Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1994 [PAGE 164]

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152

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[January 20

Establishment of the Master's Degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Urbana

(7) The Urbana-Champaign Senate has approved a proposal of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to establish a Master of Arts degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The proposed program is a three-semester interdisciplinary program serving both students seeking a terminal M.A. for preparation for a career in government, business, or socio-cultural studies, and students seeking an intermediate M.A. before pursuing a Ph.D. in a particular discipline. It will provide both types of students with a comprehensive exposure to the Latin American area as a focus of study and with knowledge of the variety of discipline strategies for study of the area. The degree requirements are language competence, coursework in interdisciplinary and disciplinary courses, coursework in the theory and methodology of a particular, relevant discipline, and a master's thesis or two major research papers. The M.A. will be administered by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, which conducts a campus-wide program on Latin America. The Latin American Studies program currently provides an undergraduate major and a minor at the graduate level; it facilitates faculty and student research through fellowship programs, and it supports a wide range of cultural and scholarly activities on Latin America. The proposed master's degree will not involve additional investment of college or campus funds. Since the courses to be offered under the master's program already exist in other disciplines, and the enrollment will deliberately be kept small (about 20-25 students at any given time), the program will have only a marginal effect on enrollment in disciplinary departments — an effect that can be handled without additional funding or staffing. No new budgetary or staff requirements are anticipated. The chancellor and the vice president for academic affairs concur with the senate recommendation. I recommend approval, subject to further action by the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

On motion of Dr. Gindorf, this recommendation was approved. Consolidation of the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Geography, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chicago

(8) The chancellor at Chicago, with the advice of the Chicago Senate and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, recommends that the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Geography be consolidated into a single department to be called the Department of Anthropology. The current missions of the two departments, as well as their degree programs, will be preserved under the new consolidated administrative structure. This recommendation is consistent with the Illinois Board of Higher Education's PQP recommendations. This proposal arises from recent efforts of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to restructure in ways that conserve scarce resources and build on existing academic strengths in new, more productive and intellectually challenging configurations. The disciplines of anthropology and geography have a long history of shared intellectual interests that is reflected in the organizational structure of other universities that include the two in the same department. The proposed consolidation will provide a comprehensive academic program in the study of human ecology and behavior in prehistoric, historic, and contemporary environments of cities and world regions. Geography's programs in human geography, environmental and urban studies, and geoarchaeology will complement the Department of Anthropology