While many schools are cutting programs, Salem College will offer several new majors, minors and concentrations, beginning Fall 2011. New majors include Criminal Studies, Environmental Studies and Teaching, Schools and Society. New concentrations include Business Entrepreneurship and Health Care Management within the Business Administration major, and Advocacy, Math, Environment, Literacy, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences, within the Teaching, Schools and Society major. New minors include Criminal Studies, Statistics, Business Entrepreneurship, Visual Arts Entrepreneurship, Dance Management and Music Entrepreneurship.

The Criminal Studies major and minor include elements of both criminology and criminal justice. The program sociologically examines the definitions of crime and deviance; the causes, correlates and patterns of crime and deviance; and the social costs and social control mechanisms of crime and deviance. 

The Environmental Studies program focuses on the study of natural systems and our relationship with them as a basis for taking action to support sustainability. Its mission is to deepen student understanding of environmental issues and principles of conservation ecology, while preparing students to develop and manage environmentally sustainable processes and shape public opinion and policy in support of sustainable environmental systems.

The Teaching, Schools and Society program offers students several concentrations, as well as a separated licensure curriculum, which allows students in other majors to add licensure to their course of study. The Teaching, Schools and Society concentrations offer blends of study: Advocacy (public policy, sociology and psychology), Math (multiple math disciplines), Environment (environmental sciences, teaching in green schools), Literacy (English, creative writing), Natural Sciences (bio chemistry, physics and environmental science) and Social Sciences (history, sociology, economics and political science).

Within the existing Business Administration major, two new concentrations will be offered—Business Entrepreneurship and Healthcare Management. The Business Entrepreneurship concentration will allow business majors to focus on the process of business product innovation and new business opportunities for themselves or for their employers. The Health Care Management concentration will allow business students to focus on the business aspects, including policy and economics issues, of the health care industry in preparation for promotions or employment in health care management positions.

The minor in Statistics is intended to prepare students for more advanced study in statistics at the graduate level, for graduate programs in other disciplines that rely heavily on statistical analysis, and for professions in a wide variety of fields.

The minor in Business Entrepreneurship is designed to provide non-business majors with the educational background needed to nurture an innovative product or service idea and grow it into a new business opportunity.  The minor will also be helpful to those non-business majors who envision being self-employed in their own small businesses which grow out of their passions for arts and science.

Minors in Music Entrepreneurship, Visual Arts Entrepreneurship and Dance Management provide students an opportunity to assess options and prepare for pursuing a life in the arts. Students completing the minors will study contemporary “arts delivery systems” and established freelance opportunities for artists. In addition, they will be introduced to emerging non-traditional roles of the arts and professional artists along with structural options through which creative enterprise can be carried out.