Students are one step closer to adding academic minors to their transcripts now that the concept has been approved by the Academic Governance system.

Individual colleges and departments have been given the OK to consider whether they will offer academic minors to students, following the approval of a proposal about the topic at Tuesday's Academic Council meeting.

Academic minors are defined as a secondary field of study for undergraduates and are made up of courses that provide a student with understanding of the field's major concepts.

"It's a long, overdue change that the students have been asking for quite awhile," said Eric Hinojosa, ASMSU's Academic Assembly chairperson.

Sarah Kunst, a retailing and interdisciplinary studies in social science sophomore, said she would add a minor to her transcript.

"As a retailing major, I have a business cognate, but I think that having a minor shows your work more," Kunst said. "It gives you the ability to tailor or customize your degree more."

Minors would not replace existing specializations, said Ralph Putnam, chairperson for the University Committee on Academic Policy.

Specializations are a set of interdisciplinary courses separate from a student's major, while an academic minor would complement the major, Putnam said.

It's up to each department to determine whether academic minors will be offered, said Michael Schechter, chairperson for the University Committee on Curriculum.

The departments can establish minors through guidelines, which state that academic minors require at least one-third but no more than two-thirds of the number of credits necessary for attaining a major in that field.

"I suspect a lot (of departments) will offer them, and some won't," he said. "If a unit wanted to approve them by fall, they could be in place by the spring. But I don't expect a lot of them before spring."

Lucie Gillot, a business sophomore, said minors will give students more options.

"We never know what we want to do," Gillot said. "So having a minor can help you find what you want.

"It will certainly open your mind."

The council also approved the curriculum for the new residential college in the arts and humanities.

In a report from the university curriculum committee, a bachelor's degree program and 15 new courses were added to the college, which opens in the renovated Snyder and Phillips halls in fall 2007.

The courses and major in the new residential college focus on world history, foreign languages, ethics, civic engagement and the visual and performing arts, Schechter said.

Staff writer Laura Misjak contributed to this report.