Gurin addresses minor program

To Patricia Gurin's surprise, few people showed up for her office hours at the LSA building yesterday afternoon.

While she doesn't hand out midterm exams or deliver lectures, the dean of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts held office hours yesterday to discuss campus issues with LSA- Student Government and interested University students.

"I don't know why more students don't attend - whether it's apathy, or if they just can't find the room, or maybe they are afraid of the dean, " said LSA first-year student Adam Damerow, an LSA-SG member. Damerow was one of only four people who attended the office hours. "The dean is really a nice lady and facilitates well with individual students."

Yesterday's hot topic was the University's possible implementation of departmental minors - including the ideas of interdisciplinary minors, how soon minor curriculums would be in effect, which departments were considering a minor curriculum and whether students in schools outside LSA could pursue an LSA minor.

"The faculty has already approved to have minors; now students can opt to have minors," explained Jon Naheedy, an LSA junior and LSA-SG member. He added that this "does not mean anything yet" and that departments must complete an application for a minor curriculum which must be approved by the LSA Curriculum Committee.

One of the many facets of having a minor program is the eventual possibility of interdisciplinary minors - a minor that has been collaborated by two different departments. Gurin said interdisciplinary minors are likely, but would not be in effect until after single department minors are installed.

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Robert Owen proposed the idea of minors one year ago.

Yesterday, he explained that if departments submit their applications by the end of this semester, they could be valid by the Fall term of 1999. Owen said the specific departments he knows are working on minor programs include history, history of art, philosophy and several divisions of geological science and the Residential College. He added that the English and Romance Language departments are considering not incorporating minors into their programs for several reasons.

Both departments, Owen said, are concerned about resources for the minor courses. Another concern is that minor courses would be overcrowded, leaving insufficient space for students who are majoring in the different departments.

Shareif Youssef, an Engineering junior, addressed the issue of students in schools other than LSA getting an LSA minor.

He questioned whether Engineering students, as a consequence of pursuing an LSA minor, would be required to fulfill LSA requirements which are not required in the Engineering school.

"LSA requirements are unrelated to minors," Owen said. "Actually, the minors are supposed to encourage interaction between the different schools."

Dean Gurin concluded the informal discussion by commending Owen.

"Nothing ever gets done in one year," Gurin said. Owen "has gotten this done in one year."

But Owen didn't take all the credit.

"LSA Student Government has done a lot of work and has helped me a lot," he said.

03-24-99