Elon University will launch new Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degree programs in neuroscience beginning in fall 2025, in line with the university’s commitment to science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in its Boldly Elon strategic plan.
The new major — housed in Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences — will build on the success of Elon’s existing neuroscience minor. Roughly 180 students are working toward completing the neuroscience minor, which started in 2009, according to coordinator of the neuroscience minor and professor of exercise science, Matt Wittstein.
Wittstein said the university has tried to develop the major a few times in the past.
“We’ve finally gotten it through that process, and I’m really excited,” Wittstein said. “We’ll have three majors: a B.A. in neuroscience, a B.S. in neuroscience, and a B.S. with a concentration in exercise neuroscience.”
According to Wittstein, the Bachelor of Arts will require 48 semester hours, and the Bachelor of Science will require 64 semester hours.
He said he has already received emails from advisers who said they have students interested in considering the major.
“They are excited for the opportunities that it brings in terms of potential research and undergraduate research that matches collaboration with other programs,” Wittstein said.
Wittstein said that in fall 2024, he worked together with other neuroscience and external faculty, including School of Communications and Business School faculty members, to create a mission and vision statement and plan new courses.
“Going into this summer, it’s figuring out how to operate a major that doesn’t live within its own department, as well as preparing to add some additional faculty to meet the needs of the program over the future,” Wittstein said.
Student interest in neuroscience at Elon has surged in recent years, with students adding the minor and focusing on neuroscience in their undergraduate research.
The neuroscience minor consists of one required course — behavioral neuroscience — and 16 credit hours of electives from the departments of psychology, biology, chemistry, computer science and exercise science. The neuroscience minor has roughly 180 students because many courses from other departments that are required or elective courses correlate with the minor, according to Wittstein.
Elon junior Hallie Beeker is a neuroscience minor on the pre-med track who is currently conducting research using electroencephalogram technology, more commonly known as EEG. EEG technology tests activity in the brain using electrodes placed on the scalp. Wittstein is her mentor.
“It is pretty tedious,” Beeker said. “My project looks at event-related potentials in people who exhibit habits of disordered eating and exercise behaviors.”
She will research how the brain reacts to pictures of foods with different calories and different levels of exercise.
Beeker said she was both excited and jealous when she heard the news about the new major.
“If I had the opportunity to major in neuroscience, I would have,” Beeker said. “I would have been able to capitalize on my interest in such a different way than I have now.”
While the program won’t initially have a centralized physical space, Wittstein said community building through departments will be a key priority.
“We’ll teach just in the same way that exercise science, and psychology, and biology, and chemistry teach their courses,” Wittstein said. “Since there are a lot of lab-based courses in other departments, they have their own sort of home laboratories to be able to use.”
Wittstein said he anticipates that the new major could bring in students who might not have considered applying to Elon. This past fall, Elon’s freshman enrollment was down 7.4%, according to the fall 2024 registrar’s report, and the top major in the College of Arts and Sciences is psychology.
Biology, psychology and exercise science are three programs that could lose some prospective students with the start of the neuroscience major, but Wittstein said those numbers will balance out over time.
“I think there might be some short-term shifting of students, but in the long term, I think it’s going to be healthier for the whole university in each of those programs,” Wittstein said.
As the university prepares for the launch of the new major, students such as Beeker are excited to see neuroscience gain more visibility on campus.
“I was thrilled when I heard about it, and I tried to switch my major, or add on neuroscience as a double major, but I just saw it’s just too much,” Beeker said. “I’m really excited, and I think that’s going to do really well at Elon.”
