist or forensic scientist,” said Tamara Lynn, professor and chair of criminal justice. “But if they could hire someone with that skill set for other positions, it would benefit the agency and our students.”

More information about the criminalistics concentration is available at https://www.fhsu.edu/criminaljustice/

For additional news and information about Fort Hays State University, go to https://www.fhsu.edu/university-communications/