The following guidelines provide essential information for faculty and staff involved in the planning and proposal of university curriculum. Whether you are updating existing curriculum or proposing a new course, program, or emphasis area adhere to these guidelines to expedite the implementation process.
Guidelines
Proposal Submission Deadlines
For a curriculum change be included in the next year’s published catalog, it must be reviewed and approved by the appropriate program, department, college level committees and deans, and submitted for review to the appropriate University-level committee by November 1 or by the end of the fall semester.
Submitting by November 1 guarantees that your proposal will be reviewed by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UCC) in time for the upcoming catalog. While proposals submitted after this date will still be reviewed, their inclusion in the catalog will depend on the number of proposals received.
Undergraduate curriculum change requests with approvals are submitted to the Catalog Coordinator in the Registrar’s Office.
Graduate curriculum change requests with department and dean approval (and college-level graduate curriculum committee as applicable) are submitted to the Graduate College Dean’s Office.
All proposals will be considered by the committees on first-come, first-served basis.
Committee Review
The Faculty Senate specifies that the University Curriculum Committee “supervise all undergraduate offerings of the university determining that curricular changes be compatible with existing programs, feasible under given circumstances, and consistent with the educational objectives of Boise State University under state and federal law.” These duties are typical of most other curriculum committees and councils as well.
The goal of curriculum committees is not to dispatch proposals, but rather to expedite approval at higher levels, and to facilitate excellence in curricula.Â
Attendance by Department Proposal Originator(s) at all Full Review meetings where their proposal is being discussed is required since questions which must be answered by someone close to the proposal and its history.Â
Department Memos
Memos from the department chair to the Registrar’s Office can be used to modify graduation requirements for students under current or past academic catalogs, but they cannot be used to bypass the standard curriculum process for future catalog changes, nor can they alter non-graduation requirements like course prerequisites.
To avoid negatively impacting enrolled students, any such memos must be submitted before the 10th day of the semester. All future catalog changes, beyond these specific memo allowances, require an approved curriculum change.
Course Numbers
When assigning numbers to new courses, the availability of the number is verified. Previously deleted course numbers are not available for re-use during the 5-year moratorium following the date of inactivation. The Registrar’s Office can assist with determining course number availability.
Some course numbers are set aside for university wide use across all subject codes.
New majors that are set to be implemented in a future catalog can be implemented a semester or two early for enrollment purposes. In those situations, the graduation requirements will be based on the approved implementation date that coincides with the first catalog the major appears in.