We started off the academic year strong with numerous events! To begin, we welcomed back faculty, staff, and PhD students with a lovely breakfast celebration. The department also got a chance to show their competitive side at our department Game Night, where PhD students and faculty enjoyed Italian fare and took part in a cornhole competition.
The department also hosted an open house breakfast for first year and transfer undergraduate students! We finished our welcome back celebrations with the College of Art and Sciences Expo, where faculty and staff had a chance to meet our undergraduates and those interested in minoring in our program.
The department was privileged to host numerous professional organizations at our annual Skip Elliot Networking Night on September 23rd. Our goal is to connect undergraduate students to representatives from a variety of jobs within the field of criminal justice. Attendees were served dinner and then participated in a speed networking session. This time allowed students the ability to interact and build real-world connections with professionals from:
We are grateful for this opportunity with our practitioner partners, Skip and Jackie Elliott, and of course, the faculty and staff who make this event possible!
Beginning in the spring semester, MSI Security and the IU Bloomington Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice partnered to offer a 15-week internship program. MSI Security, a Bloomington based company, is dedicated to serving individuals in south and central Indiana by providing security services and training. The goal of the program is to strengthen the broader security industry by helping develop well-trained, confident, and capable security professionals. The internship also provides hands-on and experiential learning opportunities in real-world private security operations and training. We are incredibly proud of this partnership and are excited to hear about all the opportunities it will provide our students!
In the fall, we had the opportunity to hear from three fantastic criminal justice professionals. Sergent Kevin Getz spoke to the Introduction to Criminal Justice classes on October 14th about his role as the Public Information Office and Bloomington District 33 Commander for the Indiana State Police. Second, Casey Mumaw, the Assistant Director of the IU Human Research Protection Program, spoke to students in “Proseminar in Criminal Justice” and “Launching a CJUS Academic Career” classes about how to navigate the internal human subject review process at IU. Finally, we welcomed Steven Presson in our “Death Penalty in America” course to speak about his experience as an attorney in the field.
In the Spring, Valena Beety, J.D, spoke at our annual Sutherland Speaker Series. Professor Beety is a professor at IUs Maurer College of Law, an innocence litigator, and a former federal prosecutor. She spoke about her book titled “Pink Crime: Fighting the Criminalization of Motherhood, Pregnancy, and Queer Identity.” The department enjoyed the opportunity to hear about her work and are excited to see who we will join us next year!
During the fall semester, Dr. Bonnie Ernst’s “Corrections” class got the opportunity to visit the Plainfield Correctional Facility. The facility, which opened over 50 years ago, is located in Plainfield, Indiana. Formerly named the Indiana Youth Center, the facility is now a medium security men's institution focused on providing numerous opportunities to assist with life after incarceration. This experience allowed students the opportunity to see a local example of what they spent all semester learning about.
The College of Arts