Several motions were passed at the Monday faculty meeting including the addition of an actuarial science major, approval for two economics courses and revisions to the communication department's senior capstone experience.
The Committee on Academic Policy and Planning (CAPP) presented the motion for the new actuarial science major, which will be offered by the mathematics department.
"We've been producing actuaries for longer than I've been here," Mark Kannowski, chair of the mathematics department said. "We have the staffing, we have the courses, we think we have the opportunity."
The actuarial science major will be made up of a selection of courses already offered at DePauw. The purpose of the major is to clarify a student's area of study if he or she is planning to pursue a career in actuarial sciences.
"Transcripts now say major in math or economics," CAPP representative Fred Soster said. "[With the change] student transcripts will more accurately reflect that their major is in actuarial sciences."
Kannowski said he was unsure of whether current seniors could take advantage of the new major if they had completed the required classes. However, in the case that it was allowed, he said that students will not be allowed to major and/or minor in both math and actuarial sciences due to "significant overlap" in course requirements.
"They'd have to give up one of those majors," Kannowski said. "[Otherwise] that's resume padding."
According to Kannowski, other similar schools that offer an actuarial science major are Butler University, Drake University and St. Thomas University.
The faculty voted to approve two new economics courses, Econ 415: Labor Economics and Econ 465: Health Economics, which will be offered by the economics department next year.
"They have been taught previously as topics courses," computer science professor Brian Howard said. "Now they will get proper course titles."
The faculty passed another academic motion that will affect students within the communications department.
The department will require students to take a "pre-seminar" course before they are placed in a senior seminar. And while enrolled in a senior seminar, students will be required to earn a final grade of C- or better in order to pass.
According to the faculty meeting agenda, these changes come from a departmental desire to "raise the bar for performance in the capstone experience."