Proposal for Changes in the Geography Curriculum: 

Deleting Emphases in the Standard Major “Geography, Liberal Arts”

REPORT FOR THE UNIVERSITY SENATE

University Senate Academic Policies Committee

Brief History of the Issue

The Geography Department recently worked to reformulate the sequence and selection of required and advanced courses to restructure the curriculum and clarify the areas of study available to students.  As a result, only one standard major is needed.  Breadth of choice is retained by clustering the geography courses into five approaches within the liberal Arts major, including Physical, Human, Human-environmental, Regional and Techniques. 

Points Discussed by Committee:

Implications for communicating the nature of emphases to other institutions

Implications for GE status of courses

Pros:

Simpler descriptions of approaches within the discipline

Simpler advising and catalog maintenance

Clarifies the hierarchical relationship between the approaches and the overall intent of the major

 Cons:

None

MOTION FOR THE UNIVERSITY SENATE

The University Academic Policies Committee by a vote of 7 votes for and 0 votes against, recommends to the University Senate that the Physical Geography, Human Geography, Geographic Techniques and Liberal Arts Emphases be deleted, resulting in a single Geography Major, Liberal Arts.

Implementation Date: On approval

Dr. Robert E. Hollon, chair, on behalf of the

University Senate Academic Policies Committee