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Unlike the Journalism program and the Visual Arts department, which are officially closing at the end of this semester due to Emory department changes announced in September 2012, the Division of Educational Studies (EDS) will be open until May 2017 although students can no longer officially declare a major or minor, according to Director of Educational Studies Robert Jensen.

The Educational Studies division will offer courses for interested students, including 12 undergraduate courses in the fall of 2014, although the number of classes will decrease as faculty in the division leave the University, according to Jensen.

“The College will be losing a division that’s been very effective,” Jensen said.

While students can’t officially declare EDS majors or minors, interested students can take the sequence of courses for a minor or major that, if completed, will reflect as such on their final transcript before graduation, according to Jensen. He added that these students should contact him as soon as possible to discuss.

If students wants to unofficially obtain an EDS major at this point, they must declare another non-EDS major and use the EDS coursework as a supplemental academics, according to the EDS website.

EDS Professor of History of American Education and Qualitative Research Methods Vanessa Siddle Walker may join the African American Studies department, and some faculty, including Jensen, will stay with EDS in the meantime.

“We can’t just leave [graduate students] in the lurch,” Jensen said.

Additionally, the department changes included a suspension of admissions to the graduate and doctoral programs in Spanish and Economics. The Spanish graduate program is pending program review by a committee of three distinguished scholars from other universities before it can be potentially unsuspended, according to Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Karen Stolley.

“We anticipate moving forward once the program review has been completed,” Stolley said, adding that the program is continuing to support its graduate students through interdisciplinary classes and seminars.​

– Contact Sonam Vashi 

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Sonam Vashi (15C) is a freelance journalist in Atlanta who’s written for CNN, The Washington Post, Atlanta magazine, and more.