College Committees

Overview

• • Degree: If you are proposing a new major, please indicate whether majors will earn a B.A. or a B.S. (it’s no longer possible to give students the option to choose). This is not applicable to minors.
  • Area of Study: Please enter the proposed Area of Study for this program. The options are:
    • Interdisciplinary Studies
    • Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
    • Mathematics and Natural Sciences
    • Social and Behavioral Sciences
    • Values and Societies
    • Visual and Performing Arts.
  • Forbidden Major/Minor Combinations: List any major/minor combinations involving the new program that will not be allowed. 

Program Rationale

• • Rationale for New Program: Briefly explain why you are proposing this new program and why now is the right time to add it. (1-2 paragraphs)
  • Rationale for Number of Credits:  This rationale must be provided if:
    • The program is a major and requires more than 48 credits (as a reminder, majors may only include 48 credits in a single department; credits above that limit must be in a different department, up to a maximum of 64)
    • The program is a minor and requires more than 24 credits.
  • Other Programs Impacted: List existing programs (curricular and co-curricular) that may be affected by the new program.  This could include, but is not limited to, existing programs that will contribute to, work in concert with, or otherwise be impacted by the proposed program. 
  • Description of Impact on Other Programs: For each of the impacted programs that you listed, briefly describe how the new program will or might impact that program. Questions to consider include:
    • How might the new program affect enrollment in existing programs? How could the two programs collaborate to advise students of their options?
    • How might cognate courses required by or used as electives for the program being proposed be affected? For example, will the department responsible for the course need to add sections to accommodate requirements in the new program? If so, how might this impact staffing and ability to deliver the existing programs in that department?
    • How might existing programs benefit from inclusion of any new courses in this proposal?
  • Feedback from Other Programs: You should contact the appropriate chair or program coordinator of each impacted program to get their feedback on the new program. Please provide a summary of the feedback you received from each chair or program coordinator.

Bulletin Language

All language provided in this section should be Bulletin-ready, meaning that it is correctly formatted for inclusion in the Bulletin. Please refer to Bulletin language for existing programs for examples. 

• Associated Full-Time Faculty: Provide a list of full-time faculty who will contribute to the program and whose names should be listed in the Bulletin.
• Preamble/Areas of Study Content: Provide an overview of the program. For example, see the Areas of Study section of the online Bulletin or the preamble that appears between the list of faculty and the major/minor requirements in the pdf version of the Bulletin. 
• Program Language: Use the templates provided in this document to write Bulletin-ready language for the program. Please also refer to language for existing programs as examples. Program course requirements should not be provided here; please enter those details in the next box. 
• Program Requirements: Provide a complete list of the program requirements formatted for inclusion in the Bulletin. 

In the New Courses tab, please create a numbered section, beginning with the course number and title, for each new course. Two sections have been provided for you to copy and paste; please number any additional sections sequentially. More detailed instructions are provided below.

Course Information

• Course Listing: Enter the course details in Bulletin-ready language, following the guidelines below:
  • Course Number: Enter a course prefix and number, e.g. ECON*100. For seven week module courses, add an “A” to the course number if the course will be taught in the first seven weeks of the semester or “B” if the course will be taught in the second seven weeks of the semester., e.g. CHEM*119*A. Please consult with the Registrar’s office about an appropriate course number. Also, if you plan to cross-list this course, please coordinate with other departments to ensure that the course number is the same for both prefixes.
  • Number of Credits: The number of credits can be 1, 2, 3, or 4, or can be listed as variable (1-4).
  • Course Description: See guidelines. 
    • Please include the language “This course will be taught as a seven-week course.” at the end of the course description, if applicable. 
  • Prerequisites: List the prerequisites for the course. If there are no prerequisites, write “None”.
  • Distribution Requirement: If this course will count towards the Distribution Requirements, please enter no more than 2 tags (CL, HE, IP, ME, PD, QR, SB, SP) for the course. The learning outcomes for each category are listed on this page. If no tags are required, write “none”.
• Short Title: If a course title is more than 30 characters, an abbreviated title that is under 30 characters long must be provided. 
• Grading Option: The options are:
  • Must be taken on a letter-grade basis
  • Must be taken Credit/No Credit basis
  • Can be taken on a letter-grade basis or a Credit/No Credit basis
• First Offering: Please enter the semester and year in which the course will first be offered.
• Frequency of Offering: Please select the option that is most likely, or provide other information, as applicable:
  • Every semester
  • Once a year
  • Every other year.
• Staffing: Please describe who you expect to teach the course and whether you are deleting another course in order to accommodate this addition to your program.
• Other Programs Affected: Please list all of the majors and minors that will include this new course. The other departments affected will need to submit a program revision for each program that will include the new course. 

Learning Outcomes and Mapping

• Course Learning Outcomes: Please list 3-5 course learning outcomes, keeping the following points in mind:
  • Learning outcomes should describe what students should know, understand or be able to do by the end of the course and should be written broadly enough that changes in instructor, textbook, etc would not require a change to the outcomes. (Changing the outcomes for a future offering of this course would necessitate the proposal of a new Special Topics course.)
  • As you write your outcomes, please think about how the wording of your outcome might affect your ability to effectively assess the outcome. For example, compound outcomes will require you to separately assess multiple components of the outcome. To avoid compound outcomes, you may need to think about which outcomes to prioritize by listing them as CLOs and which outcomes are important but don’t rise to the level of a CLO.
• CLO to PLO Mapping: Please complete the table in the following way:
  • Replace PLO 1, PLO 2, etc with the exact wording of your program learning outcomes.
  • Replace CLO 1, CLO 2, etc with the exact wording of your course learning outcomes.
  • For each CLO, indicate any mapping to a PLO by entering I, D, R, or P in the appropriate cell in the table:
    • I – Introducing
    • D – Developing
    • R – Refining
    • P – Proficient.
  • Feel free to add rows and columns, as needed.
• CLO to DR Mapping: If you have included DR tags, please complete the table in the following way:
  • Replace DR 1, DR 2, etc with the DR tag and the exact wording of the corresponding DR learning outcomes, available from this page.
  • Replace CLO 1, CLO2, etc with the exact wording of your course learning outcomes.
  • Map the CLOs to the DR outcomes, as applicable, using an X in the appropriate cells. Each DR tag should be aligned with at least one CLO, meaning that each column should contain at least one entry.

In the Course Revisions tab, please create a numbered section, beginning with the course number and title,  for each course that is being revised, meaning retitled, renumbered (within the same level), and/or redescribed.  If you want to change the DR tags or the level of the course or if you want to add a cross-listing, you will need to sunset the current course and propose a new course with a different course number instead.

Two sections have been provided for you to copy and paste; please number any additional sections sequentially. More detailed instructions are provided below.

Course Revision Information

• Summary of Changes: Using a bulleted list, please list all of the types of changes you are proposing and provide a brief description in each case. The possible types of changes are:
  • Renumbering
  • Retitling
  • Redescribing.
• Rationale: Please explain why these course revisions are being proposed, making sure that you address each of the types of change that you listed in the Summary of Changes. If they are in response to program assessment, please describe how your assessment data informed this proposal.
• Revised Course Listing: Copy the current course listing from the PDF version of the current Bulletin and paste it into the proposal document. Alternatively, find the course in the online version of the Bulletin, click the printer icon, and copy the current course listing from the pop-up box. Both of these methods will result in a copy that does not include the colored background. Indicate the proposed changes by striking out any language that is being removed or revised and entering any new language in red.
  • Course Number: If you are renumbering the course, please consult with the Registrar’s office about an appropriate course number. 
  • Number of Credits: The number of credits can be 1, 2, 3, or 4, or can be listed as variable (1-4).
  • Course Description: See guidelines.
• Short Title: If a course title is more than 30 characters, an abbreviated title that is under 30 characters long must be provided. Paste your current short title (if applicable) into the box and then indicate any changes.
• Grading Option: Enter your current grading option. If you are changing the grading option for the course, please enter the current grading option and strike it out and enter the new grading option in red. The options are:
  • Must be taken on a letter-grade basis
  • Must be taken Credit/No Credit basis
  • Can be taken on a letter-grade basis or a Credit/No Credit basis
• Other Programs Affected: Please list all of the majors and minors affected by this change. You should inform all affected programs of the proposed changes so that they can revise their major/minor, as needed.

Learning Outcomes and Mapping

• Course Learning Outcomes: If you are not revising your course learning outcomes, please enter the current learning outcomes. If you are revising some of your course learning outcomes, enter the current learning outcomes and indicate any changes by striking out any language that is being removed or revised and entering any new language in red. If this course revision affects all of the course learning outcomes, you will need to sunset the current course and propose a new course.If you are revising your course learning outcomes, please keep the following points in mind:

• • Learning outcomes should describe what students should know, understand or be able to do by the end of the course and should be written broadly enough that changes in instructor, textbook, etc would not require a change to the outcomes. 
  • As you write your outcomes, please think about how the wording of your outcome might affect your ability to effectively assess the outcome. For example, compound outcomes will require you to separately assess multiple components of the outcome. To avoid compound outcomes, you may need to think about which outcomes to prioritize by listing them as CLOs and which outcomes are important but don’t rise to the level of a CLO.

• CLO to PLO Mapping: If you are not revising your CLO to PLO mapping, please enter the current mapping (using the IDRP scale). If you are revising your CLO to PLO mapping, enter the current mapping (using the IDRP scale) and indicate any changes by striking out entries that are being removed or revised and entering any new entries in red. Feel free to add rows and columns, as needed.
• CLO to DR Mapping: If you are not revising your CLO to DR mapping, please enter the current mapping. If you are revising your CLO to DR mapping, enter the current mapping (using X’s) and indicate any changes by striking out entries that are being removed or revised and entering any new entries in red. Feel free to add rows and columns, as needed.