Academic Senate discusses BAA degree, postpones further discussion


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Senators listen during an Academic Senate meeting in the Education and Human Services Building's French Auditorium March 26.

Central Michigan University Academic Senate passed eight curricular items at its March 26 meeting and pondered the question: What is a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree, and which majors fit it best?

During the Senate executive board meeting March 21, the e-board thought it was odd that six majors requested to be added to the Bachelor of Applied Arts degree, especially since there were no majors added to the degree program from 2012-18. This sparked a debate about what role the BAA holds at CMU and which majors fit best in the degree program.

E-board chose to hold off on adding any programs to the BAA until it could examine the BAA and figure out how it compares to the other degree options at CMU.

After an hour-long discussion about e-board’s decision, Senate voted to set aside one hour at the next meeting to discuss CMU’s Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Applied Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees, the description of each one and which majors fit them. Senate will continue to delay adding majors to the BAA until the discussion takes place.

The major questions asked in the discussion were about what the BAA is and why students choose it over a BA or BS degree. 

Senator Michael Mamp, human environmental studies faculty, said the foreign language requirement in the BA and math/statistics requirement in the BS were seen as roadblocks by students, and the BAA offers them a more flexible option that didn’t have those perceived roadblocks.

“It’s no surprise to me that we will now see additional programs that are now requesting to be moved to the BAA because they are in touch and understand their students’ interests and capabilities and what their students are willing to spend their time and money on," Mamp said.

Cathy Hicks Kennard, English language and literature faculty, disagreed. She said instead of seeing those requirements as “roadblocks,” they should be seen as educational experiences and marketable skills that students can benefit from.

Refer to CM Life on April 9 to learn the outcome of the discussion.

The consensus at the end of the discussion was that there isn’t a good definition of the BAA or a clear reason why it is preferable for some majors more than others. Until Senate has a clear definition, it doesn’t feel like it can add any more majors to the degree program.

During the Provost’s report, Michael Gealt updated the Senate on current personnel searches. He said there will be Skype interviews next week for the ongoing Provost search.

Candidates for the College of Business Administration dean will be visiting campus soon, Gealt announced.

The eight curricular items the Senate passed include:

  • Adding "Math 217: Business Calculus" to the list of courses that satisfy the statistics/calculus requirement in the BS degree.
  • Deletion of two concentrations in the administration major, service sector and building code administration. Both concentrations have been on hiatus for three years due to low enrollment.
  • A change to the BAA from a limit of eight elective credits from the student’s major to nine. The change was made to reflect the fact that most classes at CMU are three credits.
  • Changing the wording for the foreign language requirement in the BA degree. The change eliminates a loophole that would allow students to take two 101-level language courses to satisfy the University Program IV-B requirement.
  • Changing the graduation requirement for the BS in engineering technology from 124 credits to 120.
  • The addition of a Master of Business Administration concentration in finance.
  • Allowing departments to create their own continuous registration policy for graduate students. The current policy requires graduate students to be enrolled every semester up until graduation. This would give departments the ability to decide whether a graduate student should enroll in a continuous registration credit, which would eliminate fees for students who choose to take a semester or two off before finishing their degree.
  • Changing the language in the MBA program. Most of the changes were grammatical or stylistic.

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