A challenge to this grant was the replacement of three PIs over the course of the project (Hans, Parotta, Scott have all left DSU). Dr. McGary, as co-PI, is writing the final outcomes report and was a major player in the final year of the grant in terms of needed curricular changes.  As addressed in one of the annual reports, DSU faced the significant obstacle of obtaining institutional support for developing an accredited Forensic Science Program. We did grow the number of majors, however, without the additional hire of full-time faculty with a background in forensics, this was not sustainable. What we succeed to do was convert our Forensic Biology major into a concentration under the Biological Sciences major. This allowed us to continue to support those students with an interest in forensics, without the curricular constraints of the major that we faced. We have grandfathered those students actively in the Forensic Biology major, and incoming students are instead given the option of a Biology Major / Forensic Science Concentration. We saw a trajectory of increased enrollment in 2019/2020 (up to 77 students); yet, not unexpectedly, enrollment subsequently dropped the following year when students were migrated from the Forensic Biology Major to the Biological Sciences major / Forensic Science Concentration (Figure 1). This change to the major offering was implemented in 2019; and there was a drop from 77 majors in the program to 46 in Fall 2021. This is also reflected in the drop in first-year retention (Figure 2); due perhaps in part to going fully remote in 2020 but also due to students moving to the Biology major. Currently, our forensic science course offerings within the Department are taught by adjunct faculty, and students are also advised to take elective courses in Chemistry, Sociology and Criminal Justice, and Psychology. We do view this curricular modification as a success, as it allows us to capitalize on available resources to support the students without terminating forensic science at Delaware State University altogether. Overall, the Department of Biological Sciences remains one of the top departments in terms of enrollment and graduation rates at both the College and Institutional levels (Figures 3 and 4), and we are proud of our ability to continue to provide a niche where students can gain background in forensics. We had an average of 10 students graduating from the Forensic Biology Program from 2017 to 2021, but we did not manage to grow the number of graduates as we had proposed.  No mechanism was implemented to track student success post-graduation after the departure of Dr. Hans.  One of the major components of the grant was to revise and upgrade the current Forensic Biology Program. Another component was to develop new course offerings, which we succeeded in doing. New courses include Forensic Biology, Forensic Anatomy and Physiology, and Forensic Microbiology, and Forensic Death Investigation. Additionally, some of the mainstream biology electives (biology in the media, for example, include a forensic science component in order to keep these courses relevant for all biology majors moving forward. We aim to remain a relevant HBCU with a pipeline for recruitment of URMs into law enforcement agencies who are trying to recruit people of color throughout the country.

Last Modified: 09/26/2022
Modified by: Sabrina Mcgary