Southeastern's OSHE program recognized for superior program accreditation
Thursday, November 30, 2017
by: Tonya Lowentritt
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University’s Occupational Safety, Health and Environment
program has once again been recognized by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals
as an exceptional program holding superior program accreditation.
Southeastern’s OSHE bachelor’s degree is one of only a few of its kind in the
nation. Initiated in 2004 as a workforce demand-driven program that evolved from a
two-year associate degree program, Southeastern’s degree is designed to meet the needs
of industries in the region that demand properly prepared professionals to work in
the increasingly complex field of safety and health in the industrial setting.
BCSP recognizes qualified academic programs for outstanding service as a path
for students to earn CSP certifications and for their consistently high levels of
preparation for professional safety practice. Southeastern’s OSHE program is the only
one to receive this distinction in Louisiana and one of only 34 recognized nationwide.
BCSP is recognized as the leader in high-quality credentialing for safety, health,
and environmental practitioners, which establishes standards for and verifies competency
in professional safety practice and evaluates certified applicants for compliance
with recertification requirements.
“The ABET re-accreditation is crucial to ensure the quality of the OSHE program.
It not only drives the continuous improvement of the program but also helps attract
more students to study the highly-promising field that has strong workforce demands
in our region right now,” said Lu Yuan, interim head of the Southeastern Department
of Computer Science and Industrial Technology. “With the program producing quality
graduates to meet those demands, the employers also benefit tremendously by hiring
them and receiving their contributions as soon as they enter the workforce.”
A qualified academic program is an academic degree program in safety, health
and/or environmental practices meeting BCSP standards for participation and whose
curriculum has been reviewed as showing a substantial match with the Associate Safety
Professional. Many qualified academic programs hold accreditation by the Applied and
Natural Science Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering
and Technology, said Yuan.
With the qualified academic program designation, BCSP awards a $5,000 gift to
the program to help offset costs of retaining accreditation.
The American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation also recently awarded the
Southeastern OSHE program a $1,750 James A. Oppold grant to help with ABET re-accreditation.
The program was also recently ranked among the top 20 best values in OSHE programs
in the country by the website collegevaluesonline.com. The ranking is based on quality
of academics; value, which includes tuition affordability and financial aid; and the
calculated average return on investment data, a guide to the success of students graduating
from the program.
