Criminology minor requirements to be voted on by CAA this afternoon
The Council of Academic Affairs will be voting for approval of the revision of the Criminology minor requirements today.
Minors now will not be limited to just the Civil Liberties class, but may select among two other courses: Criminal Law and the Politics of the Legal Process, said Richard Wandling, political science professor and one of the writers of the proposal to revise the criminology minor.
Wandling said the changes were necessary for the program.
“The Civil Liberties course historically has had a very high enrollment demand, since it serves a variety of programs,” he said. “Many criminology minors were finding it difficult to make progress toward completing minor requirements.”
As a result, the department chairs of political science and sociology were forced to complete many substitution forms to help students move toward graduation, Wandling added.
With more course options to fill the minor, Wandling said the minor will now be more flexible with scheduling and will allow students to pick courses that may better fit their interests.
The CAA will vote on the proposal at their meeting, and if it passes, Wandling hopes for the changes to be enacted for Fall 2011.
The proposal will have to get at least eight of the possible 12 votes in order to pass. The council normally has 13 voting members; however one of the student seats remains vacant at this point.
If some members are not present; the proposal will need at least five votes to pass.
CAA chair Larry White said the CAA will probably debate the proposal before voting. On predicting the outcome, he said. “It’s dangerous to call; you never really know what will happen.”
Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs, will also address the CAA on Integrative Learning.
“We wouldn’t normally have a meeting for only one issue, but Lord came to us with presentation, which he said was a timely issue,” White said.
Lord said the presentation would be very similar to that of the one he gave to the Faculty Senate last week.
After three consecutive weeks without an “in person” meeting, the Council on Academic Affairs will meet today from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Booth Library Conference Room.
Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-7942
