A separate criminal justice department was one step closer Tuesday afternoon wiht an overwhelming vote of approval at the fall general faculty meeting.

WSC faculty members voted 78-7 to amend the constitution to recognize a criminal justice department’s voting rights for Faculty Senate. A two-thirds majority vote was required to change the constitution. There was one spoiled ballot among the 86 cast.

In September, the Faculty Senate decided to change Article III, adding criminal justice as a department and raising the membership of the senate from 14 to 15. With the faculty approval on Tuesday, the current department of Sociology, Psychology, and Criminal Justice is renamed Psychology and Sociology.

“This just aligns the departments that are formed by the administration with how the faculty enate is formed, which I think makes a lot of sense. People are naturally working in those groups already,” Faculty Senate president Jeryl Nelson said.

“We discussed it and took our time with the decision, and I think we came out with an outcome that obviously a lot of people supported.”

The next step in the process of amending the Faculty Senate’s constitution is approval by President Marysz Rames, who spoke earlier in the meeting about working closely with the senate.