Two new potential minors proposed to Faculty Senate

By Melissa Tsang     2/26/09 6:00pm

Aside from the newly approved Jewish studies minor, Speaker of the Faculty Senate Deborah Harter said the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee will soon vote on two potential minors - energy and water sustainability and poverty, justice, and human capabilities. These could join sociology, global health, business and financial modeling in Rice's expanding portfolio of minors.The Faculty Senate's approval of a new Jewish studies minor program last week may inspire students to introduce more interdisciplinary and departmental minors into their studies.

Harter said the purpose of offering interdisciplinary minors to students is to expand interest in and exploration of other fields outside of students' major fields.

"The minor provides an opportunity for exploration into another field and some coherence to the courses that go beyond one's major," Harter said. "There is also a desire on the part of the faculty that these minors be as interdisciplinary as possible; that they bring together established, new connections rather than that they focus on a single, very precise field."

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Harter pointed to the newly-approved Jewish studies program, approved Feb. 18, as an exemplary interdisciplinary minor.

"The minor in Jewish studies brings together in very interesting ways a whole variety of texts," Harter said. "Texts from history, philosophy, art, literature and culture generally. This makes for a very interdisciplinary field, one that is from all kinds of perspectives.

"This is not a minor in a particular religion; it is a minor that reflects a very important segment of our cultural past and I believe that there will also be ways in which some of its courses will include and encourage discussions that bring together some of the political confrontations of our day that are so important and make possible ongoing interest and study, for example, in Arabic studies and the Muslim tradition as well."

The process for a potential minor to be approved by the Faculty Senate takes about three to five months.

In addition to interdisciplinary minors, Rice has begun to introduce departmental minors as well. However, Harter said departmental minors do not need to go through the Faculty Senate to become approved.

"Any department will be able to select a different configuration of courses and a smaller configuration from the major and declare a minor," Harter said. "When they wish to do so they do not need the approval of the Senate. They will be able to do this because they will already have a major that is well-established. It is only the interdisciplinary minor, which is not reflected in an already established field at Rice, that must go through ... the undergraduate committee and to the senate for approval."

Nevertheless, Harter cited some concern that the introduction of new minors, whether departmental or interdisciplinary, will cause students to take on more courses on top of already busy schedules.

"There are some faculty who are a little concerned that our students are so ambitious that not only will they be double majors and triple majors, but they will be double and triple majors with double and triple minors," Harter said. "Certainly the desire is not for this to create new achievements, necessarily, for all our students. We are hoping that these are simply ways to bring into coherent focus a variety of courses that can provide for the students' new perspectives."

Celestine Shih, who is majoring in bioengineering, thinks a minor in energy and water sustainability would complement her coursework.

"Since engineering keeps most students busy, it's really hard for engineering majors to focus on other areas," Shih, a Wiess College junior said. "The [water and sustainability] minor would branch off of engineering without diverting too much of our energy."

Along those same lines, the minor would encourage more students to take certain classes, Baker College sophomore Nicole Kwan said.

"There are several courses offered like water purification and water sustainability by Engineers Without Borders alumni," Kwan said. "[The classes] would be more popular because you have course credit and it would be qualified for the minor."

Harter recalled the time when the study of women, gender and sexuality major used to be an interdisciplinary minor and noted SWGS ultimately progressed into a full major.

"[SWGS] has become a major because that has become so interesting as a field, and it remains richly interdisciplinary," Harter said. "All of these minors have the potential to become major fields at some point in the future."

Harter said she encourages students to talk to faculty members if they are interested in starting up new minors.

"I have some real confidence that Rice students will find a way, each of them, to use the structure of interdisciplinary minors to enrich and personalize their education at Rice," Harter said. "Students should know that when they see something, connections that they would really like to see put together, that they can talk to the faculty and get something going.

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