Curriculum Committee Meeting ScheduleMonthly meetings are held Tuesdays from 2 – 4 p.m.
The location of the Curriculum Committee meetings will be determined shortly. If they will be undertaken in person, all social distancing precautions will be taken.
Each month’s Curriculum Committee Packet includes the meeting agenda and information on courses for approval.
Fall 2021
September 14, 2021
October 5, 2021
November 2, 2021
November 30, 2021
Spring 2022
January 18, 2022
February 1, 2022
March 1, 2022
April 5, 2022
May 3, 2022
Course Proposal DocumentsForms should be submitted by the date below to be included for upcoming meetings.
Meeting date Deadline for course proposal form September 14, 2021 September 6, 2021 October 5, 2021 September 27, 2021 November 2, 2021 October 25, 2021 November 30, 2021 November 22, 2021 January 18, 2022 January 10, 2022 February 1, 2022 January 24, 2022 March 1, 2022 February 21, 2022 April 5, 2022 March 28, 2022 May 3, 2022 April 25, 2022
Form Submission Checklist
- Do you have both levels of college approvals?
- Have you used the current course proposal form?
- Do you have the required campus statements listed on the syllabus?
- Are the course number and designator and title listed on the syllabus?
Guidelines
In order to facilitate the approval process for new and changed graduate courses, the Graduate School uses the Course Proposal form to document each request. The information requested on this form helps the committee to achieve the following goals:
- To ensure that graduate students have a clear understanding of the programs and courses offered by the Graduate School.
- To ensure that resource issues have been addressed and duplication of similar courses in minimal.
Proposed catalog description
Achieving clarity and focus of catalog descriptions is of great concern to the committee. When revisions are necessary, the committee works with department to ensure the descriptions are clear and do not contain extraneous information. For example, information on frequency, meeting times, and how the course relates to others within the program are unnecessary elements.
Some suggestions to consider:
- Avoid complicated and lengthy sentences
- The purpose of the course description is to give students an integrated view of the content. Simply enumerating topics may not be helpful.
- Course structure information should be detailed in the accompanying syllabus.
- Avoid redundancy.
Rationale for a proposed course
All courses exist within the context of the program(s) offered by the initiating department. This contextual information should be provided in the rationale for the course.
Questions to address include:
- How does the course fit in the program(s)?
- Does the proposed course replace an existing course(s)?
- Will the course be a requirement for all or some students?
- How often will the course be offered?
- What is the expected enrollment?
- Is there overlap with another course(s)? If so why is the new course required?
Undergraduates may enroll in 500 level courses, while 600 level courses are restricted to graduate students. Please include the proposed course number in the rationale, as well as any intent to cross-list the course at the undergraduate level. Please consult with Student Records or the Graduate School to ensure a particular course number has not already been used.
Resource utilization
Factors to consider include:
- Institutional Library Support: What holdings are required for this course? If holdings need to be acquired, what level of priority is requested?
- Outside Library Support: What holdings are available from the department/college, faculty, off campus locations, etc.?
- Space and Equipment: What classroom/laboratory space and equipment is available? Is new equipment expected to be purchased?
- Computer Resources: What hardware is required and does it need to be purchased? Is software available? What are the online options?
- Student Assistant Support: What support is required for grading, lab work, and other needs?
- Instructor Availability: Who is the instructor(s)? Based on availability, is this course a regular catalog offering?
Course modification
Course modifications may be anything from a simple change in the number of credits to a major rewrite of the catalog description. Changes such as latter should be treated as a new course offering. A course outline, instructor, and rationale for the change should be included. The Graduate School asks for a rationale section for any courses presented to the Committee, regardless of the level of complexity of the change being requested.
Course elimination/sunsetting
For various reasons, there are courses still listed that will never again be offered in the form described in the catalog description. The committee asks departments to submit course elimination requests as they come across these courses.
Courses that are relevant but unable to be offered for the foreseeable future should be “sunsetted.” Sunsetted courses can be reactivated by contacting the graduate school or the Office of Student Records within 5 years of the sunset date.