The Faculty Senate held their weekly meeting on Thursday, Mar. 27, in the ChemSci Building. Faculty Senate representatives spoke amicably to old colleagues as others filed in. This week, a plan to change the course drop deadline was introduced and two proposals were voted on.
The first subject of the meeting was to vote on a proposal from the Psychology Department to shelve the Social Psychology concentration. This concentration concerns social environments and specifically how other individuals influence us. Program enrollment for this concentration has lowered in recent semesters, with only one student currently enrolled in this program. The Faculty Senate voted to shelve the program.
The next proposal voted on during the meeting was to create a new policy for degree concentrations. The plan is to amend existing language to clarify requirements, including requiring a minimum of 15 credits for a concentration. The new policy will clarify that concentrations with the same name cannot have different requirements. Members of the Faculty Senate commented that having a concentration is a point of pride for some students. They also asked that current bylaws be extended for a year while establishing the new policy, and to allow for students to complete under current rules.
In next week’s meeting, the Faculty Senate plans to vote on two proposals introduced this week. The first is a revision of the Course Add/Drop policy. This would extend the deadline to drop a course from Week 10 to Week 12, allowing more time for professors to update their gradebooks, and to allow students more time to troubleshoot before deciding to drop a course. This change would update a university policy that hasn’t been updated in 14 years. Administrators aim to automate the drop policy to allow for all students, including first-semester students, to drop a course without their advisor’s approval before the census date (currently Wednesday of the second week). After the census date, all students will be required to obtain approval from their advisor before dropping a course. Students would also receive a W on their transcript for any course dropped after the census date, and before Week 12. According to the Faculty Senate proposal, “These recommendations aim to simplify the process and take advantage of efficiencies created through new technology while ensuring compliance for students and administrative processes.”
Additionally, multiple graduate certificate programs, including Computational Materials Science, Fundamentals of Materials Engineering, Vehicle Dynamics, and Safety and Security of Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems, are proposed to be shelved due to low or no enrollment. Finally, the Faculty Senate plans to vote on adding a Master of Science in STEM Public Policy and a new Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence next week.
The next Faculty Senate meeting will be held on Apr. 7 at 12:30 in ChemSci 102. To access the Faculty Senate’s meeting minutes, visit https://www.mtu.edu/senate/meetings/docs/2025-26/.
