OSU is one faculty recommendation away from creating a Middle East studies minor an SGA senator designed.
Tom Wikle, associate dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, said faculty members have to approve a list of courses for proposed minors then submit the request to the appropriate college.
The Middle East studies minor would be given under the College of Arts & Sciences’ authority.
“We’re very interested in what students want, but a faculty group or member has to submit the minor so they can approve the courses,” Wikle said.
Emma Deputy, an SGA senator and an international relations and political science graduate student, wrote a bill SGA passed Wednesday recommending the minor. Deputy said she has worked on the proposal and requirements for the minor since November with Michael Bracy, an assistant professor of history.
“If you take a lot of courses about Middle East relations and still don’t understand Arabic, Farsi or Turkish, you’re really lacking,” Deputy said. “The important thing is to have students understand the language, so the 10 to 13 hours of an Arabic language is one of the better features of the minor.”
Deputy’s bill came from the Academic Affairs committee.
Academic Affairs chairwoman Christy Milliken, an economics and English junior, said she thinks the minor should be accepted.
""It really opened our eyes to the fact that OSU is deficient in Muslim courses,” Milliken said. “I co-sponsored it to show support.It was the first bill to pass our committee. I think it’d be a great thing if it happened.”
Deputy said the minor’s requirements, 10 to 13 hours in an Arabic language and 20 hours in related courses along with a senior year “capstone” course, fit the classes she and other students interested in the Middle East have taken.
“There’s 20 or 30 students that would qualify to get the minor right now, except for the capstone course,” Deputy said. “It would motivate students who take courses to understand Middle East culture to take courses to understand the language.”
Assistant professor of history Michael Bracy said he would submit Deputy’s minor proposal at the end of the spring semester.
“We have to go through the College of Arts and Sciences so it becomes an officially recognized minor,” Bracy said. “We’ve talked to people in the religious studies department and foreign languages, because it’s critical to have people who can teach the language on a regular basis.”
Deputy said the minor should be approved easily.
“There’s a lot of administration support and student support for recognizing their work,” Deputy said. “It seems right to recognize students who took coursework in Arabic and classes to understand the region the same as students who studied Russia. I have an unofficial Middle East emphasis, but you wouldn’t know unless you looked at my whole transcript.”
