The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate voted to support the establishment of an undergraduate education major in a 22-0-0 vote last month. Now that the resolution has passed, TCU President Joe Thibodeau said the next step is sending it to faculty to discuss how to proceed.
"Faculty members are ultimately the ones who vote for a creation of a specific major," Thibodeau said. "The resolution alerts the administration of general student interest."
Senator Robert Joseph, a junior, sponsored the resolution because a significant student demand exists for the major, he said.
"[Education] is a subject that pairs well with other department offerings," Joseph said. "You can graduate with a discipline that you are knowledgeable in and able to teach in."
According to the resolution, a 2012 Senate survey administered to the student body indicated that 69.4 percent of undergraduates believed a major in education would benefit the Tufts community.
Fifteen of 53 internship opportunities at the Tufts Internship Fair were in the field of education. Joseph said he believes this statistic bolsters the relevancy of an education major.
"There are so many opportunities that are education focused, and we felt that the lack of [a] major was a gaping hole in academic opportunity and curriculum of the school," Joseph said.
Chair of the Department of Education David Hammer believes an education major would better prepare students to become future teachers.
"It's great to see the rationale for the interest," Hammer said. "People have gone into teaching without any real preparation, and to have undergrads say it would be beneficial to have a lot of intellectual rigor in educational training and thinking is exciting."
Students wishing to major in education would only be able to have it as a second major, Joseph said.
"The education department agreed that it wouldn't be substantive enough [as a standalone major]," Joseph said. "It needs to be paired with another major, like in the cases of community health and environmental studies."
Hammer agreed with the decision to pair education with another field, because he believes teachers need to be experts in a specific topic.
"You master this topic in undergraduate education," he said. "For example, if you want to go on to be a history teacher, you need to know history. What better place to learn than through an undergraduate history major."
Thibodeau said he believes the resolution is a positive step for the university.
"There has been demonstrated student interest in teaching and a career in education," Thibodeau said. "The university offers majors where there are concentrations in education such as American studies, and we have a Masters of Arts in Teaching, so it was the logical next step."
This resolution is not the first time the Senate has discussed the addition of new majors, according to Thibodeau.
Hammer said that he believes a potential major in education will only increase student's interest in going into the field.
"We already have a good reputation, and the undergraduates that take our courses really love them," Hammer said. "It'll be great to add scholarly rigor to a field where so many students are interested in entering into."
