Currently, academic units can only create a minor if a major is offered in the same field of study.

If passed, the proposal will allow academic units to offer a minor in fields where no major is offered and eliminate a requirement that the minor must have the same name as the major, said Linda Good, chairperson for the University Committee on Curriculum.

“Removing the limitation would allow departments to develop, propose and offer minors in a wider variety of fields of study than currently possible, both in fields of study where no major exists as well as in fields of study where the name of the major is quite broad,” Good wrote in an e-mail.

Minors first became available to MSU students in April 2006, but proposal language limited the number of minors a student could pursue.

After units started to propose minors, Good said, members of MSU’s Academic Governance system realized the language of the proposal restricted the number of minors.

Good said there are several fields of study that don’t offer a major, but students expressed an interest in pursuing a minor.

“It became clear that the language was too limiting,” Good said. “For example, (the Department of) History might like to offer a minor in southeast Asian history in addition to a history minor. If the proposal does not pass, the only minor possible would be the history minor because there is no major in southeast Asian history.”

Doug McKenna, associate registrar for certification process, said the possibilities for minors would become limitless if the proposal passes.

“The list of minors (on the Office of the Registrar’s Web site) is not a comprehensive list of minors,” McKenna said. “It’s really wide open with the adoption of this proposal.”

Despite the advantages of the proposal, political science and psychology senior Brandon Heffernan said the current system works well now.

“It could be useful, but we have the cognates right now and they work pretty good,” he said.