An officially designated minor program at Wright State University is a structured and coherent secondary concentration of study. It Is Intended to allow undergraduates the option of presenting a second field of specialization in addition to a major as part of their permanent record at the University.

Minor programs are designed by academic departments or program units. Any department or unit offering a major may offer a minor. No department or unit is required to offer a minor. A department or unit may establish one or more minors; a minor program will bear the unit name or the name of a recognized field within the discipline. A formal proposal, presenting the course requirements and providing a rationale for the structure of the program, must be reviewed and approved by the appropriate college curriculum committee, the University Curriculum Committee, and the Academic Council. Upon approval, each minor program will be assigned a number by the registrar, and students who have completed the requirements for a minor will have that noted on their transcripts. Students may not major and minor in the same designated field.

The minor program is administered by the designing department or unit, which is responsible for formal admission, tracking, and final degree certification.

Minors will not be recognized or posed on the permanent record until the degree is conferred. The Degree Certification Form should be used to notify the Registrar's Office to post the minor and confer the degree.
 

Guidelines for Preparing a Minor Proposal

Because objectives and requirements for a minor can vary greatly, the regulations governing minors need to be flexible. But to ensure reasonable consistency from program to program, those preparing and approving proposals for a new or revised minor program should observe the following guidelines.

1 Format. A proposal should consist of 1) the proposed catalog description and 2) supporting documentation addressing the issues raised below.

2. Objectives. A minor consists of a structured and coherent set of courses. Proposals should include a statement of the objectives that this set of courses meets.

3. Credit Hours Required. A minor should include neither too few nor too many hours. Proposals with fewer than twenty hours will be considered frivolous. Minors should require considerable fewer hours than a major program in the same area. Proposals should justify hours requirements in terms of program objectives. If a major is offered in the same area as the proposed minor, proposals should note the hours required for both the major and the minor.

4. Program Quality. Proposals should justify the level of difficulty of required courses in terms of program objectives and explain the balance between lower-and-upper-division courses. A minor consisting entirely of introductory courses is unlikely to be approved. On the other hand, in some disciplines a minor consisting entirely of 300- or 400-level courses would be unreasonable. Proposals should also indicate the type of grading system used in required courses. Generally, with the exception of practical courses should be graded, not P/U.

5. Student Performance. Proposals should indicate any requirements for maintaining the quality of student performance, for example, GPAs required for acceptance into the program and for having minors recorded on the transcripts.

6. Coordination. Before they are sent forward for approval, minor proposals should be coordinated with those departments that may be affected by the proposed program because of similar courses or course content or because of shared student clientele.

7. Prerequisites. Proposals should describe the prerequisite requirements of the program and clearly point out any required courses that carry prerequisites that would in effect create an expanded hours requirement for the minor program.

8. Resource Review. Before program proposals are sent forward to the University Curriculum Committee, a systematic review of program resource requirements and costs should be conducted by the appropriate College or School. This review should address program needs as they pertain to faculty, staff, overhead, space requirements, equipment, impact on computer resources, and library resources. In addressing the need for and impact on computer resources, the Vice President for Information Resource Management should be consulted. In addressing the question of the adequacy of library resources, the University Librarian should be consulted. The results of this review, along with a discussion of the impact of the proposed program on existing programs, should be included in the program proposal.

Approved by Academic Council 5/6/85
Revised by Academic Council 3/7/88