The semesterly “Dub Senate” was held at 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 8 in the G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel, in which Union President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver made several announcements concerning both the 2024-25 academic catalogue and updates on the McAfee School of Business’s construction site progress.
Oliver opened his announcements with a few words on Lamentations 3:22-23, emphasizing the need for hope in the Lord during hard times. He then went on to acknowledge the leadership of SGA and thank them for their participation and roles in creating events.
Oliver’s first announcement was on the progress of the McAfee School of Business building. He informed the students in attendance that construction on the actual building was taking place after several delays, starting with the digging of the elevator pit and the beginning of the foundation’s footings.
The building is currently set to be finished and handed over to Union by Jan. 24 of 2025, and the building will be opened for use in the spring of 2025. A webcam has been set up on the construction ground, and the live footage will be available for those who want to observe the progress.
The next announcement detailed several new changes to Union’s academic catalogue. Starting with the 2024-25 catalogue, Union will be moving from 128 credit hours to 120 credit hours required for a degree. This 120 credit-hour program has been the standard of Union’s regional accreditor: CAC; however, Union until now has remained with 128 hours.
“For us it’s partly about efficiency,” Oliver said, “and with costs being a particular concern for our prospective students and our current students, one of the things we want to make sure we do is be as efficient as possible, so it doesn’t cost you more than it has to.”
Some other points Oliver made about the benefits of switching to this program are that it alleviates the difficulties of students having to take 16 hours every semester, as well as the risk of having to pay extra money to take more hours in hopes of finishing their majors.
“We are currently at a competitive disadvantage because it takes longer to get a degree at Union,” Oliver said, “so, we think we can get more students at Union by being more efficient.”
Four of the eight hours being cut will come from the core classes, with the one credit hour PEWs activity being cut, the Bachelor of Science undergraduates only having to take one literature class instead of two and Bachelor of Art undergraduates only needing to take one lab science instead of two.
The other four hours being cut will come from majors or major electives, to be decided by each department. Those departments do have the ability to ask permission from the Provost to exceed the 120-hour standard. These changes will go into effect with the 2024-25 catalogue.
Oliver concluded with his final announcement that Union will no longer be requiring minors, and instead will be conforming with the standard of optional minors for all departments. All minors will still be offered; however, students will be free to choose not to have one or be able to pick exactly what they wish to learn. This will especially impact transfer students, allowing them to graduate in their fourth year instead of having to take an extra year to complete a minor when they transfer to Union.
Finally, the university will be changing from the general and specific core class system to a prerequisite and corequisite system, which will eliminate confusion and streamline the progression of classes.
“Hopefully this will simplify your degree planning,” Oliver said. “It will also simplify changing of majors with how it works.”
Abby Aspinwall, executive vice president of SGA, voiced a desire for more clarification on some of these changes, saying she felt some of the details of the policies were unclear, partially because the initial information traveled by word of mouth. Despite these concerns, she said she felt that good decisions are being made.
“I think this is a positive change for Union – I think it’s great,” Aspinwall said. “As a senior, I think it’s a sign that Union is moving in a good direction, I just wish they’d done this earlier so I could benefit!”
After a brief Q&A session, the Senate ended with a period of legislation. Of the four bills presented, all four passed with no amendments. These consisted of monetary requests from Life139, the Psychology club and SMACS as well as a resolution proposed by Freshman Council’s Rebecca Basie and Amanee Razeq to suggest that the university provide feminine products in restrooms on campus.
