IMP Committee:

Professors:
Miriam Langsam (History/Associate Dean, ex officio)
James Brown (Journalism)
Barbara Jackson (Anthropology/UC)
N. Douglas Lees (School of Science, Biology)
Monroe Little (History/Afro-American Studies)
William Schneider (History/Medical Humanities)
Rowland Sherrill (Religious Studies/American Studies)
James Wallihan (Political Science/Labor Studies)

Associate Professors:
Dennis Bingham (English/Film Studies)
Stephanie Dickey (Herron, Art History)
Greg Lindsey (SPEA)
Obioma Nnaemeka (Foreign Languages and Cultures, French/Women’s Studies)
Susan Shepherd (English/Linguistics)
Assistant Professor:
Elizabeth Kryder-Reid (Anthropology/Museum Studies)

Faculty: All members of the IUPUI faculty are eligible to teach courses included in an Individualized Major.

Individualized Major Program

Unlike other majors, which proscribe a fixed area of study, the Individualized Major provides a structure which allows such students, in consultation with faculty members, to design their own majors on various topics and fields of study. Each major course of study varies in accord with the needs and interests of individual students. Students work closely with faculty advisors, and all individualized majors are overseen and approved by a faculty committee which ensures that each student-designed major has intellectual integrity and rigor. Detailed information on the Individualized Major Program appears in the alphabetic listings of the School of Liberal Arts programs.

The Individualized Major Program (IMP) enables students to earn the B. A. degree in majors they construct individually to fit academic interests that lie outside the scope of existing major programs at IUPUI. Unlike other majors, which have a set curriculum, the Individualized Major Program provides a structure within which students may construct individualized programs of study to serve their particular personal and professional needs. In contrast to the major in General Studies, the Individualized Major requires a definable area of concentration in which it confers a recognizable level of competence and expertise. The Program is overseen by a faculty Director, and all student designed majors are approved and monitored by the faculty Committee for the Individualized Major.

The IMP meets the needs of disciplined and well-motivated students whose academic interests are not well served by the regular curriculum. Careful design of an Individualized Major should enable such students to prepare themselves for particular careers and allow them to gain admission into specialized graduate and professional programs. Most IMP students fall into two distinct categories:

1. Those who wish to major in either traditional disciplines or recognized interdisciplinary areas for which majors are not available on the IUPUI campus. The IMP can serve transfer students who wish to continue work started elsewhere in areas in which IUPUI has faculty expertise but no organized majors.

2. Students whose who wish to fashion unique majors to reflect their individual experience, interests, and needs, whether personal or professional. These include students whose work and life experience suggest the need for fresh ways of organizing existing courses into meaningful new majors, as well as innovative students who wish to bring together course work in several disciplines to focus on a thematic area or make unusual, yet valid connections between areas that are rarely studied together.

Admission and Academic Progress

Students desiring to pursue an Individualized Major should confer with the Director of the IMP who will provide assistance in identifying and securing the agreement of a faculty member to serve as advisor. Under the supervision of this advisor the student will take I360, a 1-credit hour tutorial course in which he or she prepares a proposal for an Individualized Major. The student is accepted for admission to the major when this proposal is approved by the advisor and the faculty Individualized Major Program Committee. This committee may invite the participation of additional faculty with specific expertise to join in evaluating the plan. The major plan may subsequently be amended only in consultation with the advisor and with approval of the Individualized Major Committee.

After gaining admission to the IMP program, students must meet each semester with their advisors to register for courses and consider academic progress. A key component of the senior year is the variable credit capstone course I460, an independent study project in which students synthesize their work in the major. The project is approved and graded by the IMP Committee or a panel of experts appointed by the Committee. The advisor and the IMP Committee certifies students for graduation with the Individualized Major.

Requirements

1. Two courses are required of all students (4 to 7 credit hours):

   1. I360 Individualized Major Plan (1 credit hour), a tutorial in which a student develops his or her plan for a major, including a list of courses, schedule, and rationale. This proposal must be more than a simple list of courses. Students proposing majors in traditional fields should discuss the history and nature of the discipline, describe its subfields and the methodologies it employs, and show how the proposed major fits within this framework. Those designing unique majors need to establish the intellectual unity of the proposed major and show appreciation of the different disciplinary traditions and methodologies on which it will draw. Upon approval of this plan by an advisor and the faculty Individualized Major committee, the student is accepted into the Individualized Major program.

   2. I460 Individualized Major Senior Project, a variable credit tutorial (3 to 6 hours) normally taken over two semesters as a 6-credit hour course devoted a capstone project that culminates and integrates the Individualized Major. Normally this is a major research paper with an oral presentation. Other options, such as a performance, multi-media product, work of literature, film, or work of art, may be approved if appropriate for a particular plan of study. Normally the project is presented to the Individualized Major Committee and defended through a seminar or colloquium. The grade for this course is recommended by the advisor and approved by the Individualized Major Committee; in some cases the Individualized Major Committee may instead appoint a committee of experts to assist the advisor in assigning the grade.

2. The remaining courses (30 or more credit hours) are selected from existing courses.

   1. No lower or upper division courses applied to general education requirements may be included in the Individualized Major.

   2. At least 15 credit hours in the major must be at the 300 or 400 level (in addition to I360 and I460).

   3. No more than 6 credit hours of independent study may be counted in the major.

   4. All courses counted in the major must be taken for letter grade; no course receiving a grade below C may be counted toward the major.

Undergraduate Courses

SLA I360 Individualized Major Plan (1 cr.): P: Approval by advisor. A tutorial in which a student develops a plan for an Individualized Major. Upon approval of this plan, the student is admitted to the Individualized Major Program.