1.         Faculty member proposes change and submits to Department with justification.

2.         Department approves and sends to Records or Gen Ed Council (if related to Gen Ed) OR disapproves* and returns proposal to the faculty member.  

2a.        If Gen Ed related (R, S, N, T, Q, W, Lib 150, Comp, PE, ES), Gen Ed Council approves and sends to Records Office OR disapproves* and sends back to Department.

3.         Records Office evaluates proposal, determines impacts, collaborates with department to find ways to mitigate impacts and resolve conflicts. Records Office sends to Dean with recommendation.

4.         Dean approves and forwards to the Curriculum Committee OR disapproves* and sends back to Department.

5.        Curriculum Committee approves and sends program changes to SEC for faculty comment and Senate approval, OR disapproves* and sends back to Department.

5a.        If item is a course change and Faculty Senate determines that no further review is required, the proposal is sent to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.  

6.         A course proposal that requires further review (based on faculty inquiries to the Curriculum Committee), or a program change will be forwarded to Faculty Senate for discussion.  Faculty Senate approves and the proposal continues on to the Vice President for Academic Affairs OR Faculty Senate disapproves* and the proposal is returned to the Department.

7.       The Vice President for Academic Affairs approves and sends to the Records office for implementation OR disapproves* and sends back to the Department.

 *           All disapprovals must have reason noted.

Examples of problems that could be identified in a Curriculum Impact Analysis

• Deleting a course that may be an auxiliary requirement for another department.

• Removing courses that are major requirements that impact previous catalog requirements causing the student to need an exception.

• Changing credit hour numbers from 4 to 3....may cause students to be short of total or upper division credits.  Changing from 3 to 4 may cause the student to be required to take more than 120 credits.

• Gaining clarification in regard to the course....is it repeatable?......is the course intended to count for both Gen Ed and Major requirements?

 Summary of changes from current curriculum:

• Involves Records Office early in process.  R.O. will do an impact assessment; will meet with Dean and Department to discuss impact assessment. 
• Electronically inform all faculty of proposed course change (consent items).  Faculty has the option to discuss at next Faculty Senate.  Curriculum chair will inform faculty by e-mail, referring to website where proposed changes will be posted. 
• Restructures Faculty Senate and Senate Executive Committee approval process for routine course modifications. 

Rationale

• Minimizes exceptions to graduation. 
• Improves catalog consistency, accuracy, and clarity. 
• Streamlines curriculum to maximize students’ progress towards graduation. 
• Optimizes curriculum approval process and committee time.
• More faculty will be more fully informed.
• Facilitates communication between curriculum committee and all faculty.
• Mediates interdepartmental curriculum conflicts.