Master's in Organization Development

MA in Organization Development

About the Program

The M.A. in Organization Development provides professional preparation for developing organizations and communities that are more sane and effective.

In four semesters, participants gain the practical skills, conceptual knowledge, and field-tested experience to successfully lead organization and community improvement efforts.

Cohort groups of 15 students participate in seminar discussions, skill-building activities, and extensive field projects, under the guidance and supervision of experienced OD practitioner faculty.

This program has a strong commitment to the principle of diversity. We seek a broad spectrum of students, including members of underrepresented groups.

The Organization Development Program provides professional education for mid-career individuals preparing to become managers and specialists in organizational change, consultation, and leadership. Classes are primarily on weekday evenings and Saturdays, although internship projects require some work during business hours. Where appropriate, these projects may focus on participants' sponsoring organization.

The program focus and format are based on the awareness that our increasingly turbulent business, technology, and socio-economic environments are creating serious challenges for most organizations. They must become more cost-effective, sane, innovative, resourceful, and adaptive. To respond appropriately to these challenges, organizations must be staffed with managers and specialists who have a new set of skills. They need the ability to:

• Provide effective leadership for desired change.
• Understand systemic and strategic dynamics affecting the organization.
• Be knowledgeable in cutting-edge methods of management and change.
• Address underlying causal factors rather than settle for superficial fixes.
• Guide the redesign of organization structures, work processes, and governance.
• Consider the needs and perspectives of relevant stakeholders.
• Facilitate group problem solving, decision making efforts, and teamwork.
• Mediate conflicting interests to develop a broad consensus for action.
• Be reflective and aware of their own internal experience and interaction patterns, as these may support their effectiveness with client groups.
• Act with an awareness of the social and ethical dimensions of their work.

Sonoma State University is a campus of the California State University System.

Located in California's premier wine country one hour north of San Francisco, Sonoma State is a small campus with big ideas. With a tradition of promoting intellectual and personal growth, leadership opportunities and technological proficiency, SSU offers its students a friendly, safe and informal atmosphere on a beautiful campus setting. Currently, campus housing accommodates students in both apartment and residential suite style facilities.

While SSU generally accepts all qualified students who apply from high schools in its service area, 80 percent of the freshmen and 55 percent of the junior transfer students come from outside the North Bay region. With 34 percent of the student body living on campus, it is one of the most residential campuses within the California State University system.

Academic Profile

The SSU educational experience fosters intellectual, cognitive, social and personal growth. The faculty and staff provide collaborative relationships with students and an education that fosters ethical exploration, civic engagement, social responsibility, and global awareness combined with a solid foundation in an academic discipline. Many classes average fewer than 40 students, allowing close interaction between students and faculty.

SSU has a commitment to graduating students who have the ability to think critically and ethically and can effectively use information technology. There is a strong move to develop a global perspective in much of the curriculum to prepare students for the needs of the 21st-century workplace.

Accreditation

Sonoma State University is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and the California State Board of Education. The School of Education is accredited at the state and national levels by CCTC and NCATE. The School of Business and Economics is accredited by AACSB-International, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Many departments and programs are individually accredited.

Alumni Association

SSU has an active Alumni Association that maintains a continuing connection between University and its 53,000 alumni, by sponsoring educational projects, programs, and activities to continue the relationship students have with their university.

Awards and Honors

One of the most requested campuses in the CSU system and regularly named a “Best Regional University” by U.S. News & World Report. SSU has also been named one of the “most wired” campuses in the nation by Princeton Review. SSU is the only California university invited to be a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, a prestigious group of 25 universities and colleges across the nation committed to providing superior liberal arts and sciences education to their students.

Buildings and Learning Centers

The Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center is named after Peanuts cartoon creator Charles Schulz and his wife. It holds one of the largest libraries in the CSU system and the state of California with more than 400,000 volumes. A unique 750,000-volume automated-retrieval system is one of only four in the country. It also houses a valued collection of Jack London’s writings, original letters, and memorabilia.

The 59,000 square foot Recreation Center, designed with high standards for sustainable building methods, houses state-of-the-art aerobic equipment, a climbing wall, exercise and dance studios, two gyms, a large weight lifting and machine area, locker rooms, and a spa. Known as a "building that teaches,” the Environmental Technology Center is a demonstration of sustainable architecture and energy efficiency that consumes only 50% of the energy of similar structures.

Our brand new, 130,000 sq ft student center opened in November of 2013. It houses areas and programs for students such as the living room; food venues including the Kitchens, Weyden + Brewster, The Café, and Lobo's as well as the University store, the HUB, Student Activities Office, meeting and activity rooms, the Copy Center and the campus post office on the first two floors. The third floor is home to the ballroom, meeting and activity rooms, Overlook restaurant, Conference and Event Services, Housing, and Culinary Services office spaces.

The Green Music Center was designed to become one of the great concert halls of the world and is modeled after Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood in Massachusetts (the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra).

The Cerent Engineering Science Laboratories houses state-of-the-art equipment for research and teaching in computer and engineering sciences. Students have unique opportunities to work with high tech companies in the area.

The university also owns and operates the 450-acre Fairfield Osborn Preserve nearby and the 3,200 acre Galbreath Wildland Preserve in Mendocino County. Both offer major opportunities for research in the natural sciences rare for students.

Degree/Program Offerings

The University offers nine credential programs and eight undergraduate and graduate certificate programs. Basic teaching credential programs in education include multiple subject, multiple subject BCLAD, single subject, administrative services, reading/language arts (certificate or specialist), special education (mild/moderate or moderate/severe), and pupil personnel services (via the Counseling Department).

The university is comprised of six schools: Arts and Humanities, Business and Economics, Education, Extended & International Education, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. Degrees are offered in 46 majors and 47 minors at the bachelor's level and 15 at the master's level. The university offers a joint master’s degree in mathematics with San Francisco State University. It also offers nine credential programs and eight undergraduate and graduate certificate programs. Sonoma State offers one of the only wine business programs in the country.

Student Life

Residential Life department and the Center for Student Leadership, Involvement & Service organize a wide variety of social and educational activities to ensure their activities for students. This can run the gamut from karaoke, community service events, video game contests, live music shows, comedy contests, lectures, trips to local Bay Area theatres, sporting events, museums, and much more. The alcohol and drug education program has become a model for other CSU campuses. The campus has a student newspaper, The Star, and a student-run radio station, KSUN Radio. For more information on events, visit the Seawolf Calendar.

More than 100 clubs and organizations are available to accommodate a wide range of interests from ethnic and international to special hobbies and pursuits.

A community service program supported by the Associated Students, JUMP (Join Us Making Progress) offers students the opportunity to serve in numerous volunteer programs and gain experiences relevant to their education. Some of the many JUMP projects are Adopt-a-Grandparent, Study Buddies, Bodega Bay Homework Project, and Serving Our Unfed People.