Curriculum Committees

The Department Curriculum Committee

The dean is responsible for organizing a curriculum committee in each department in his or her college.  The decision regarding how the chairs and members of such committees are selected resides with the dean.  Each department's committee will report to the appropriate department chair.  In fact, it is permissible for the department chair to serve as the committee chair.  It is the responsibility of the committee to review the curriculum, to make suggestions for changes in existing curricula, and to present recommendations for new courses and degree programs.  The department chair is ultimately responsible for the quality of the department's curriculum report. 

The College Curriculum Committee

The dean is responsible for organizing a college-level curriculum committee in his or her college.  The decision regarding how the chair and the members are selected resides with the dean.  However, membership must include at least one Associate Dean and one faculty member whom will also serve to represent the college on the University Curriculum Committee.  Under any circumstance, the committee should serve in an advisory capacity and report to the dean.  Once the intra-college list of courses to be added, deleted, or changed is developed, if any possible curriculum conflicts with other colleges are noted, the needed discussions for resolution are to be held at this level.  

The college committee's function is to review all requests, originating in the departments in the college's administrative area.  The committee should ascertain whether the proposed requests are in harmony with the various roles and scopes of the departments in the college as well as in congruence with the statement of mission of the college itself.  It should be a concern of the committee that the requests do not in any way foster an overlapping of offerings among the departments within the college.  

Note: The committee structure, both at the department and college level, is not designed to circumvent or erode the dean's influence upon the curriculum of that particular unit.  It is expected that the final curriculum forms submitted from each college will indeed be the curriculum actions bearing the unqualified recommendation of the dean, to include acknowledgement of the College's commitment to meeting the financial obligations associated with the curriculum requests.

University Curriculum Committee

The University Curriculum Committee consists of twenty-one members (19 voting and 3 ex-officio).  The Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs makes all appointments from nominations submitted by the academic deans (Associate Deans and faculty members), the Director of the Newton Gresham Library (Library faculty member), and the University Faculty Senate (Chair-Elect).  The committee consists of one Associate or Assistant Dean from each academic college, who serves on the college-level curriculum committee; one faculty member from each academic college, who serves on the respective departmental curriculum committee and college curriculum committee; one faculty member from the Newton Gresham Library; one representative from Academic Affairs; and ex-officio members to include one staff member from the Student Advising and Mentoring Center, one Degree Works representative, and one staff member from the Registrar's Office.  One faculty member is nominated each year by the University Faculty Senate to serve as chair-elect for the committee, serving the following year as Chair. The Director of Academic Planning and Program Development serves an indefinite term as the staff Co-Chair of the committee.

The committee is charged with reviewing for academic integrity the curriculum requests to resolve conflicts to the extent possible.  This includes responsibility of carefully reviewing the curriculum submissions to determine if information provided for all request for new programs and/or courses are complete, to analyze proposed additions and changes in courses in the interest of identifying areas of possible overlap or duplication, and to work toward a resolution of potential problems before the matters come up for discussion by the Academic Affairs Council.  It is expected that committee member(s) will be knowledgeable of the details of the curriculum submissions from their respective colleges in the interest of responding to most questions, which may arise in committee meetings.