BOV makes a major addition

The possibility of adding an environmental management major and the premiere of an Honor Code computer tutorial were among issues discussed at Board of Visitors’ Education and Student Life committee meeting Friday.

"The environmental management major would be a Bachelor of Science program created by converting one of the sectors of the ISAT program," Steven Frysinger, a professor in the Integrated Science and Technology department, said. The major would focus on human interaction with the environment and applying environmental science to result in a positive change.

The curriculum of this major would be taken from existing ISAT courses. No new faculty would need to be hired in order to make the major available.

Frysinger said the content of these courses would look at issues of natural resources and industry in terms of the environment, and that the new major would be described as an interdisciplinary major, for it will not be in a particular department.

"JMU is becoming known as an environmentally friendly university," Frysinger said. He said that with the start of the environmental management major, JMU would be the first in the state to have a program of this kind.

"This would benefit JMU by broadening environmental offerings and establishing our identity as an environmental university," Frysinger said.

Frysinger feels confident in the potential of this new major because it is a demand-driven program.

Honor Council Coordinator Maggie Burkhart Evans and Honor Council President Andy Gorian introduced a new Honor Code computer tutorial and explained the formal and informal hearing procedures currently used by the council.

An informal report is a violation filed with the Honor Council in which a faculty member and a student work out an agreement to resolve a violation without Honor Council sentencing. Evans said, "More faculty are choosing to use the informal method." Students are allowed one informal violation report.

The computer tutorial will be tested on the freshmen at the beginning of the next school year, as they will be required to complete the tutorial.

Evans said the purpose of the tutorial would be to help students better understand the Honor Code system.