Theme 3: Meta-Majors

Phase 2 update

NOTE — This content was presented as a slide presentation at a chairs and directors workshop on October 11, 2024. It does not represent any approved actions or conclusions.

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Provost’s Fellow: Seth Campbell

Goals:

  • Reduce student silos and barriers to graduation
  • Increase problem and project-based experiential learning opportunities
  • Increase across-department collaborations and sharing of resources
  • Increase student retention, recruitment, and tuition income due to successful redesign
  • Develop “Meta-Person” in our students (the whole package)

Major Faculty Concerns:

  • Trickle Down impacts of any major reorganizations to faculty effort
  • Lack of financial/administrative resources or support major restructuring or course development
  • Lack of student input on specific theme 

Current Strategies and Efforts:

  • Obtain student input
  • Evaluate available data on current cross-department relationships and partnerships
  • Evaluate range of proposed meta-majors and continue compiling possible meta-majors
  • Assess synergies with other Themes (Learner Focused R1; Optimizing Online; Restructuring Academic Units, etc.) 
  • Current recommended meta-major effort is on UMaine Strengths: “Climate, Blue, and Green” (Climate, Ocean, and Forests)