I bring good news from the bastions of academic policy that are the University Faculty Senate (UFS), the Administrative Council on Undergraduate Education (ACUE) and the University Registrar. Undergraduate students can now declare their minors on eLion, as they have been able to do with their majors. This is a very beneficial development for students as well as the faculty and administrators involved in the minor process.
Before I get too far into the news, I wanted to give you some back-story on the new ability. This development was the result of a University Faculty Senate policy passed during the last academic year. Senate Policy 59-00 (Requirements for the Minor) was amended to add, “Requirements for a minor may be completed at any campus location offering the specified courses for the minor.” This change was the result of a Senate push to make minor availability more equal across the many colleges and campuses of Penn State. Once the University Faculty Senate passed this policy amendment, its implementation was left to be decided upon by the Administrative Council on Undergraduate Education. During the last academic year, ACUE passed “L-6: Minors Entrance and Certification Procedure.” The actual L-6 is more involved than what I imagine any student (myself included) would actually be interested in, so I will try to highlight the most important parts.
The implementation allows students to declare their minors on eLion. Other stipulations included things like substitution protocols, which initially allowed academic units to make substitutions to minors housed in different colleges, but that course of action is being revised to return substitution control to the awarding college. You can imagine the potential confusion involved in the College of Engineering granting a substitution for the College of the Liberal Arts’ “Dispute Management and Resolution” minor. Another point involved in the implementation was to emphasize that minors cannot be declared before the declaration of a major and that declaring a minor does not guarantee a student’s ability to take the necessary courses for that minor.
Those minor (excuse the pun) things aside, the ability for students to declare minors on eLion is a huge advantage for students at both University Park and at the Commonwealth Campuses. If you have not already tried it, log on to eLion and scroll down the alphabet to “Minor Declaration” where you can look through a list of all the minors offered across the entirety of Penn State. While this new feature will make it much easier to declare a minor, students should still meet with their adviser to make sure they understand and meet the academic requirements for the minor. Check it out and enjoy this new, easier method of getting the most out of your Penn State education.