Concordia University Irvine has consolidated its health programs under the umbrella of a new School of Health and Human Sciences.
The school combines a mix of graduate and undergraduate programs that were previously housed in other departments at the university, and will serve about a quarter of Concordia’s nearly 3,800 students.
The Health and Human Sciences school will offer degrees in healthcare administration and management, coaching and athletics administration, kinesiology and nursing.
The establishment of a new school strengthens the privately held university’s commitment to training leaders in healthcare, and at the same time signals continued demand for healthcare workers in Southern California, officials said.
“We’re pooling our resources and preparing our students for a workforce that is expected to grow 20% by 2026,” the school’s Founding Dean Terry Olson told the Business Journal, citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Olson, who was named to the post around the start of the month, noted the Lutheran institution’s timing for the new endeavor couldn’t be better.
“We believe [the pandemic] will bring about a significant impact on students in healthcare and future graduates, who will help meet the demand for more workers in California. We’ve taken pause to reflect and recalibrate to determine how we can serve and care for our community. We’ll pass that on to our students.”
Olson has served at Concordia as dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and a professor of kinesiology since 2014.
Enrollment, Faculty Shifts
Concordia will begin its fall semester on Aug. 31. Like other area universities, it is navigating new waters amid the pandemic, which has cut its student base and revenue, leading to spending cuts across its operations.
The university reported 3,786 undergraduate and graduate students were enrolled for the new term, which is a decrease of about 3% compared to the year prior.
Its health programs’ enrollment rates are down about 16% to 939 students, compared to the year prior.
Meanwhile, full-time faculty downsized from 131 to 125 members. About 20 faculty members are dedicated to health programs.
To weather pandemic-related challenges, officials said Concordia enacted salary adjustments, furloughs, early retirement offers and a few layoffs to administrators, faculty and staff.
Virtual Operations
The majority of Concordia’s students began the semester online, including health students in established degree programs for coaching, healthcare administration and management, and kinesiology as well as a new master’s program in public health.
These students will continue to do so until Orange County falls off the state’s watch list, at which time Concordia can apply to reopen for on-campus learning. Its main base is near Irvine’s Turtle Ridge community.
There’s one exception to that rule: about 180 nursing students—who will become future workers in hospitals, outpatient centers and private practices—will continue in-person classes, with safety protocols in place, at the institution’s Park Place campus in Irvine near John Wayne Airport.
As Concordia opened, it welcomed its first cohort in the new master’s degree program in public health.
The program, with an emphasis on community health, was launched to “train students for careers in epidemiology, infectious diseases and research, as well as public health careers in government and nonprofits sectors,” Olson said.
Local Ties
As a newer academic player in the health space, Olson said the university is also working closely with Chapman University in Orange to recruit its undergraduate health students seeking the next step in their educational path.
Last year, Concordia established a bridge program with Chapman’s Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences.
The program ensures Chapman’s some 1,200 health sciences, psychology and applied human physiology students meet the criteria and requirements to be accepted into Concordia’s master’s of healthcare administration program.
Chapman also has been growing its health programs.
New offerings include a master’s degree in patient safety and regulatory affairs, which were developed in collaboration with Irvine-based medical device maker Masimo Corp. (Nasdaq: MASI), beginning this fall.
Masimo’s Chief Healthcare Administrative Officer, Richard Gannotta, previously served as chief executive of University California-Irvine’s Health System.
Chapman’s Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science Campus is based in the Irvine Spectrum area, about 7 miles from Concordia’s main campus.
Elsewhere in Irvine, UCI is preparing to expand its Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences with a new school of pharmacy that will include a doctor of pharmacy program, effective 2021.
A new school of public health will follow behind the school of pharmacy.
Construction on a new campus for the Samueli College began earlier this year.
Last week’s print edition of the Business Journal detailed plans for UCI to build a $221 million outpatient pavilion on the north side of its campus. The medical office facility is expected to open in 2022.
