Policy: Sub-Major

ACADEMIC POLICY
Date Revised: February 28, 2023
Date Effective: February 28, 2023
Responsible University Official(s): Provost
Policy Owner: Faculty Senate
Policy Contact: Faculty Senate

POLICY STATEMENT

  • A minor course of study should be a minimum of 18 credits, including at least nine upper-division credits and nine credits taken at UW-Platteville.
  • A transcripted certificate should be 12-15 credits and is only transcripted upon completion of a degree program.
  • We appear to use the term track, concentration and emphasis interchangeably.  All of these, as areas of emphasis within a major course of study, should be emphases.  They must be within a major course of study.  The core of a major course of study are a set of courses that create a shared foundation shared by all students in the major.
  • These definitions should not apply retroactively, but all future changes to sub-majors should conform to the definitions.

CONTACTS

Those designated to receive questions and feedback on the policy

Subject Contact Email
Primary Contact Dr. Laura Reynolds, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs provost@uwplatt.edu
Contact Dr. Holly Attenborough, Associate Provost attenborough@uwplatt.edu
Contact Sara Whitaker, Executive Assistant whitakers@uwplatt.edu

HISTORY

  • This policy was originally created in 2016 in response to the minimum credit hour for minors decreasing from 24 to 18/.
  • In 2022, it was observed that there were inconsistencies of policy compliance caused by both a lack of visibility of this policy and the unique credit hours requirement in the definition of a minor (which in 2016 was, "A minor course of study should be a minimum of 18 credits, including at least nine upper-division credits, nine credits unique to the minor, and nine of which are taken at UW-Platteville")
    • An ad-hoc committee to review this policy was formed by Faculty Senate and convened by the Assistant Provost; it consisted of two members of Faculty Senate, two member of Academic Planning Council, and two members of University Undergraduate Curriculum Commission. 
      • The ad-hoc committee met with the Registrar and then put forth the recommendation to strike the nine unique credit requirements from the definition of the minor and departments with majors that want to restrict certain minors can have this added to their major requirements through the program change governance approval process.
        • This requirement is about pairings and is not specific to designing a minor course of study which makes it difficult to review minors for compliance, which becomes more difficult as majors and minors become more interdisciplinary.
      • The ad-hoc committee also recommends the fourth point of the sub-major policy be applied uniformly moving forward so that minors that go through any revisions must conform with the minor definition and cannot be infinitely grandfathered in.
  • On 2/28/2023, Faculty Senate again reviewed the policy.  Faculty Senate voted to add "Undergraduate Programs" to scope, as this policy does not apply to graduate programs, and to strike "outside the major field of study" as a requirement for the certificated credit hours to parallel the update to the minor definition as recommended by the 2022 ad-hoc committee.
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