UW-Madison women's studies majors and certificate-seekers will soon receive their degrees from the Department of Gender and Women's Studies, not from the Women's Studies Program.
Women's Studies presented a recommendation to gain department status at Monday's Faculty Senate meeting, which no senate member opposed.
It's basically done,"" Provost Patrick Farrell said, adding the department would most likely be functioning by fall semester.
Farrell said he did not think further approval from the UW System Board of Regents was necessary. However, he and Chancellor John Wiley will write a letter to inform the Regents of the administrative change.
Women's Studies Program Chair Julie D'Acci said the move would particularly benefit students who want a degree or a certificate in women's studies.
""I think it carries a different kind of weight in terms of the general public's understanding of what the degree is coming from,"" she said.
UW-Madison's Women's Studies Program was established in 1975, and has since gained a reputation both nationally and internationally.
""It is one of the best known and most prestigious women's studies programs or departments in the country already,"" D'Acci said.
According to D'Acci, UW-Madison joins a trend of large universities making women's studies programs fully developed departments, including Penn State University, Ohio State University, the University of Iowa and Indiana University.
Crystal Moten, a teaching assistant of a women's studies class, said there are pros and cons, but that department status could give women's studies more funds to bring in top researchers.
Department status would allow for a more streamlined and flexible faculty hiring process, which D'Acci said would benefit students by expanding the number of tenured faculty.
""The department status will allow us to grant tenure and to enter higher faculty into women's studies as a 'tenure home' without going through the University Committee,"" she said.
Eight tenured faculty hires have gone through the University Committee, the executive committee of the Faculty Senate, since the late 1990s. D'Acci said the committee has never denied one of the program's requests, but becoming a department would remove extra steps.
Most of the program's current faculty members have joint appointments with departments such as English, history or political science - the one thing D'Acci said she did not want to change.
""We feel that gender studies is an interdisciplinary field,"" D'Acci said, adding it encompasses issues including race, class and sexuality. ""It involves things that interdisciplinary status of a program like women's studies really allowed to flourish - we want to keep that flourishing.""
The current program offers 20-24 courses per year to nearly 2,500 students, according to the Faculty Senate recommendation.
