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
Submitting by November 1 guarantees that your proposal will be reviewed by the appropriate university-level committee 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.
New program review will take priority and all other proposals will be reviewed by the committees on a first-come, first-served basis.
The deadline to submit course changes for continuing fall enrollment is February 1.
Program Status
Active
The program is actively offered and listed in registration inventory.
Inactive / Suspended
The program remains officially registered but is removed from recruitment materials. It is intended to be a temporary state, possibly with a reactivation period. The reactivation period, for finalizing the program review while paused/suspended, for all programs is limited to 3 years by the SBOE Policy III.G.
Discontinued
The program is permanently removed from the university’s offerings and registration inventory.
Course Numbers
When assigning numbers to new courses, verify that the course number is available. Use the course search feature in Kuali CM to determine whether a course number is available or is already being used within your subject code. Retired course numbers are not available for re-use until a 5-year moratorium after the inactivation date.
Some course numbers are set aside for university wide use across all subject codes.
Contact the Registrar’s Office if assistance is needed.
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 also typical of the Graduate Council and other curriculum management stakeholders. The goal of curriculum committees is not to dispatch proposals, but rather to expedite approval at higher levels, and to facilitate excellence in curricula.
Attendance by the Department Proposal Originator(s) is required at all Full Committee Review meetings where certificate, emphasis, major, minor, option, or program proposals are being discussed. During full review meetings, appropriate university-level committees assess and evaluate proposals, thus may have questions for individuals involved in the proposal development. This attendance requirement does not apply to course proposal reviews.
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.
Early Implementation of New Programs
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.