The Faculty Council has recently approved two new skills based minors to be offered beginning in the fall of 2026. The new programs are Studio Arts and Sports Culture and Communication, both of which will provide students with opportunities to explore passions beyond their major or to help build knowledge within it.

“We imagine the new Studio Arts minor will appeal to students who discover (or rediscover) a passion for art during their time at Hamline,” Digital and Studio Arts Department Chair Curt Lund said via email.

The Studio Arts program offers a minor currently in graphic design and one in Digital Storytelling and previously offered a Studio Arts program that has been discontinued due to circular changes at the institution. The studio arts minor will allow students to explore printmaking, sculpture and drawing or painting. The new minor, like any minor, can be paired with any of Hamline’s majors to provide a wide range of skills for students.

“We don’t think there are specific majors that this will pair with, necessarily — we offer transferable skills that really can complement almost any other major on campus,” Lund said via email.

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The interest in Studio Arts as a minor was sparked by a large number of students designing flex majors centered around the already offered studio arts classes at Hamline.

“Faculty have helped numerous students build “flex minors” around their interest in visual arts. So we know the demand is there, and we’re very happy the faculty recognized that and supported the return of an official Studio Arts minor,” Lund said via email.

Though a minor is not necessary for graduation from Hamline, they do provide skills that may place students at an edge once they enter the workforce. They can also narrow specific interests even further, as a larger minor program may not be specific enough for some students.

“The goal is to develop strategies in communication that align with professional interests and clearly students are interested in sports,” Communications Department Chair Mike Reynolds said.

The chance to narrow down the curriculum is offered to students through flex majors and minors as an opportunity for student driven learning. Beyond that, minors such as these go through student feedback to ensure there is interest in the curriculum.

“We [faculty] will often propose minors because we talk to a lot of advisees or we’re working with individual students and pull together something that reflects that,” Reynolds said.

Allowing students to guide the creation of minors brings in a focused approach to weaving together multiple disciplines that students focus on at Liberal Arts institutions.

“There are lots of ways us as liberal arts students connect the dots between the seemingly disparate things into a coherent pathway,” Reynolds said.

Just because a program does not exist at Hamline does not mean students should not pursue it.

“I encourage students to take things to HUSC and send it along to committees, to talk to individual advisors, because you can always make one [minor] of your own,” Reynolds said.

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