The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/news/2006/05/19/faculty_senate_passes_minors

May 19, 2006 > News > Faculty Senate passes minors guidelines

Faculty Senate passes minors guidelines

By Risa Gordon | Thresher Editorial Staff

Soon a student may graduate from Rice with a major in history and a minor in Spanish or economics. While no minors have been added to the General Announcements yet, the Faculty Senate unanimously approved the guidelines for creating undergraduate minors at its May 10 meeting.

The approval of three proposals allows the creation of departmental minors, interdisciplinary minors and minors in departments, schools, programs and centers that do not offer majors.

Minors will usually consist of at least six three- or four-hour courses, and the completion of a minor will be noted on students’ transcripts.

Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman said minors will benefit students by offering increased academic flexibility.

“A primary benefit is that it’s one more option to offer our faculty as they think creatively about the curriculum,” Forman said. “It also allows for the development of more, and more rewarding, ways for students to experience the curriculum.”

The General Announcements are published in the spring each year so it is possible that individual minor programs will be approved but a lag will exist between their approval and when they enter the General Announcements. Forman said he is not sure whether graduating seniors will be able to declare a minor after it has been approved but before it appears in the General Announcements.

Forman said he does not expect departments or other programs to adopt minors unless they have the resources to sustain them.

“This proposal isn’t a mandate,” Forman said. “It’s simply for those who are in the position to take advantage of the option. Individual faculty members and departments are always put in the position of having to make choices. There is a constant tension — and this is independent of any question about minors — between all the things we would like to do and the constraints imposed by our finite resources.”

                #Interdisciplinary minors#

The proposal states that “the intent of the interdisciplinary minor is to foster new ideas and creativity in the curriculum and to provide additional value to students over and above current departmental and other program offerings.”

Interdisciplinary minors would include required courses in more than one department.

The approval and administration processes for interdisciplinary minors and minors in schools, departments, centers and programs that do not offer undergraduate majors are the same.

For each minor, a committee of faculty members will develop a plan specifying courses, advising the students who declare the minor, and appointing a chairperson and undergraduate adviser. A committee is in charge of each minor so the program does not dissolve as it might if a single key faculty member were in charge of it.

Forman said the collaboration of faculty members will provide valuable academic opportunities for students.

“It is clear that there are some faculty members who are in a position to be able to organize themselves and offer a really interesting collection of courses that add up into something bigger than the sum of the parts,” Forman said.

Interdisciplinary minor proposals will be submitted to the Dean of Undergraduates and then evaluated by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, which will make a recommendation to the Faculty Senate. The senate has final approval.

Faculty Speaker Marj Corcoran, a physics professor, said the senate will not just rubber-stamp minors proposals.

“We intend to look closely at them to make sure they’re reasonable proposals and they have enough [faculty] support,” Corcoran said.

The proposal must include letters of support from the deans of the schools involved and the relevant department chairs or program heads. The proposal states, “These letters must include a commitment by the department that the relevant courses will be offered with sufficient frequency that all students registered will be able to fulfill the requirements within a four-year period.”

The minors must be re-approved every five years in a process identical to the approval process. However, the re-approval must also demonstrate student demand for the minor and that courses have been offered often enough. In the event that a minor is not re-approved or that the Dean of Undergraduates determines there is not enough faculty support for the minor, new enrollment may be suspended and the minor phased out. Students who have declared the minor at that time will be allowed to graduate with the minor.

Student Association President Althea Tupper, a Hanszen College junior, said she thinks interdisciplinary minors will be popular among students since interdisciplinary majors, such as managerial studies and policy studies, are popular. Departmental minors

The Faculty Senate will not be involved in the approval process for departmental minors, which will be administered by individual departments. Only department chairs — with approval from the school’s dean — can propose a departmental minor, which will then be considered by the Curriculum Committee. The proposal states that only in extraordinary circumstances should these minors be denied.

The proposal outlines few specifications for departmental minors, other than that the minors will usually consist of six three- or four-hour courses. Also, it states that generally departmental minors should require three or four core courses and several electives that can be chosen from a larger list.

While the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee did not favor the adoption of departmental minors, the Faculty Senate working group that considered the minors proposals did recommend its adoption.

Corcoran said departmental minors will probably be most beneficial for students who major in science or engineering and whose majors have too many required courses to allow a second major.

                #Student support#

The Student Association conducted an informal, non-scientific survey at each residential college in the spring. When former-SA President James Lloyd, a Brown College senior, and Tupper met with Corcoran to discuss minors, Lloyd presented the survey results. The survey showed that 62 percent of students surveyed favored undergraduate minors. Slightly more students responded that they would be more interested in departmental minors than in non-departmental minors.

Tupper said it is a good idea to offer minors in order to gauge their popularity among students.

“If [a minor] is underutilized by students, then it should be re-evaluated,” Tupper said. “But why not try it? If it gives students more options then it’s a great idea.”

Nearly 70 percent of the students surveyed responded that they would add at least one minor to the majors they already have — not decreasing the number of majors. Of those surveyed, 61 percent had only one major.

Tupper said she thinks adding minors will bring Rice more in line with other universities where students have one major and one minor rather than multiple majors.

Tupper said offering minors allows students to experiment academically.

“Students can take a wider variety of courses,” Tupper said. “It allows more flexibility for students who want to take courses based on their interests rather than just fulfilling major requirements.”

End of article

Back to top