Neuroscience Added as a Major at The College of Wooster

Rapidly growing field to become an official area of study in the Fall of 2008

WOOSTER, Ohio - The College of Wooster will add neuroscience as a major area of study in response to a growing interest among students in this increasingly popular field. The new program, which brings the number of majors at Wooster to 43, will begin with the Fall 2008 semester.

"Neuroscience encompasses a variety of disciplines, including biology, psychology, chemistry, philosophy, and computer science," said Amy Jo Stavnezer, associate professor of psychology and a chief advocate of the new major. "An increasing number of our students have gravitated toward neuroscience as a self-designed major in recent years, so it made sense for us to officially add it."

One of the more appealing aspects of the new major from Wooster's perspective is its interdisciplinary nature, which includes courses in the humanities and social sciences. Neuroscience also meshes with the College's commitment to developing educated students who can provide effective leadership in an increasingly complex society. The roots of this relatively new discipline can be traced back to 1969, when the Society for Neuroscience was established. Since that time, the organization has grown from 500 members to 39,000.

In proposing the addition of neuroscience as a major field of study, proponents cited the rapid expansion of biomedical neuroscience research and the neuroscience community as well as the substantial federal and private funding as rationale for giving students a chance to begin their training at the undergraduate level. According to the proposal, the new major "will provide opportunities for students to study a burgeoning scientific field in which groundbreaking discoveries are occurring at an ever increasing rate." Not only will students have an opportunity to apply techniques and theoretical perspectives from a range of disciplines to the study of the nervous system, but they will also have a chance to address real-world challenges, including Alzheimer's disease, drug abuse and spinal-cord injuries.

The core curriculum will have a uniform set of requirements, but there will also be room for flexibility in upper-level courses to accommodate students interested in molecular and cellular neuroscience as well as those interested in the behavioral and cognitive aspects of neuroscience.

Wooster joins an expanding list of schools in the Great Lakes Colleges Association and the Ohio Five that have added neuroscience as a major field of study in recent years, including Denison, Kenyon, Oberlin, and Ohio Wesleyan.