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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

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Paper

S-8

Senate

Office of the Dean of Arts

From

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Subject

.................. MV

Date

.............. ........ ..... ...7.......

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The following proposal, endorsed by the Faculty of Arts,

Is brought before Senate for information.

I. It is proposed that students who are uncertain, at the time of their entry

into University,

hout

the field in which they wish to major, be treated as

"undeclared majors" within the Faculty of Arts. This assumes that nearly

all such students will have chosen Arts as their general area of interest

•efore" entry;

to the extent that the other two Faculties have similar

students, it would be desirable to extend the following proposal to cover

such cases as well, with appropriate modifications.

• 2.

Details of the advisement of such students are included in a separate

memorandum, "Proposal on Changes in Administration of 'Group Requirements'",

dated February 21, 1967; in general, the principle stated there is to assure

maximum opportunity to the student

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to sample all of the disciplines available

to him within this Faculty, and thus toThave maximum choices open to him.

• 3.

There is no added burden of advisement over and above the obligation which

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now

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exists, since such students are now required to select a major and are

• advised by their putative major department.

It is proposed here that

"undeclared majors" be advised through the Office of the Dean of Arts, by

advisers designated by the various departments In the Faculty during the peak

advisement periods. At other times, advisement would also be arranged through

• that office. In general, the advisement process should be distributed as equally

as possible among the various departments in the Faculty.

•

•

4. In the interests of assuring the students freedom of choice during the period

•

• • in which they are "undeclared majors", advisers should be instructed to avoid

• undue partiality toward their own or any other department in course-selection

in which they give students assistance. The interests and desires of the

students themselves are the major criteria in the ultimate choice of a major,

•

which should be made not later than the end of the student's fourth semester,

but preferably before then. (This also applies, with appropriate modification,

to transfer s'tudents.) Freedom of choice for the student also implies choices

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lying outside the Faculty of Arts, although there are some constraints here

• due to the requirements of the Faculty of Science in particular.

• 3..