Curriculum Change in the College of Arts and Sciences
A Proposers’ Guide to Academic Council
2014-15
Who needs to file paperwork?
· The academic unit (department or interdisciplinary program) initiating a change is responsible for the paperwork to effect that change.
o The chairperson or interdisciplinary program director should be named in the “from” line and should sign for the academic unit.
o “Proposer (if other)” may be, as appropriate, the instructor who has designed the course, an undergraduate program director, or any other member of the unit who would be best able to answer questions about the changes proposed – but no “other” need be specified if the chairperson or program director will handle inquiries.
· The proposing unit is responsible for identifying all stakeholders (cross-listing departments* and tagging interdisciplinary programs* in a course, or participating units in a cross-disciplinary major or minor) in any course or major or minor for which changes are proposed, and for collecting all signatures. A complete set of signatures shall be needed before the application can be considered.
o Signatures from all stakeholders demonstrate they are aware of and on board with the changes proposed.
o If the proposing unit’s changes provoke additional changes in a stakeholder-unit’s programs, the stakeholder-unit should submit the needed additional applications, under its own authority but together with the proposing unit’s package (for example, if a home unit’s course-change means the course should be made a specific requirement rather than just an elective in another unit’s minor, the second unit should sign onto the home unit’s change and submit its own Change of Minor application).
* Cross-listing and tagging:
· Either cross-listing or tagging may arise when a course serves a major or a minor outside its home unit.
· “Tagging” means the name of the Interdisciplinary Program in question appears in LOCUS’s display of Course Attributes for a course belonging to a different home unit.
o The tag permits students to search in LOCUS for all courses that may serve a given interdisciplinary program’s major or minor, regardless of the courses’ home units.
o Although the tag should not appear on courses not included in the major or minor, applying the tag and including the course are two separate operations by R&R.
· “Cross-listing” means the same course, in terms of its defining content and objectives, is designated in LOCUS by course numbers in more than one Subject Area Code belonging to separate academic units.
o Courses are cross-listed most often when they might be taught by members of faculty holding appointments to different academic units (for example, History of Rome to Constantine is cross-listed as both CLST 308 and HIST 308): the faculty-member’s home unit schedules the course, but the course serves students in both programs.
o Courses required by a major or minor of an interdisciplinary program may need to be cross-listed with departmental courses, but usually tagging suffices.
· Whereas a permanent tag always appears on a course, cross-listed courses appear together in LOCUS only if they are scheduled together as a Joint Section.
What needs to be filed? It depends what you want to do. Note also some differences with whom to file:
†Note: if including an existing course of another unit in your major/minor is the only change sought, the Permanent Cross-List or Permanent Tag requests suffice, whether the course is to be a specific requirement, a requirement-option in a specified list, or an elective.
What’s a “second unit” to do: signing on to somebody else’s application:
In all cases where the catalogue-coding of a course will be involved, please ensure that the Course Inventory Form the home unit is submitting includes any elements that are needed by your academic unit as well as the home unit (e.g., tags, constituency-specific pre-requisites).
For 2014-15 monthly deadlines, please visit the Submission Deadline page .
Revised: 9/17/2014