Preliminary discussions regarding the installation of a liberal studies program in the University of Wisconsin’s College of Letters and Sciences began Monday, although UW officials said no concrete decisions have been made.

Michael Morgan, UW professor and chair of the Curriculum Committee, said the proposed major would entail taking a wide variety of more general classes within L&S instead of specializing in one specific field.

The conversation started from a similar liberal studies major proposal at UW-Eau Claire.

The Curriculum Council is looking at UW-Eau Claire’s proposal to see if any elements could be used at UW, said Emily Kesner, UW sophomore and student representative on the committee.

L&S Dean Gary Sandefur brought the idea to the committee, Kesner said, because pre-professional students could benefit from such a major.

While no formal decisions have been made, L&S Assistant Dean Elaine Klein said a main concern with the new major is the necessary advising structure.

The questions posed by implementing a new liberal studies major deal mostly with flexibility, because unlike other majors, there would be no set structure.

Advising then becomes important because while students have less constrains put on them by the major, the path to completing a degree is also murkier, Klein said.

“To make sure the experience … students are obtaining is appropriate and rigorous and means something, you actually have to work harder with a flexible program to make sure everything fits together,” she said.

One goal of majors within L&S, in general, is course overlap where elements of certain courses interact with other courses students take.

Klein called this overlap “a narrative” and said problems arise without structure, which is why advising is so important.

“It’s not just take some random bunch of humanities courses that you kind of like,” she said. “It’s how does a philosophy course talk to a literature course, what elements are common across both of those things and how are those things related to the social science course that you’re taking.”

Morgan said another facet of the advising argument is UW’s responsibility to students. If L&S implemented the program without proper counseling support for students, the effects could be detrimental.

Should the idea move forward despite these concerns, Klein said the process for adding a new major is long.

Before anything is planned, the Faculty Senate must grant the committee permission to plan the major.

After a formal proposal is drawn up, approval is required from the Faculty Senate, L&S Academic Planning Council, the UW Academic Planning Council and finally the Board of Regents.

“I think if the Senate says yes it is worth exploring, then maybe five years from now we could have a new major,” Klein said. “It could take that long.”