Procedures for Undergraduate Curriculum Development and Curriculum Proposals

M22R

Proposal Forms for courses, minors, and new programs may be found on the Curriculum Committee site.

The formal definition of a credit hour may be found here. Please consult it when proposing a course with a nonstandard meeting schedule and address it within your proposal.

• The Department Chair shall involve all department members in discussions regarding curriculum proposals.
• The Department Chair and the respective Dean of the school or college shall work in concert in the development of curriculum changes and proposals.

1. Upon completion of the development process, the appropriate school or division-based curriculum committee will consider the proposal. The Department Chair, with support and documentation provided by the department and the Dean of the school or college, will attend the meeting of the appropriate curriculum committee when the proposal is discussed.
2. Curricular changes initiated by the academic departments and in consultation with the Dean should be copied to the Dean, the chair of the appropriate school or division-based curriculum committee, and the members of the University Curriculum Committee 14 days before the scheduled committee meetings.
3. The school or division-based committee will consider the proposal. If the proposal represents a "reportable item" (a curriculum change that does not impact any student's graduation requirements), the school or division-based committee renders a decision and informs the University Curriculum Committee of that decision. If the proposal represents a more substantive change to the curriculum, or if it impacts another department or program, the school or division-based committee considers it and forwards a recommendation to the University Curriculum Committee.
4. Should the Department Chair, the department, and the academic Dean fail to reach consensus, the proposal bypasses the school or division-based curriculum committee and is sent directly to the University Curriculum Committee. The proposal and a written statement from the academic Dean will be considered by a conference committee consisting of the following members: the chair of the department from which the proposal originates; the appropriate academic Dean; the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs or their representative; the Chair of the University Curriculum Committee, who will act as chair of the conference committee; and the Chair Pro Tempore of the University Curriculum Committee. The conference committee will attempt to resolve the differences between the department and the academic Dean and will offer specific recommendations regarding the proposal in that effort. The recommendations will be adopted upon a majority vote of the five members of the conference committee.
5. Once the conference committee makes its recommendations, the department and academic Dean will work to incorporate them into the proposal. The department will then decide to forward the amended proposal or the original proposal with the conference committee recommendations to the appropriate school or division-based curriculum committee for consideration.

6. Appropriate academic Deans and Department Chairs will be invited to Curriculum Committee meetings during which proposals from their college, schools, or departments will be discussed and will participate in the discussion of those proposals.
7. Once a proposal has been approved by the University Curriculum Committee, it can be revised only to reflect catalog copy. The sponsoring department is responsible for submitting catalog copy to the Office of the Registrar.
8. For inclusion in the subsequent year’s catalog, proposals should be scheduled for the agenda of the April University Curriculum Committee meeting.