JAMIE HARMON
Dy’nelle Todman ’15 and Dr. Pam Church
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To date, the college offers 14 interdisciplinary majors. Each of these combines courses from two—or often more—departments to create an academic path for students that matches their intellectual interests. In addition to these existing interdisciplinary majors, students can self-design a curriculum tailored to their individual goals—but such an effort requires much due diligence and hard work on the student’s part. “Self-designed interdisciplinary majors are for students who cannot find within our existing majors and minors a course of study that satisfies their intellectual and career interests,” explains Steve Wirls, associate professor with the Department of Political Science 2012-13 and chair of the Education Program Committee (EPC), which approves self-designed majors. “Rhodes has a wide array of disciplinary majors and a large and growing number of interdisciplinary majors. Self-designed majors are, in a sense, a student’s last resort.” The steps to seeking a self-designed interdisciplinary major ensure that students de-
SUMMER 2013 • RHODES
vote plenty of discussion and planning to their proposal. “It’s a high bar to clear because the student must design a coherent course of study from scratch,” says Wirls. “The EPC’s threshold question is, ‘Why can’t you accomplish your academic objectives through some combination of existing majors and minors?’ If a student can provide a persuasive answer, then he or she is a candidate for a self-designed major.” Wirls recommends that students interested in a self-designed interdisciplinary major begin by talking in depth with their advisors. Dy’nelle Todman ’15 is doing just that as she prepares to finalize her academic major. Her decision-making process reflects the difficulty inherent in going outside the existing majors structure to generate a truly original interdisciplinary course of study. A member of Rhodes’ women’s basketball team, Todman, from Athens, GA, found herself benched in high school due to an ankle injury. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with all of my free time,” she explains. “So I started hanging out at the Boys and Girls rhodes.edu