Biology, psychology and philosophy come together in new minor
By Amanda Blas Page Design blas13@up.edu
Starting this semester, the University of Portland is offering neuroscience as a minor in the College of Arts and Sciences.
"Neuroscience is an increasingly important area of study with enormous research advances," psychology professor Susan Baillet, one of the program directors of the neuroscience minor, said. "To be responsible educators, we need to offer programs reflecting the state of science nowadays."
According to Baillet, the College of Arts and Sciences started discussing the idea of a neuroscience minor three years ago. However, it was not until a little over a year ago when they began to fully develop the program.
"It seems like we should've done it five years ago," biology professor Terry Favero, who took part in the development of the neuroscience minor program, said. "We started talking about it for such a long time and the student interest was really high."
Thanks to additions to the College and Arts of Sciences' faculty, the neuroscience minor program was finally able to be put into place.
"To have a neuroscience minor, you have to have sufficient resources," Favero said. "We always had interest in it, but after hiring in the past several years, we figured we had more than enough resources for a minor program."
Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary area of study which seeks to understand how the brain and nervous system work, the complex behaviors of organisms and the nature of the human person, according to the minor's description on UP's website.
"It's a joint offering of psychology and biology, requiring classes in both subjects as well as the class on philosophy of mind," Baillet said.
Senior psychology major Megan Kirchgasler, who is pursuing the neuroscience minor, believes the requirements in both subjects add to a better understanding of the neuroscience discipline.
"The classes overlap, and it's really nice to pick between so many classes," Kirchgasler said. "It gives a more scientific aspect of psychology."
According to Baillet, the neuroscience minor's emphasis on more than one area of study is key to the learning outcomes of the program.
"Students will be able to think about the mind and brain connection from all directions and will not be limited to thinking from just one," Baillet said. "The minor provides understanding in terms of human behavior, anatomy, brain physiology and mental state and helps explain what happens when there's a brain disorder, so it pretty much covers every level."
Junior psychology major Rick Baleros decided to pursue the neuroscience minor because of the interdisciplinary study.
"There's a lot of overlap between the biology and psychology classes," Baleros said. "It brings the biological aspect of psychology forward, and there are definitely some biology aspects in psychology classes, so having a background in both really helps."
Kirchgasler agrees.
"Neuroscience is the perfect fit between psychology and biology," Kirchgasler said. "There's a lot I learn about in my psychology classes that translate into my biology classes and vice versa."
Baillet has high hopes for the neuroscience minor program.
"I expect students will be more sophisticated in understanding how both the mind and brain works," Baillet said. "They'll understand that the mind is a reflection of brain activity."
Baillet hopes to see neuroscience's development into a major because of its growing relevance in the scientific community.
"It isn't a standard major yet, but it will have to be in order for us to keep up with current scientific discovery," Baillet said.
