The University Record, January 16, 1996
LS&A faculty to vote on change in admission requirements
By Rebecca A. Doyle
LS&A faculty will vote next month on revisions to the faculty code that would require first-year students entering the U-M in the academic year 2000-2001 to have completed a minimum of four years of English, two years of a single foreign language, three years of mathematics, two years of science and three years of history. Faculty debate and vote is scheduled for the Feb. 5 meeting.
“This would bring us into line with the definitions and recommendations of the Presidents Council of the State Universities of Michigan,” noted Lincoln B. Faller, associate dean for undergraduate education and long-range planning, at the Jan. 8 meeting of the faculty. Revisions to the admission requirements have the strong support of both the executive and curriculum committees of the college, he added.
Strong recommendations are made for additional high school coursework (20 units, each being a full-year course or two half-year courses). Strongly recommended coursework would include: four years’ foreign language instruction; four years of instruction in mathematics that include algebra, trigonometry and geometry; three years of science study with one year each of biology, physics and chemistry, to include at least one laboratory course; of the three required units in history one should be American history and one world history; one year of hands-on computer study; and one year of study in the fine and performing arts.
First-year students presently are required to have successfully completed 15 units of study (each unit is a one-year course) for admission, but 20 units are strongly recommended. Of the 15, 10 are specific requirements under the current wording. The proposal would prescribe 14 of the 15 units as required courses.
In other business, the faculty accepted reports from the LS&A Executive Committee and Senate Assembly. Dean Edie N. Goldenberg also alerted faculty that the weather situation on the East Coast was making travel impossible and urged that faculty members be flexible and “not let students lose their positions on wait lists because of this.” Many students were unable to return to campus by Wednesday, when winter term classes began.
