Student/Faculty Designed Majors

The Student-Faculty Designed Major allows students to consult with faculty and design individualized majors to meet educational goals that are not served by existing majors at Western. Programs may have either an academic or pre-professional focus. Students who wish to explore the option of a Student-Faculty Designed Major in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences should first review the SFDM Policies and Procedures.

After reviewing the SFDM Policies and Procedures document, interested students should contact the Department of Global Humanities and Religions (email GHR@wwu.edu or visit BH 152) to schedule a meeting with the Chair of the department, Dr. Kimberly Lynn.

The meeting with Dr. Lynn is for initial advising, and students should come to the meeting having completed a few sections of the SFDM Contract (as described in the Policies and Procedures) and a 1-2 page draft rationale and explanation of the proposed major.

Please note that the SFDM Contract is a pdf form that can be completed and saved using Adobe Reader X.

Among the important policies are the following:

• The major must include at least 70 credit hours and no more than 110 credit hours, with a substantial portion of the credits coming from upper-division coursework.
• It must include at least 45 credit hours from within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
• No more than 50% of the coursework should be completed at the time of contract submission.
• The SFDM Contract must be first approved by an Advisory Committee of 3-4 faculty, who must meet together with the student as a committee to review and discuss the proposed Plan of Study.
• If two or more courses in the student's Plan of Study will be taken from a single department, the SFDM Contract must be approved by the Chair of that department.
• All SFDM Contracts must be reviewed and approved by the Curriculum Council of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Completed contracts that have been approved by the student's Advisory Committee must be submitted to the Global Humanities and Religions department at least 10 days prior to the next meeting of the Curriculum Council. The student and her/his Advisory Committee Chair will be invited to attend the meeting in which the student's SFDM Contract will be reviewed.