Do it yourself: Students talk designing area majors

Any prospective student flipping through Rice’s major offerings would miss Computer Science and the Arts — probably because it’s not listed. This specific program is an area major, a type of unique student-designed major made by students looking to forge their own curriculum. Bria Weisz said she created the Computer Science and the Arts major upon finding out that the curricula lacked adequate flexibility for her intended double majors, computer science and visual and dramatic arts.

“I wanted the flexibility to take different classes and branch out,” Weisz, a Brown College senior, said. “I decided I wanted to make [Rice] work for me.”

One of the main benefits of an area major, Weisz said, is the flexibility it affords students. In her case, it allowed her to combine two very disparate majors into one more streamlined program, focusing on the aspects which interest her most.

Alison Maniace, an area major studying Bioethics and Biotechnology, echoed this sentiment, saying that her area major allowed her academic career to make space for her developing interests.

“What I appreciate about my area major most is that it accommodated [the way that] my interests solidified in the later portion of my time at Rice and let me adapt my education to that,” Maniace, a Martel College senior, said.

In order to pursue an area major, minor or certificate, Weisz said a student must gather tenured faculty advisors and then make a proposal to the Committee on the Undergraduate Curriculum.

Jeffrey Fleisher, the chair of the CUC, said he typically meets with four or five prospective area majors a year, although generally only one or two students actually complete the area major proposal process.

“What I tend to do with students who are thinking about an area major is ask them a lot of questions,” Fleisher said. “What are the things that interest them at Rice and why don’t those majors work?”

This article has been cut for print. Read the full story at ricethresher.org.

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