Congress Curriculum Review Committee (CCRC) recommendations:
Submitted March 14, 2012 by Jonathan Awaya, Harald Barkhoff, Kelly Burke, Eileen Lovell, Scott Saft,
Michael Shintaku (chair), Anthony Wright and Cathy Zenz.
First, we recommend that ALL course and program proposals go through Curriculum Central. All course
and program modifications as well as authorization to plan (ATP) proposals should also go through
curriculum central. The CCRC deals with well over a hundred proposals and mods per year and if they
come in by email, paper as well as Curriculum Central, then things can too easily get lost.
Second, while curriculum central facilitates online and at-home/office evaluation of all proposals, our
committee agreed to individually evaluate proposals, and then sit down to meet, discuss and vote on all
proposals. These discussions provided the critical and diverse consideration that is the function of this
committee. We strongly recommend that future curriculum committees hold frequent meetings
(required because we had about 190 proposals this year) to discuss and vote on proposals.
Third, course proposals are returned most frequently because of inadequate/incorrect responses to
questions 4, 6, 9, 10 and 13. Here are those questions (bold), with a description of the problem, and our
(italicized) recommendations.
Curriculum Central question:
4. Is this a proposal for a
(a) new course with a new alpha/number/title, never offered before, or previously offered as a -94,
-97, -98 course?
or
(b) for a modification of an existing course with the above alpha/number/title, or a proposal to
change the number/alpha/title of a previously offered course?
Please specify (a) "New course" or (b)"Modification of existing course."
Problem: Many courses were returned because the proposer(s) indicated “Modification of existing
course”, while the previous offering was one or more instances of -94, -97 or -98. It therefore
should have been submitted as a NEW course. This makes a difference because mods are generally
only scrutinized for changes while new courses are scrutinized head to toe.
Our suggestion is to edit this question:
4. Is this a proposal for a
(a) new course with a new alpha/number/title, never offered before, or previously offered as a -94, 97, -98 course?
or
(b) for a modification of an existing course with the above alpha/number/title, or a proposal to
change the number/alpha/title of a previously offered course? If this is the case, please indicate
exactly when the course was previously offered.
Please specify (a) "New course" or (b)"Modification of existing course. Note that courses previously
offered as -94, -97 or -98 are considered new courses.
AND/OR to add the underlined text below to question #8:
8. Has this course previously been offered under another alpha/number/title ? If yes, what
alpha/number/title were used, and when was it last offered as such?
Please include offerings as -94, -97, or -98 courses; if there are any, please recheck your answer to
question #4.
State "This course has not been previously offered under another alpha/number/title," if that is the
case.
Curriculum Central question:
6. Is this course repeatable for credit/grade? Please specify the number of repeats allowed and any
conditions for allowing repeating. (In general, courses are not repeatable except as specified by the
department and under limited circumstances specified in the university catalog.)
Problem: Many courses were returned because this question is misunderstood. Campus policy does
allow retaking courses for grade improvement, but this question asks if a student can, for instance,
receive A’s and credits in a class multiple times. Submitters sometimes indicate that the class is
repeatable, but they just want to allow for retakes aimed at grade improvement.
Our suggestion is to add the underlined text to this question:.
6. Is this course repeatable for credit/grade? Except for special circumstances, your course is most
likely not repeatable, and your answer to this question will be ‘no’. Campus policy already
accommodates retaking nonrepeatable courses for grade improvement. If your course is
repeatable for credit, please specify the number of repeats allowed and any conditions for
allowing repeating. (In general, courses are not repeatable except as specified by the department
and under limited circumstances specified in the university catalog.)
Curriculum Central question:
9. Course Description: approx. five lines or 40-60 words, publication-ready.
If this is a modification that involves the course description, use the strike-out function (top row of
Edit toolbar, fourth icon from left) to indicate what is being deleted and the underscore icon (top
row, third icon from left) to indicate what is being added.
Reviewers must be able to see clearly what changes to the description are proposed.
Problem: Many proposals listed prerequisites in the syllabus and not in the course description.
We suggest adding the following to the first line of this question:
Prerequisites and corequisites must be stated in the course description.
Curriculum Central question:
10. Is the course to be made a PRErequisite or a COrequisite to a course in another discipline, or does
the proposal add a prequisite or corequisite from another department? Will the proposed course
be CROSSLISTED with a course in another department?
If No to all of these questions, type "No" below.
If yes to any of these questions, type "Yes" and attach an email to this item from the chair of the
other department that specifies the other department's agreement to this arrangement.
Click the "Attachment" tab at the top of this page to attach the email file.
Problem: Many submitters miss the part after the comma. They see the part asking if their course
will be made a pre or corequisite in another discipline and stop reading. They miss the part that
asks if their course has prerequisites in another discipline. They answer ‘no’ and then don’t bother
to submit a letter from a representative of the other discipline.
Our recommendation is to modify this question to read:
10. Does the proposal have a prequisite or corequisite from another department? Will it be made
a PRErequisite or a COrequisite to a course in another discipline? Will it be CROSSLISTED with
a course in another department/college?
If No to all of these questions, type "No" below.
If yes to any of these questions, type "Yes" and attach an email to this item from the chair of
the other department that specifies the other department's agreement to this arrangement.
Click the "Attachment" tab at the top of this page to attach the email file.
Curriculum Central question:
13. How many hours will the student spend per week in lectures, laboratories, field trips, clinical,
service learning?If field trips occur less frequently than once a week, how many field trips will the
class take each semester?
Problem: This is often left blank or answered with ‘lecture’. We recommend changing it to read:
13. How many hours per week will the student spend in lectures, laboratories, and other in-class
or in-service activities?