Academic Senate votes on changes to degree modification process
The Academic Senate meets on Jan. 16 in Pearce Hall.
Academic Senate approved a proposal at its Jan. 16 meeting to give itself authority to make changes to degree programs.
In November, an affirmative vote resulted in the senate having authority to review and approve changes to degree programs, such as the reduction in credit hours to 120. However, the process to approve such changes was not clearly outlined in the Curricular Authority Document.
The intention of the new proposal was to clarify the process used to approve changes to degree programs, specifically for programs not owned by a department or college. These changes will be inserted on page 26 of the Curricular Authority Document
Modifications may include degree titles, total hours, deleting a section of study (such as area requirements) or overall structure of the degree. Degrees applicable to this approval process include the Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Bachelor of Applied Arts degrees.
The approval process for changes will begin with the Academic Senate Executive Board, which will route proposals to Senate Review Committees and Academic Senate, or the Michigan Association of State Universities, depending on the degree of modifications.
Academic Senate also voted to approve changes to the Accelerated Master's Degree Program policy, set to be implemented in Fall 2018.
The change allows students to reduce the total number of credits required for undergraduate and graduate degree completion by applying no more than 50 percent of the graduate program (500 and 600-level courses), at the discretion of the department, towards graduation requirements on both degree programs. Generally, courses required on the undergraduate major may not be counted on the graduate program.
Also at the meeting:
• Provost Michael Gealt gave an update on the Academic Organizational Review, announcing that Senior Vice Provost for Academic Reorganization Initiative Ian Davison will post all committee reports on the Academic Organizational Review website on Jan. 26.
The Central Michigan University community can provide feedback of the reports via anonymous comments on the AOR website, and can also participate in facilitated feedback sessions on Feb. 7-8, for which additional information will be shared.
• President George Ross posted his President's Report online because he unable to attend the meeting.
