The Curriculum Process In Brief

(See "Curriculum Submission Instructions" for detailed instructions)

1. First, a department must approve the curricular change. The department chair must sign the submission form. Note that approval of the chair is not required; the chair's signature is required because the chair must be duly notified of the department's intent to change the curriculum. If other departments are significantly affected by the curricular change, signatures of the chairs of all such departments must be obtained. (E.g. if Engineering wishes to create a course with a Mathematics prerequisite, both the chairs of Engineering and Mathematics must sign the form).

2. Second, the dean of the School in which the department resides must sign the submission form. As with the department chair, the approval of the dean is not required. Just as all relevant department chairs must sign the form, so also all relevant deans must sign the form. (E.g. if the chairs of Engineering and Mathematics signed the form, then the deans of SET and A&S must sign the form).

3. Third, the chair of the curriculum committee receives all signed forms (by noon of the first Friday after the first Wednesday of a month in which a round of curriculum meetings is scheduled), and checks them for all required signatures. The chair assigns submissions to all relevant subcommittees. (E.g. a submission involving both Engineering and Mathematics will be assigned both to the SET subcommittee and the A&S subcommittee).

4. Fourth, the full curriculum committee considers together all items that were approved without controversy in subcommittees. The list of such items is called the "consent agenda." Any member of the full committee may remove any item from the "consent agenda" for any reason, and the item so removed will be considered separately, as will all items approved by subcommittees with controversy, and all items disapproved by subcommittees. Any item postponed by any subcommittee is automatically postponed for the entire curriculum committee and will be placed on the agenda for the next round of meetings.

5. Fifth, all items approved by the full curriculum committee are reported to the Faculty Senate. All items approved by the Faculty Senate are implemented (provided that the Board of Trustees does not oppose them, see The Constitution of the Faculty Senate 2.1 and 2.2). Items not approved by the Faculty Senate are dead. If a department so wishes, it may begin the process again, though it should revise its submission adequately to address the reasons for which the Senate denied approval.