The Miami University Senate passed a resolution Monday that will allow more academic minors to fulfill thematic sequence requirements. This new policy will allow any minor to take the place of a thematic sequence as long as the minor is not in the same department as the student's major. Director of Liberal Education and Assessment Jerry Stonewater brought the resolution before the University Senate to propose the change in policy. "The current situation is a minor counts for a thematic sequence only if two conditions apply," Stonewater said. "And that is if a student completes the minor, and if the minor has a thematic sequence embedded in it." Stonewater noted that 89 minors are currently available, but only 40 of them meet the requirements of a thematic sequence. In addition, only 20 of the minors have an actual thematic sequence included in them as part of the course work. The new proposal will allow any completed minor to count for a thematic sequence. Within the resolution document presented to the senate, the rationale for this change was that "students who complete a minor take at least 18 hours outside of their major, more than doubling the nine hour requirement of the thematic sequence." Based on the information presented in the resolution, the hope is that this change will simplify some of the complexity of Miami's curriculum system. "I think it will make my life as an advisor a lot easier," said John Kiss, botany professor.