The University takes great pride in its diversity: Its students come from all over the world and although each has a unique combination of race, ethnicity, religion, academic interests and ideology, there is a place for everyone here in Ann Arbor.

Well, almost everyone.

If you're an undeclared undergraduate who is thinking about an independent concentration program in Organizational Studies, then the University no longer has a place for you. Last Tuesday, LSA Dean Shirley Neuman sent out a page-long letter stating that the organizational studies ICP "will cease to be available as a 'concentration' choice for students, effective immediately." Neuman contends in the letter that the existing program "lacks a clear thematic content" and "has never been through the [necessary] curricular and faculty review." She also cites the fact that the program has little faculty oversight as a reason for discontinuing it. According to Neuman's letter, there is currently a committee of both LSA and School of Information faculty drafting a proposal to create an official program similar to the Organizational Studies ICP that would have "appropriate faculty oversight." Neuman said she expects some type of program to be reinstituted by next fall, but that is hardly a guarantee and students not currently majoring in organizational studies should not have that option taken away from them before an official program is instituted.

The elimination of students' ability to concentrate in Organizational Studies at the current time is one of several recent decisions limiting students options made with little of their input. A committee she formed last spring to investigate a possible joint program between the School of Natural Resources and the Environment proposed last Tuesday to end SNRE undergraduate programs in favor of "a meaningful partnership between LSA and SNRE."

While the Organizational Studies and SNRE decisions will not affect students already in the programs, they will have a dramatic impact on the future of academic opportunities at this institution; all three aforementioned actions undermine the principles of their respective divisions.

The purpose of allowing ICP's in Organizational Studies was to let ambitious, hard-working students concentrate in a program not currently offered at the University, but that is becoming an increasingly popular field in higher education. This program has been successful in the past because students who chose to participate in it were motivated enough to pursue their interests and had managed to be successful even without the same faculty oversight as other programs. Neuman has said LSA is planning on reopening the opportunity to study organizational studies through an official concentration program, but such a popular field of study should not have been shut off to new students in the mean time. Since the interest is there, it is the University's responsibility to pony up and provide a well-designed major for interested students. The 'problems,' such as lack of faculty oversight, are fixable. SNRE has always been separate from LSA, attracting high quality, focused students deeply dedicated to studying the natural world. To combine the school's undergraduate program with LSA and possibly water down its unique feel will make the school less attractive to the best students interested in studying natural resources.

Another area of scrutiny is the Residential College, who's grading process was reviewed last April. For the RC, to require letter grades is to go against everything that makes the RC a learning experience like no other. Historically, the RC has staunchly opposed the use of letter grades on the grounds that they are poor indicators of effort and say little about one's actual potential to succeed; instead, each student was given a personal, written evaluation of his or her work in each class. Diversity is an essential element in a great education and it is fantastic that the University can unite so many kinds of people in the common purpose of higher learning. However, this diversity should not stop in the course guides; if LSA continues to limit its students' academic opportunities and to attempt to merge with and tightly control smaller units, the unfortunate homogenization of the its curriculum is inevitable.