After nearly two and a half years of reviewing proposals from departments and organizations across campus, the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates Oversight Committee made its final recommendations to the chancellor Tuesday.

Aaron Brower, provost for teaching and learning, said Chancellor Biddy Martin will make the final funding decisions in the coming weeks and the third round of MIU will likely fund either 18 or 19 proposals with the remaining $3.4 million.

Brower added the third round was characterized by more variety among the proposals, and projects that had received funding in the first MIU round had just been evaluated for the first time with promising results.

The common theme of funding more faculty and teaching assistant positions in hopes of reducing bottlenecks in classes which typically have a high volume of enrollment ran through many of the Oversight Committee’s recommendations.

Additional faculty in the political science and philosophy departments, School of Journalism and School of Nursing were among the proposals most highly ranked by committee members.

Committee members also said they hoped to see new integrative collaborations emerging should new journalism, communication arts and a digital media lab be funded by MIU.

The committee also recommended restructuring the calculus sequence in the mathematics department, adding French and Italian instructors and additional faculty members to transform the undergraduate English degree program and first year interest groups.

Though many proposals were highly ranked by academic representatives and students, some proposals, such as a program to encourage professional development for faculty, drew less universal support from committee members.

Student Board Chair Adam Sheka said students regarded the program as valuable because it would reward teachers and would emphasize the prioritization of teaching over other university duties.

“It would emphasize more of a ‘here to teach’ mindset even and show we value education even though great research is being conducted,” he said.

Committee members also questioned the necessity of providing five full-time staff members for the implementation of the Common Scholarship Application for UW graduates.

While the web program would provide a single access for students searching for financial aid from the university, Provost Paul DeLuca said the program should first be granted funding for a trial period to access its success.

Martin said though a degree of savvy should not be required to find available financial aid, the success of the program would require investigation in the future.

Student representatives also expressed support for the addition of a criminology specialist in the sociology department, a seat that has remained unoccupied for nearly 17 years.

Martin said though the committee’s recommendations will usher in a number of difficult decisions, the success of MIU would likely prove a major triumph.

“This is certainly one of the most exciting things I’ve been apart of during my time as chancellor,” she said.

Sheka said the third round of MIU deliberations was characterized by “the best of the best” proposals in which deans of the college refocused and reassessed their requests.

He said though there had previously been some discrepancy between the recommendations of the Oversight Committee and Student Board, members of the groups had generally reached consensus on the proposals.