The Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) submitted a proposal on Feb. 16 to the Educational Policy Committee (EPC) to create a University Certificate, which would be modeled after the University Major. A University Certificate would allow students to develop their own individual topics of study on an interdisciplinary area of their choice.

The EPC, a committee composed of six faculty members and two WSA representatives returned the proposal to the WSA with recommendations on March 4. The WSA is currently discussing the recommendations before it will be submitted to the EPC for a final vote.

According to WSA Academic Affairs Chair Arya Alizadeh ’13, the new program reflects students’ growing desire to pursue interdisciplinary that align specifically with their interests. The University currently offers 10 certificate programs that provide students with recognition for taking a specific interdisciplinary set of courses.

“We’re in a time for the University where there are a lot of certificates developing because there are so many academic areas students are interested in that not are covered by the majors,” Alizadeh said. “The [University] Certificate allows students to explore them.”

According to Alizadeh, WSA President Micah Feiring ’11 developed the idea for a University Certificate last spring. Alizadeh said that he supports the certificate because it would provide students the opportunity to explore diverse, specialized fields that they otherwise would otherwise not be possible at such a small university.

“Wesleyan is not big enough for our current certificates, such as International Relations, to be majors,” Alizadeh said. “We are not the correct size to have separate department and do not have large enough departments to have a subsection of a major. The University Certificate is great for students who want explore topics they otherwise couldn’t because of our size.”

Interested students would be required to submit a two- to three- page proposal with the certificate objective was well as letters of support from two faculty members and a list of the relevant courses. According to Alizadeh, the interdisciplinary nature of the University Certificate differentiates it from an academic minor, which the University does not offer.

“If someone has a proposal for the University Certificate with say six French credits, they will be denied,” Alizadeh said. “The certificate is intended for topics that are not large enough to be a University Major or to be housed in one department.”

In order for the University Certificate to be offered, the WSA’s proposal must be approved by the EPC and possibly pass a full faculty vote, according to Alizadeh. Because the last full faculty meeting of the semester will be held on May 3, Alizadeh said he is hopeful that the WSA will soon resubmit the proposal so that it can reach a final EPC vote and become available next year.

According to Associate Professor of Biology and Neuroscience and Behavior and EPC member Stephen Devoto, committee’s primary concern was that the requirements for the certificate may be too rigorous, particularly a capstone experience.

“We want to make sure that the University Certificate has the same level of requirements as the current certificates,” Devoto said. “A capstone experience would tie together the certificate, but not many current certificates require this, and we were concerned it would be too much of a requirement. On the other hand, because University Certificates are individually designed, we also do want to make sure they’re not random collection of courses.”

Devoto also acts as chair of the University Majors Committee (UMC), which would oversee University Certificate proposals if the program becomes available to students. Devoto also expressed concerns regarding the increased demands that certificate requests would place on faculty.

“The University Majors Committee usually fields two to three proposals per semester,” Devoto said. “If it ends up that something like 25 students propose University Certificates every semester, we will have to revisit the entire program because that’s an enormous amount of extra work.”

According to Alizadeh, the EPC also questioned when students would be able to declare their intent to pursue a University Certificate. Although many of the current certificates do not allow students to declare until their senior year, such a requirement for the University Certificate may prevent students from declaring because the certificate must be more premeditated than others, Alizadeh said.

Alizadeh said he hopes the proposal will be accepted before the end of this semester, and the University Certificate will become available in the fall and met with much enthusiasm.

“This program will finally address student interest in topics that do not currently exist in some interdisciplinary form or don’t have enough student support for an institutionalized certificate,” Alizadeh said. “I think it really captures the spirit of Wesleyan academics.”