A-Senate Notebook: Speech major deleted, political science department changes name
Members of the Academic Senate voted Tuesday to delete the generalist emphasis major concentration in the speech de
partment. The program deletion marks the third time a speech major was nixed this year.
College of Communications and Fine Arts Dean Salma Ghanem said the deletion was to consolidate the major into one general major.
"They used to have four emphases," Ghanem said. "They've consolidated them into one major. There's no use to call it a generalist emphasis anymore."
Ghanem explained the deletion was part of a larger removal of emphases, not a one-off deletion of the major as a whole. The deletion was initially part of a mass emphasis deletion three weeks ago, but was missed by the A-Senate body when they proceeded to vote on the measure.
Changes to political science department name, Honors Program dominate action items
Faculty members in the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences voted to officially change the name of the political science department to the "political science and public administration" department.
The change in name was passed by an 88-6 vote, with five of the votes logged in absentia. A-Senate has two weeks to voice objections to the name change before it can be considered official. The two-week period ends on April 8, the day of A-Senate's next public meeting.
A-Senators also voted in favor of changes to the honors program protocol, which include requirements to request graduation honors recognition.
The proposal came after months of debates among A-Senators over types of graduation honors and how easily students can apply for or create new commencement recognitions. Debates on the subject began in January and have been a running theme in A-Senate proceedings.
The changes aim to offer greater course clarity within the first year of college to get students used to faculty and staff in their program.
"The new honors curriculum resolves this set of problems by reducing HON 100 to one credit and distributing the previously approved six-credit general education courses into three-credit seminars," read the March 5 minutes of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee meeting. "The proposed changes are expected to impact honors retention and graduation positively"
