Department website: http://www.msubillings.edu/cahp/index.htm

Dr. Kurt Toenjes, Dean
APS 119, (406) 896-5831
cahp@msubillings.edu

The College of Health Professions and Science is comprised of undergraduate and graduate programs that are designed to prepare individuals for careers in the health professions and natural sciences.  Academic programs in the Health Professions, such as the behavioral sciences (e.g., health promotion, human services, rehabilitation), therapeutic sciences (e.g., athletic training and RN-BSN) and support services (e.g., health administration) prepare students with the technical skills needed to work in the dynamic healthcare field.  Academic programs in the Natural Sciences, such as B.S. in Biology, Chemistry, Health and Human Performance and the B.A. in Biology, prepare students for post-baccalaureate programs in Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary, Pharmacy and Physical Therapy as well as providing them with the skills needed for careers in analytical chemistry, biochemistry and biology.  These programs also prepare students to be critical thinkers in their chosen profession, develop a historical consciousness, broaden their understanding of the diversity of the profession and individuals, and develop a defined sense of values that will guide them in their career.

The College of Health Professions and Science is comprised of the following academic departments:

• Health and Human Performance
• Health Care Services
• Rehabilitation and Human Services
• Biological and Physical Sciences

Academic Advising

All new, transfer, and re-admitted students are encouraged to visit Advising & Career Services in McMullen Hall first floor west to meet with an academic advisor.  New students will receive information regarding General Education requirements and plan of study worksheets related to their major and minor programs.  Transfer and re-admitted students will work with an advisor to complete a transcript evaluation and to develop a plan of study.  Students majoring in bachelor’s degree programs in the College of Health Professions and Science will be advised initially through Advising & Career Services.  As early as their freshman year, students will be assigned a faculty member for advising.  Although advisors are available to assist students in designing their plan of study and navigating their academic experience, students are ultimately responsible for meeting degree requirements.

Mission

The mission of the College of Health Professions and Science is to prepare students for their chosen field, and to meet the needs of society through education, discovery, and service.  Collaborative partnerships among students, faculty, researchers, community members, and industry leaders provide a foundation from which to serve the educational needs of a growing health professions and STEM workforce.  The goals of the College are to ensure a seamless curricular articulation among diverse health-related and STEM programs and create an environment that fosters excellence in student instruction, research, and community services.

Clinical and Field-Based Experiences

The College of Health Professions and Science provides a number of supervised clinical and field-based experiences designed to prepare students for work in the health professions and STEM related fields.  The major aim of these experiences is to allow students to apply principles and theories from the professional knowledge base in the supervised environments.  Whereas each degree program has different expectations for clinical and field-based experience, students should clarify expectations with the faculty advisor prior to registration.

Academic Support Facilities

Physical Education Building

Faculty, staff, and students can draw on the facilities of the Physical Education Building.  The building includes a 3,300-seat gymnasium with a varsity basketball court, a volleyball court, and a badminton court; a 25-yard swimming pool; a spectator gallery; dressing rooms for men and women with disabilities and an elevator with direct access to the swimming pool; men’s and women’s locker rooms equipped with saunas; and a fitness center with free weights, exercise machines, and selectorized machines.

The facility also includes an annex which has a large gymnasium divisible by curtains into two sections, each with a high school-sized basketball court, two tennis courts, three volleyball courts, six badminton courts, four racquetball courts with glass backwalls and an instructor’s gallery, and a suspended running track with 14 laps to the mile.

In 2004, a new athletic training room and a new human performance lab were added to the physical education building.  The athletic training room includes a wet area complete with whirlpools and ice machines, treatment tables, and a physician exam room.  The athletic training room serves Division II student athletes at Montana State University Billings as well as provides an instructional setting for students in the athletic training program.  The human performance lab is complete with biomechanic, biofeedback, and exercise physiology equipment including a new pulmonary exercise system for monitoring metabolic processes.

Greenhouse

MSU Billings’ Department of Biological and Physical Sciences maintains a greenhouse on campus to grow a variety of plants year-round, even in the deepest of Montana winters.  The greenhouse enables both students and faculty to work on plant projects no matter the season.

Herbarium

MSU Billings’ Department of Biological and Physical Sciences maintains a herbarium on campus that is registered in Index Herbariorum (a Global Directory of Public Herbaria of the world) and is part of a multi-herbarium web-accessible database of the vascular plants from the Missouri Plateau, U.S.A.  The University Herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens (some of which date back to early 1900’s) that serve as a tool for basic research in plant systematics, ecology, phytogeography, and evolution.  They are actively used in teaching and research as a resource to provide population localities for studies of a diverse nature, ranging from biological control to rare plants.  The University Herbarium was originally established in 1976 when the collections from the herbaria of Eastern Montana Normal School, Eastern Montana College, Rocky Mountain College, and USDA Forest Service were consolidated.  It has grown steadily to about 16,000 specimens.  The collections include plants of Montana, (emphasis on eastern Montana and Beartooth Plateau), Plants of India, Venezuela, Roberson County, Texas, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens Herbarium, W.K. Kellogg Biological Field Station and vascular plants of Wisconsin, Ohio Utah, and many other places.

Research Projects

Montana State University Billings has been approved by the National Science Foundation as an undergraduate research site, in part because of the extent to which undergraduates have been involved in faculty research in the past.  Colleges which involve undergraduates in research efforts seem to have the highest success rates for training future scientists.  At MSU Billings students have presented research papers at various scientific conferences, such as the Montana Academy of Sciences and others out of state, and have had papers published in professional scientific journals.  Recent grants have made such studies possible for even more students.

National Institutes of Health Program in Biomedical Research Excellence (NIH-INBRE)

MSU Billings administers grants from the National Institutes of Health program in Biomedical Research Excellence (NIH-INBRE).  The NIH-INBRE grant supports faculty research in the molecular biology of infectious disease, student research opportunities in the biomedical sciences, clinical internships in Medical Laboratory Sciences and the construction of new biomedical research laboratories.  The NIH-INBRE grant also involves close collaborations between faculty at MSU Billings and scientists at other universities in Montana.