The ISU Faculty Senate will meet at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union for its final meeting of 2015.

For the coming meeting, the main items that will be discussed are the dissolution of the botany major for graduate students, the creation of a Geographical Information Systems minor and a memorial resolution honoring ISU professors who have passed away.

In addition to the resolutions before the senate, Aaron Delashmutt, associate director for the Department of Public Safety, will speak about safety issues on Iowa State’s campus.

The senate will also approve the student graduation list for the fall semester of 2015.

In 2003, the botany department merged with the zoology and genetics departments, all three of which were reshuffled under the department of ecology, evolution and organismal biology and the department of genetics, development and cell biology.

Since that reorganization, there have been no new majors accepted to the graduate student botany program. Instead, those students are currently enrolled in programs with a much narrower focus such as ecology and evolutionary biology, genetics or plant biology.

This dissolution of the major will affect no one, since there are no more botany graduate students. All that will happen is that the major will be taken off the course catalog to better reflect the reality.

The Faculty Senate also plans on adding a geographical information systems minor, which will be housed within the College of Design.

According to the proposal, the minor will teach students “Theory, processes, techniques and tools that use spatial data and computational technology to create cutting-edge analysis and mapping approaches for urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, design and community development.”

There is currently a graduate level certification for geographical information systems at Iowa State, but there are significant hurdles in place that prevent most undergraduates from being able to take advantage of the courses offered.

The new minor will no longer require undergraduates to stay an extra semester after they would normally graduate in order to receive their geographical information systems certifications, and will instead offer them a path to graduate on time with the knowledge required to obtain their certifications to work in the professional field. 

The minor, as outlined in the proposal, will require 15 credit hours and will include the course currently known as CRP 451, which is an introduction to geographical information systems, split into two courses offered as CRP 251X and CRP 351X.