Eastern Michigan University’s social studies for non-teaching major is being phased out.
EMU’s Board of Regents voted to eliminate the major at last week’s meeting. The program will not
be admitting new students as of 2014’s winter semester.
EMU currently has three different programs that contain the words social studies in their title: elementary education social studies, secondary education social studies, and a third, which is unofficially referred to as the social studies for non-teaching major.
Those first two programs, both of which are completely separate from the third one listed and have significantly more students enrolled in them, are not affected by this decision.
Around 20 students are currently enrolled in the social studies for non-teaching major program. They will be given seven years to complete the current curriculum and get their degree.
“This change to the non-teaching program should have no impact on student completion,” history professor Richard Nation said. “Most of the 20 or so current majors are well along in their degree programs because they have exited from the secondary program at a pretty late point in that program, and the seven years to complete the degree will be more than enough time.”
The non-teaching social studies program will not be completely eliminated. As part of a separate plan, the department is planning to make a new social studies minor, which requires students to major in history, political science, economics or geography.
“We believe, however, that this shift will pay off in several ways,” Nation said. “First, it will allow students who choose to drop out of our comprehensive secondary ed teaching programs to complete their degrees a little more quickly, by up to three classes—and this number does not include any professional classes in the College of Education they had yet to complete.”
He said they believe the new requirement to major in history, political science, economics or geography will make students more employable than a major with a name that evokes the 5th grade.
“For those who combine history and social studies, a group who has accounted for 85-90 percent of all our majors in the past, there will be no additional coursework,” Nation said. “For the other combinations, they may have to take two to three additional classes beyond the requirements of their comprehensive teaching majors, turning what were the equivalent of minors into majors—but they still have the potential to save some coursework overall, depending how far along they are when they switch to the non-teaching program.”
Nation was also asked if this restructuring would affect the faculty teaching the current program.
“Little or no effect will be felt,” he said. “Their social studies non-teaching major is a fraction of the size of teaching majors, and it is only being reduced in size by a third by becoming a minor. Top of my head calculations suggest one fewer student per required class—not section, but across all sections in a term—in the major would be the maximum effect.”
