Future students may not be able to minor in Spanish if the proposal passed by the University Council curriculum committee Friday is executed.

The proposal passed with seven committee members in favor and four members opposed.

If the plan is enacted, the last date students can graduate with a Spanish minor would be Spring 2011.

Dana Bultman, assistant professor of Spanish, presented the proposal on behalf of the department of romance languages.

She said deactivating the minor is necessary because the high volume of minors often fill up classes before those majoring in Spanish have a chance to enroll. The department also faces a lack of specialized faculty to teach the upper-level courses.

“We want to offer the highest quality majors and minors we can,” she said. “[Students] aren’t going to get the highest quality minor” if they are never taught by a research faculty member.

Jere Morehead, vice president for instruction, said the department romance languages should hire more tenure-track faculty to teach the upper-division courses instead of deactivating the minor with 577 students.

“With this kind of demand, the answer is not to cut out what students clearly desire,” he said.

“We need to respond to the demand.”

Amrita Veliyath, Student Government Association representative to the committee, said she also opposed the proposal and has received letters from undergraduates, alumni and prospective students expressing their disapproval, including 25 she took to the meeting with her.

“Students are very against the proposal,” she said.

Morehead suggested Spanish be designated a high-demand minor, which would make Spanish courses permission of department.

Bultman said if this were the case, the department would not have enough faculty members to advise students and allocate the permission of department courses.

Deactivation is a two-year process during which the department would hire additional Spanish faculty.

The minor could be reactivated later to match increased demand of Spanish language and Hispanic culture courses, according to the proposal.

The proposal will go before the executive committee on April 10 and then the University Council general body on April 22.