The University Senate
of Michigan Technological University
Proposal 17-14
(Voting
Units: Academic)
“Reinstate Ecology Concentration for the B.S.
in Biological Sciences”
Fall 2014
Rationale:
We are proposing
the reinstatement of the Ecology concentration within the Biological Sciences
degree program. The concentration was originally shelved because many of the
courses were not being offered due to attrition of ecology-related faculty.
Based on administrative initiatives to eliminate programs with low enrollment,
we reduced the number of concentrations within the department from eight to
three. With the addition of ecology faculty in the past three years, new
courses are now being offered that round out the course listing and once again
make it a viable program. With the development of the Great Lakes Research
Center, it also is appropriate to have a degree program that provides an option
for students that are interested in aquatic biology and ecology. A majority of
the students that are currently in the Biological Sciences with General Biology
concentration are self-identifying as pursuing careers in ecology or aquatic
biology. The newly revised Ecology concentration will provide more pertinent
course work for these students than the current General Biology concentration
as well as help with marketing the biological science program to new students.
We are also in the process of developing an accelerated master’s degree program
that would build on the Ecology concentration. In
addition, we will discuss with faculty in the School of Forest Resources and
Environmental Science ways to offer inter-unit programs in ecology in the near
future.
Curriculum Changes Since
Being Shelved:
Changes have been made to the Degree Audit; See
attached file. Two courses are new
BL4442 (4 credits) and BL4447 (4 credits).
These have already been submitted to the binder process.
The distribution of credits has changed
slightly, but the total credits remains at 128.
Planned Implementation Date:
Fall 2014
Approved by Senate: 05 March 2014
Approved by Administration: 16 March 2014