UW-Madison does not offer minors, but because it is more flexible for students and easier on faculty, this is not a major problem.
According to Jocelyn Milner, UW-Madison director of academic staff, considerable discussion surrounded the debate between minors and certificates in the 1980s, but the University Academic Planning Council officially decided to formalize requirements for undergraduate certificates instead of minors in 1997.
\[UAPC] have decided that certificates are better than minors because they are more flexible than minors from the point of view from the student,"" UW-Madison Provost Peter Spear said.
According to Spear, minors are only associated with a department or a degree program, and are restricted to students in a particular department or field.
""A minor doesn't have as much flexibility as a certificate because it is connected to a degree,"" Milner said. ""A certificate stands on its own. It's a free-floating mini degree rather than a mini major.""
It is easier from a student's perspective to take certificate programs in areas that might be in a different college than their major, she said.
""We have provided a way for faculty to package a course of study and have this added to the transcript,"" said Milner.
""Whereas not only can you have a certificate within a department or program, but you can also have interdisciplinary certificates that span across the boundaries of departments,"" said Gary Sandefur, UW-Madison dean of Letters and Sciences.
One example is the Global Cultures certificate, which is not connected to a major or department, so with a minor program, it would not be available, Sandefur said.
According to Global Cultures Director Michael Hinden, the program handed out the most certificates this spring.
""If you're interested in a particular concentration that's not your major, the certificate can point you to good courses that the faculty feel will give you a good background in that area,"" Hilden said.
With an increasing student interest in double majoring in Spanish, Sandefur said a certificate in Spanish has been discussed as a possibility.
""It's more structured in terms of what is included and results in courses which increase instructional demands on those departments,"" he said.
Even though a certificate program is less involved than a major, there is still a considerable amount of planning and faculty involved to set up the courses, and this is particularly a problem for foreign language departments, Spear said.
""Foreign language departments, particularly the most popular ones such as Spanish, are already overloaded with service teaching for language requirements as well as students who want to major in that department,"" he said.
