2024-2025
A. All modifications to an undergraduate academic program that require changes in the Catalog are subject to prior approval from the Curriculum Committee. In addition, the following are also subject to prior approval by the Curriculum Committee:
- Individualized majors and minors
- Requests for offering new or existing courses in an online (50% of more online) or hybrid (25-49% online) format
All modifications approved by the Curriculum Committee and, where required, by the faculty normally take effect in the following academic year. Topics courses can be offered the next semester after they are approved, and individualized majors and minors go into effect immediately after they are approved.
B. Requests for curriculum/program changes for which faculty approval is required will be directed to the Curriculum Committee for evaluation.
- The sponsoring unit carries the burden of demonstrating that proposed changes are necessary, appropriate, and consistent with the mission and goals of the College.
- All proposed new courses, except for those proposed as a major or minor requirement or as a Foundations & Skills or Perspectives course, first must have been presented in the schedule as a "Topics" (or equivalent) course.
- Each proposed curricular change should be summarized by a properly completed REQUEST form, one for each proposed change, including all required signatures.
- All forms for course proposals, course modifications, program proposals, and program modifications can be completed on Coursedog by the sponsoring unit.
- Individualized majors and minors must be submitted to the Curriculum Committee Chair using the forms approved by the Curriculum Committee.
- Incomplete proposals will be returned to the sponsoring unit prior to review.
- All proposed new and revised programs and courses must include student-learning outcomes.
- Modifications to major and minor requirements must be within College policy with respect to semester-hour requirements (including prerequisites) and should be summarized clearly, so that "old" and "new" requirements can be compared.
- The Committee may invite a representative from the sponsoring unit to its meeting and reserves the option of requesting any additional information from the sponsoring unit deemed necessary to its deliberations.
C. Submission Process and Dates:
- The sponsoring unit submits a curriculum proposal form on CourseDog for course and program changes.
- The sponsoring unit submits completed forms for individualized majors and minors to the Curriculum Committee chair by email.
- Proposals received with all appropriate approvals by noon on Friday, January 24th will receive consideration for inclusion in the catalog beginning the following Fall semester. Proposals submitted after the deadlines receive a lower priority and may not be processed in time to take effect in the following academic year. Earlier submission of proposals is strongly recommended.
- Any revisions or changes must be completed and readied for Curriculum Committee consideration by noon on Friday, March 14th (and the full faculty in April).
D. For proposals that will not need a full faculty vote, over half of the full number of committee members must cast affirmative votes, regardless of the number of members present.
E. Except for changes in course numbers, course titles, course descriptions, individualized majors, individualized minors, and/or dropped courses, ALL curriculum proposals approved by the Committee are forwarded to the faculty for action. (Note: The Faculty Handbook mandates that proposed curriculum changes be subject to the "Six-Day Rule".)
F. The sponsoring unit is responsible for seeing that the Catalog is modified to reflect approved changes in their curriculum.
ADDENDA
- Topics Courses. The Faculty endorsed (Dec, 2000} the policy that a particular Topics course which has been offered as frequently as three times in six years must be submitted to the Curriculum Committee for review, to either (1) be forwarded to the faculty for inclusion into the curriculum, or (2) have the time and frequency reset, before it can be offered again as a Topics course.
Department chairs must (a) submit a course description of each Topic and (b) indicate the number of times that Topic has been offered to the Registrar before the Topic can be scheduled.
- "Sunset Provision". The Faculty endorsed (Dec, 2000) the policy that any course not offered within a 5-yr period must be (a) dropped from the catalog via a course modification procedure or (b) submitted to the Curriculum Committee with justification to gain approval for continuance in the listing. However, nontraditional courses (e.g., Fieldwork, Independent Study, Internship, Practicum, Selected Topics, and Seminar) are exempt from this provision.
- 60 Semester Hour Maximum for~ Major. The Curriculum Committee reaffirmed (Oct, 2000), as did the faculty (Mar, 2002), the policy that all courses designated as "required" (including General Education Requirement courses) or "prerequisite" by a major will be "charged" toward the 60 semester hour maximum for that major.
- Hour Requirements for a Minor. The Faculty endorsed (Oct, 2016} the policy that all Minors will have eighteen to twenty-one semester hours of course work.
- Prerequisites and Course Numbering. The Faculty endorsed (Jan, 2006) the policy that when a Department plans its course offerings, attention should be given to assigning course numbers that help students identify the most appropriate courses according to their class standing and background knowledge and skills. A Department should arrange its courses so that their sequence reflects a logical progression from 1000 through 4000 level courses. The courses of study that follow a logical sequence should have knowledge and skills that build upon each other.
Prerequisite courses, which prepare students for taking upper-level courses, should be clearly identified in the Catalog's listings of courses. The course number of a prerequisite course should NOT be higher than the course for which it is a prerequisite. The content of 3000- and 4000-level courses without prerequisites should contain advanced critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.
Committee Only Approvals
- Individualized Major and Minor
- Distance Learning Courses (Online)
Modified by faculty vote 12/2/2014
Revised and Approved by the Committee: 8.27.2024
