New Programs & Innovations (NPIC) Meeting Minutes from 10/17/02

Members Present: Bill Elwood, Chris Lukinbeal, Sandy Lueder, Judith Mills, Troy Paddock (chair), Michele Thompson, Chuck Wieder, Nathan Wilder

No new special topics courses were entered.

Agenda:

Areas Studies Minor:

Our continuing discussion centered around the structure of the Area Studies minors. We concluded our deliberations with the tentative drafting of a structure as follows:

While not expected to go into the same depth as a major, a minor should generally expect the student to explore issues beyond the introductory level and provide the student with the opportunity to analyze their chosen field using the tools/methods that they have acquired from the fields incorporated into the interdisciplinary minor. Area Studies must include courses from a minimum of three different departments. No more than nine credits can be at the introductory level and at least one course must be at the 300 or 400 level. Students must declare their intent to minor in Area Studies with the appropriate Area Studies coordinator.

The current Undergraduate Catalog has this to say about minors (p.32):

"The minor, a planned sequence of 18 credits in one discipline, outside of one's major, with options available under departmental advisement."

Minor Thoughts from committee members:

As part of our discussion, committee members examined how their own departments determined 200, 300, 400 level courses.

Upper division courses provide practice in applying theories/methods/concepts learned in lower division courses. Area Studies (and other interdisciplinary minors) should require that students have the analytic thinking skills to develop a deeper understanding of the relationships among the academic fields, discussion of which begins in the introductory level courses.