In an age when business is conducted on a global scale and employees draw from all walks of life, diversity management is becoming vital to every organization.

The School of Continuing Studies (SCS) is aiming to prepare its students for new business realities with a master's in human resources that includes a track in diversity and inclusion management. The track is the first of its kind in the United States, said Christopher Metzler, associate dean of the program.

"What organizations are realizing now is that there is tremendous diversity within the workplace," Metzler said. "As we say, this isn't your father's work force. The challenge for an organization is how to use its unique mix to the organization's benefit."

The human resources degree is part of SCS' master of professional studies program, which also includes degrees in journalism, public relations, real estate and sports industry management. The human resources program launches in the spring 2009 semester.

"We decided we wanted to create a program that would allow us to link HR business strategies with global developments," explained Metzler. "This will allow current and future HR professionals to take their careers to next level while concentrating on strategic approaches in globalization and innovation."

European institutions tend to focus more on these areas, while Metzler said the U.S. lags behind.

"Some people view diversity more as a program than an academic discipline," he said. "But the whole idea of diversity -- in everything from race, ethnicity and gender to geographic diversity -- is evolving. The Jesuit approach to education at Georgetown makes this the perfect place to start a degree program like this."

Metzler added that most American universities do not have faculty members with enough of a human resources and diversity research basis for institutions to craft a degree program as SCS is doing. But SCS' concept of drawing in working professionals to teach students allows for both expertise and academic rigor. To ensure Georgetown's success, Metzler is hiring faculty members with an array of experience and backgrounds.

One faculty member is Monica Hawkins, founder and CEO of Professional Pipeline Development Group, which works with Fortune 500 companies. She will bring work for those clients to SCS, allowing students to have real world experience in diversity and inclusion management.

"Diversity is a global conversation and capitalizing on innovation and knowledge management is a huge skill," she said. "We're going to look at what drives those conversations and how to integrate diversity management into businesses."

The new degree program also will offer tracks in international human resources management and strategic human capital management. The latter track aims to help students understand how to create well-designed organizations that perform at peak in staff acquisition, human capital planning and development.

As part of the international track, which studies globalization's impact on human resources, students will travel to Queen Mary College at the University of London for an immersion program.

Metzler and other faculty members have fanned out across the region in recent months to promote the new master's degree program. They are targeting both working professionals and those new to human resources careers. To the delight of several SCS faculty members, there has been significant international interest in the program as well, with potential students representing Russia, Argentina and Brazil, among other countries.

SCS programs are designed so students may continue to work full time while attending classes part time. The human resources degree requires 30 credit hours, which may be completed in 24 months part time or 18 months attending full time.

Applications already are rolling in, and Metzler and his colleagues are reviewing them now. He expects a class of about 25 students to enroll.

-- By Lauren Burgoon, Blue & Gray Assistant Editor

(September 22, 2008)