In its continuing effort to institute undergraduate minors to MSU's degree program, ASMSU decided to lobby the administration for a more rigorous credit workload with minors.
MSU's undergraduate student government's Academic Assembly decided to push for minors that would require 15 or more credits of work in a subject area.
The assembly was divided on whether to institute a system similar to the University of Michigan's 15-18 credit load, or follow MSU's teaching program and its more than 20-credit minors.
Academic Assembly Chairperson Dan Weber prefaced the assembly's debate on minors, saying that ASMSU doesn't have the wherewithal to institute new minors, but could encourage them.
"If we go 15 credits, we'd encourage new minors, like in Spanish and Japanese," Weber said. "A 20-credit (minor) requires a policy change."
The College of Education is currently the only MSU college to require a minor, which total from 20 to 26 credits. Other colleges offer specializations and cognates, which typically involve fewer credits than a minor. A cognate in the department of advertising, for example, requires at least 12 credits.
Representatives on Academic Assembly wanted to create minors with more course work than specializations or cognates, but decided to give each college the end decision.
Karen Guzdzial, a representative for the College of Business, said MSU might look more credible to employers and other universities if ASMSU lobbied for a minor with more credits.
"People look at you with more credibility knowing that you came from a university where minors aren't just easy to get," she said.
And many in the assembly agreed with Guzdzial and her statements that minors are more credible with increased course work.
"We have to keep in mind what we're here for - changing a specialization to minor doesn't serve the students," said Noah Bradow, a representative for the College of Social Science. "I'd lean towards 20 credits because students would get the most out of (minors)."
But ultimately, representatives decided students control what they get from minors.
"All of us just want minors to count as us learning something," said Anne Bresler, a representative for the College of Arts & Letters.
ASMSU's decisions will go through the Academic Governance system before the MSU Board of Trustees makes a final decision.
