Nydjah Istatia, Contributing Writer
This semester, Dr. Persky became the chair of the Undergraduate Criminal Justice Department. He has worked for our University for nearly fourteen years and has excelled in leadership roles while maintaining his teaching career. Dr. Persky began his career with our university as a professor of various business and law-related courses. Throughout his tenure, he worked his way up to becoming the academic programs administrator for
Continuing Education, the Dean, and he additionally spent seven years as the assistant of Dr. Arthur F. Kirk, Jr., the president of Saint Leo University. His new office is located in Crawford Hall, where his successful career is
evident by a wall full of accolades.
As the Chair of the Criminal Justice Department, Dr. Persky has several
responsibilities and goals and describes some of them as follows:
“I plan to stay focused on issues of the students and faculty. Our department is continually reviewing courses to make them current and up-to-date, finding relevant textbooks, and keeping book costs reasonable. We review syllabi and make sure our adjunct faculty is properly skilled… We look for the best faculty members to teach.”
Dr.Persky’s tenure in the President’s office helped him to learn what is important to students and faculty. He was exposed to many different situations and became familiar with handling the concerns of students. Faculty members in the Criminal Justice Department have distinct needs as well. He reflects on the past decade of service as a professor of law, criminal justice, business, and related courses to assess their needs. Recently, he has
ventured into teaching sports business and graduate law classes.
“I have a Ph.D. in higher education, a master’s in counseling, and a Juris Doctor” Dr. Persky explains. “I was also the university attorney for spring and summer of 2011.”
Another aspect of his role as the Department Chair is helping to find new
faculty members. Currently, his search committee has been approved to hire three new professors, one for the Virginia center, one for the Savannah Georgia center, and they need a weekend professor to teach adult learners on campus. Every search committee is comprised of members of the department and faculty from another department. This mix of expertise helps to bring in a fresh, new perspective and to create a multifaceted faculty.
Dr. Persky explained what he looks for in each candidate:
”We look for the best fit, we strive to achieve excellence. Dr. Kirk strongly encourages each department to look for the best candidate who will be a good fit, not just someone who can teach. We look for someone who knows
about Saint Leo culture, knowledge about our university, and someone
who has a great understanding of what it means to teach in such a close-knit community.”
This strategy for picking faculty members helps to improve the quality of education for students tremendously. Finding professors who can connect with each student and who can understand their needs is what makes our
campus a comfortable learning environment.
Dr. Persky is very dedicated to improving the criminal justice program and is working toward making major changes to improve the quality of education that is offered on campus.
“I am currently working with a student to make a more formal pre-law society. I work with Dr. Little as a prelaw advisor to build a pre-law society that will grow and thrive in the semesters to come.”
He went on to describe his goal of creating Moot Court competitions that our students can compete in. In these competitions, students typically research legal cases, prepare a legal brief, and each side argues their side. This debate-like style of learning resembles intercollegiate sports in
many ways and universities are known to compete against each other. The Criminal Justice Department is very confident about acquiring strategic initiative funds that will help launch this competition.
Dr. Persky plans on working with students and faculty in the Computer Information Systems program to develop a cyber security crime seminar. He says:
“Everyone is fairly high tech in one way or another. Because of this, the level of cybercrime is way up. I want to work on developing programs in that area. When our students graduate and enter the workforce, they will find themselves dealing with cybercrime, and this training will help them to handle it effectively.”
On February 19th, there will be a seminar on human sex trafficking held at the Ocala center. According to Dr. Persky, there are already 125+ students,
faculty, and members of the Criminal Justice profession who are registered to attend. He estimates that attendance will reach up to 160 persons.
Current Criminal Justice professionals who are attending may not have
a college education and seminars of this sort can help inspire these
professionals to attend our university. Dr. Persky is adamant about
promoting our University and the Criminal Justice Department.
