U. approves minors, joint degrees for fall

Madison, New Jersey In accordance with the Academic Agenda for Excellence emphasizing interdisciplinary study, the University approved several new inter-school minors, a joint degree program and several submatriculation programs over the past year. A minor in Asian American Studies, established last fall, was the first in the series of new programs. Courses in the minor include "Topics in Asian American History," "Writing about the Indian American Experience" and "Topics in Literature: Theorizing Identity in Asian American Literature." Several other programs were approved to begin this fall. Among these is an inter-school minor in Legal Studies and History, offered jointly between the School of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School. The minor, which aims to expose students to multiple points of view about law and public policy, consists of eight courses -- four from Wharton and four from SAS. These include Legal Studies 101 and a full-year course called "History of American Law." Legal Studies Chairperson Richard Shell stressed that the minor is not to be constructed as a "part-time program." It would better suit the interests of students who wish to pursue careers in government, journalism, business or international affairs, he said. Shell expects that many undergraduates heading for a career in law will find it useful to take one or two legal studies courses during their undergraduate studies, but the four-credit requirement for the minor is probably excessive as students will take similar courses in law school. Also beginning this fall is an inter-disciplinary program in Health Care Management, designed to combine the biological, pharmacological and nutritional knowledge of a Nursing education with the business skills of a Wharton education. Students in the new program will take Nursing's science and clinical components, the basic business component in Wharton and two classes designed for the joint degree. They may also have to take summer classes, in addition to a fifth-year of school, in order to complete the degree. SAS also announced it will allow its students to receive minors in Engineering beginning in the fall, enabling College of Arts and Sciences students to explore any facet of Engineering, from bioengineering to biotechnology to computer science. In addition to the minors, a joint degree program between Wharton and the Law School and two new submatriculation programs will be offered in the fall. The joint degree program will allow undergraduates to graduate from both Wharton and the Law School within six years. Participants in the program would receive a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Wharton, and then a Juris Doctor degree from the Law School. Wharton students will be able to apply to submatriculate into the Law School in the first term of their senior year, even if they have not yet received their undergraduate degree, according to Wharton Undergraduate Dean Richard Herring. Students who are accepted will devote their senior year to the Law School curriculum. Herring explained that this will enable undergraduates to adjust to the intense atmosphere of the first-year Law program. After their first year in the Law School, students will have two years to complete the necessary courses for both their undergraduate Wharton degree and their Law degree. Also new this fall are submatriculation programs in Biotechnology and Environmental Studies. The Biotechnology program will combine the resources of the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in "the first truly joint program between the two schools," according to Engineering Professor Daniel Hammer. The program will incorporate courses in biochemistry, computer science, genetics and statistics, which will be divided into three parallel tracks -- Basic Biotechnology, Engineering Biotechnology and Computational Biology/Bioinformatics. The Environmental Studies submatriculation program will include courses in Geology, Chemistry, History, Law and Political Science. Additionally, students will develop a professional concentration intended to facilitate their entrance into a company, think tank or governmental organization.

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