The L&S Curriculum Committee met last Monday to discuss new, deleted and modified courses in addition to a discussion about possibly limiting the number of majors a student can have.
Recently, due to tight budget constraints and mounting administrative work, Dean Sandefur and the rest of the college staff have begun discussing the options available to them to in terms of limiting majors. The number of double, triple and four majors has been increasing every year with Spanish being the most common double major. There are many different aspects to this conversation including the fact that recently students who have one major seem to think that two, three and four make them that much more marketable after college. As of our last meeting there were no decisions made, Dean Sandefur just wanted feedback so he work further on this problem.
It would be helpful, to get more student feedback so I can bring it back to the committee next Monday. If you want anymore information on the topic you can posts those requests here too and I'll check back soon. Thanks.
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Hi there -- I'm the current faculty chair of the L&S Curriculum Committee and I'd like to echo Alicia's call for informal student feedback on the issue of multiple majors. (It is even possible that we will set up a more formal survey on the issue.) The only thing I'd add is to stress that the conversation we are having in this committee is in no way starting from any assumptions that majors must be limited. We are sincerely exploring the issue to see if it makes sense to come up with any recommendations to the Dean that might then go to departments, to advisers, to faculty and staff, and/or directly to students.
P.S. This is the first I've heard of the ASM blog and I think it's a great idea to help build feedback, participation, and transparency in the UW decision-making process! (We faculty and staff could use more tools like this ourselves.)
Cheers, -- GREG
I would like to suggest that members of the L&S Curriculum Committee consider the following question: Why do students pursue multiple majors? In my mind, the answer is that they want to make themselves more competitive as they begin their careers or the next phase of their education. This provokes further questions: Do multiple majors truly enhance the resumes of prospective employees/graduate students? What are employers and graduate schools really looking for in applicants? If multiple majors give applicants a significant advantage, a limit on majors would be unfair and detrimental to students. However, if employers and graduate schools are looking for breadth of experience and coursework, then multiple majors may not really help applicants at all. In this case, the University needs to do a better job communicating how students can improve their chances after graduation day. If students were convinced that they could be competitive even without multiple majors, then I do not think we would have this problem.
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