KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY
Kutztown, Pennsylvania 19530
UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
BY-LAWS
April 2006
CONTENTS OF DOCUMENT
I.
Purpose
II.
Membership
III.
Terms
IV.
Officers
V.
Voting rights
VI.
Executive Committee
VII.
General Education Committee
VIII.
Curriculum Matters
IX.
Routing Procedures
X.
Meetings
XI.
Agenda
XII.
Rules of Order
XIII.
Proposals
XIV.
Screening Process
XV.
Support Services
XVI.
Amendment of By-Laws
I. PURPOSE
The University Curriculum Committee, UCC, shall function as the chief body of the University in
all curricular matters. The UCC shall represent the interests of the students, faculty, and
administration regarding the University curriculum. The UCC reviews course and program changes
and new proposals and forwards recommendations to the University President for approval and
implementation. The UCC shall address long-term planning issues and shall develop and
coordinate the curriculum based upon the goals and mission of the University.
II. MEMBERSHIP
A.
The UCC will have sixteen (16) members with specific representation as follows:
*1. Faculty:
*2. Library:
Ten (10) members
Two (2) members by election from each of the five College Curriculum
Committees: Business, Education, Graduate School, Liberal Arts
and Sciences, Visual and Performing Arts
One (1) representative from the Library faculty
*Faculty shall have served a minimum of two (2) years at the University in
tenure-track position, in order to be eligible to serve on the UCC.
3. Students:
Two (2) members appointed by the Executive Committee
One (1) undergraduate
One (1) graduate
4. Administration: Provost or designee
Dean of Academic Services or designee
5. Other:
General Education Committee Chair (if not already a member of UCC)
Representative from the Advising Center
III. TERMS
A.
Faculty shall be elected for two-year terms. There shall be no limit to the number of
consecutive terms a faculty member may serve.
B.
Administrators’ terms are determined by the President.
C.
Students’ terms are for one year and may be renewed.
IV. OFFICERS
A.
B.
All officers of the UCC shall be faculty members.
A candidate for chairperson must have a minimum of a two-year term left, or be eligible and
willing to be reelected to the UCC. A chairperson shall be elected by the committee
biannually for a two-year term. The chairperson’s duties, responsibilities, and powers shall
be:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Determining a schedule of meetings.
Conducting meetings.
Arranging screening of proposals to assure that proper procedures have been followed.
Deciding what matters will be placed on the agenda.
Providing agendas and copies of proposals to the UCC membership, three days in
advance of the meetings.
Sending agendas, three days in advance of the meetings, to all department chairpersons,
college curriculum committee chairpersons, and academic deans.
Announcing the UCC meetings in the University Brief.
Sending approved proposals to the Provost or designee.
Forwarding a list of all approved proposals to the President.
Appointing ad-hoc subcommittees.
Advising department chairpersons and faculty about the structure, implementation, and
routing of programs and course proposals.
Conducting the UCC Executive Committee meetings.
C.
A Vice Chairperson shall be elected annually and shall assume all of the duties and
responsibilities of the Chairperson in the absence of the Chairperson. If the Chairperson
cannot continue to serve, the Vice-Chairperson will become Chairperson and a new ViceChairperson shall be elected.
D.
A Secretary elected annually whose duties and responsibilities shall be:
1. Providing official minutes of the meetings.
2. Communicating with the colleges and/or departments regarding proposals.
E. If there is a vacancy in the offices of the Vice Chair or Secretary before the end of a term, the
vacancy will be filled by election.
F.
There shall be no limit to the number of terms that an officer can serve on the UCC.
G.
Any officer may be removed from office by a vote of three-fourths (9) of voting members.
H.
Elections shall take place in sequential order starting with Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary.
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V. VOTING RIGHTS
A.
Faculty members from each of the five colleges (10) and the Provost or designee will have
full voting rights.
B.
Members who need to be absent may send a substitute who will have the same voting rights
as the person replaced.
C.
Proxy votes will not be accepted.
VI. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
A.
The Chairperson, the Vice-Chairperson, and the Secretary of the UCC will constitute the
membership of the Executive Committee.
B.
The UCC Chairperson will chair the Executive Committee.
C.
The Chairperson will call a minimum of two meetings in each academic year, one in each
semester. Additional meetings will be called if warranted.
D.
The Chairperson shall bring Executive Committee concerns and proposals to the UCC.
Executive Committee proposals/recommendations are subject to a vote by the UCC.
E. The Executive Committee shall recommend creation of subcommittees as needed.
VII. GENERAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE
A.
Function and Duties
1. The GEC will function as a standing committee reporting to the UCC, authorized for a
two-year period, subject to re-authorization.
2. The primary purpose of the GEC will be to make recommendations about both new and
existing courses to be included in the General Education curriculum.
B.
Membership
1. The General Education Committee (GEC) will be composed of a total of ten (10)
members.
a. Each of the four undergraduate colleges will have representation of one (1) voting
member. Four (4) additional members will be elected at large from the undergraduate
colleges.
b. The Provost or designee will be a voting member of the GEC.
c. A non-voting student member will be appointed by the chair of UCC and ratified by
two-thirds (6 members) vote of the GEC.
2. Members will be elected for a two-year term.
3. College Curriculum Committees will determine the procedures for electing
representatives from their colleges. The APSCUF Nominations and Elections Committee
will conduct the elections for the members at large.
4. The GEC will elect a chairperson from its membership.
a. The chairperson will be a faculty member.
b. The chairperson will be elected for a one-year term and may be reelected.
c. The chairperson will serve as an ex-officio member of UCC unless he/she is already
a member of UCC.
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VIII. CURRICULUM MATTERS
A.
Matters directly related to curriculum proposals.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Proposals to Revise Programs.
Proposals to Revise Courses.
New Program Proposals.
New Course Proposals.
Selected Topics Courses.
One-Time-Only Courses.
Educators’ Workshop Courses
B.
General Education.
C.
Matters impacting curriculum but not addressed in VIII. A. or B.
D.
Matters pertaining to long-term planning.
1. Coordination of curricula based upon the mission and goals of the University.
2. The UCC designees will represent the UCC on committees and at conferences convened
to address long-term planning by the University and by the State System of Higher
Education.
IX. ROUTING PROCEDURES
A.
Undergraduate Curricular Proposals Routing Procedures (See appended Curriculum Routing
Procedures document).
B.
Graduate Curricular Proposals Routing Procedures (See appended Curriculum Routing
Procedures document)
X. MEETINGS
A.
Meeting Schedules.
1. A minimum of eight (8) monthly meetings will be scheduled for each academic year.
2. A calendar for monthly meetings and agenda deadlines shall be provided to the
membership at the first meeting of each academic year.
B.
The regular meeting of UCC shall be on the fourth Thursday of the month when possible,
from 11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.
C.
A quorum of two-thirds (8) of the voting membership shall be necessary to conduct the
UCC meetings.
D.
The Chairperson reserves the right to call an additional meeting following the regular
monthly meeting if pertinent business is not completed at the regular monthly meeting.
E. With the consensus of the membership, the Chairperson may call special meetings. Special
meetings will address the UCC business that falls beyond the scope of the agenda for
regularly scheduled monthly meetings.
F.
All students, faculty, and administrators are welcome to attend regular UCC monthly
meetings if the physical facilities can accommodate them. They can express their views, if
ruled in order by the Chairperson.
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XI. AGENDA
A.
The agenda shall consist of the following in order of priority.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
General announcements by the Chairperson.
Matters considered by the Chairperson to be of an emergency nature.
Procedural matters.
Approval of Minutes.
Committee reports.
Old Business including tabled proposals.
New Business.
a. Program and Course Proposals.
b. Proposals will be placed on the agenda alphabetically in rotating order of college
name, by the college from which they originate. Proposals will be in numerical
order within each college designation.
c. General Education course proposals will retain the numerical designation of the
originating unit.
8. Announcements of One-Time-Only, Selected Topics, and Educators Workshop courses.
9. Any curricular matter submitted to the Chairperson by any student, faculty, or
administrator. The Executive Committee must first review such matters and judge them
appropriate for consideration by the UCC.
XII. RULES OF ORDER
Robert’s Rules of Order shall govern the UCC proceedings in all cases where they are applicable.
XIII. PROPOSALS
A.
All proposals for revised and new courses must be completely developed and include:
1. Course description (as it will appear in the University Catalog.)
A succinct description of the course content, with key words from the course objectives,
should be written. The number of clock hours, semester hours of credit granted, and
prerequisites must be included. If pertinent, semester(s) when the course will be offered
can be included. Avoid verbosity, but use complete sentences.
2. Rationale
The rationale must include the reason(s) for the development of the course and a
description of how the course will help to achieve the goals of the program for which it
is intended (either the major program and/or General Education).
3. Course Objectives
These objectives should be written in such a way as to reflect the desired outcomes from
the course as observed in student behaviors. They must indicate demonstrable learning
expected of the student for the successful completion of the course.
4. Assessment
A list of the instruments used to assess students’ achievement of the course objectives
must be included. The composition of this list and the nature of the assessments
themselves are at the discretion of the submitting department.
5. Course Outline
The course outline should provide sufficient detail so that course content can be
determined from the outline.
6. Instructional Resources
A list of instructional resources supporting a proposed course must be provided. Such
bibliographic information should include author(s), copyright date, title, place of
publication and publisher for books, and similar information for non-book items.
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Persons proposing a course should ensure that the Library owns or has ordered at least
50% of the core literature for the course. Where appropriate and applicable resources
should be as recent as possible and should meet the accreditation standards for the
particular program.
7. Additional information
Some departments may wish to include such items as controls, special costs or needs,
and unusual procedures or teaching strategies to be used in the course. Decision as to
whether or not to include such information is at the discretion of the individual
department.
B.
One-Time-Only/Selected Topics Course Proposals/Educators’ Workshops
1. These course proposals are routed directly to the University Curriculum Committee
following departmental approval.
2. These proposals will be announced at the UCC meeting but not voted upon.
3. These proposals must be accompanied by the appropriate and complete cover sheet.
4. Seventeen copies and three original copies of these proposals must be submitted to the
UCC.
5. A One-Time-Only course may be offered only one time. To be offered again, the course
must receive full approval through the regular approval curriculum process.
6. A specific course title for a Selected Topics course may be offered up to two times but
must be announced each time so that it is noted in the curricular records. (Please note
that if a department wishes to offer a specific course title for a third time, the department
must route the course proposal through the UCC process as a regular course.)
7. Educators’ Workshop courses may be offered an unlimited number of times, but must be
announced each time so it is noted in the curricular records. Since they are designed as
professional development workshops to meet Pennsylvania Act 48 requirements,
Educators’ Workshops courses may not be used to fulfill the requirements of any degree
program at Kutztown University.
C.
New program proposals must include a new checksheet.
D.
All proposals for new and revised courses and programs must follow the curriculum routing
procedure.
E. All proposals must be accompanied by a complete cover sheet in the appropriate college
color.
F.
Proposals for revised courses must include a memo that explains the reasons for the changes.
Revised courses must include an old syllabus. Revised program proposals should include a
memo that explains the reason for the change in program, the old checksheet, and the new
checksheet.
G.
Seventeen copies and the three original signature copies of all proposals must be submitted
to the UCC Office by the announced deadlines. Compliance is necessary for a proposal to be
placed on the agenda for that particular month.
XIV. SCREENING PROCESS
A.
The proposals will be screened before their inclusion in the UCC agenda. This screening will
check cover sheets for accurate and complete information. Proposals themselves will be
checked for format.
B.
Proposals will be screened following their positive recommendation by the UCC. This
screening will make certain that all mechanical details are in place for implementing a
revised or new program or course offering.
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C.
The final step in the review/screening process is the UCC Chairperson monthly report to the
President about announced and recommended proposals. The President’s acceptance of the
report finalizes a program or course proposal for inclusion in the University Curriculum.
XV. SUPPORT SERVICES
Support Services for the UCC shall include but are not limited to:
A.
No less than six (6) hours of reassigned time per academic year for the UCC Chairperson.
B.
The services of a University Secretarial Staff Member to expedite the UCC business.
C.
Office space for the Chairperson to conduct the UCC business and to house the UCC
records.
D.
An appropriate budget for the UCC mailing, phone, and supplies.
XVI. AMENDMENT OF UCC BY-LAWS
A.
By-Laws may be amended at any time with an affirmative vote by two-thirds (8) of the
voting membership of the UCC.
B.
Amendment of the UCC By-Laws is subject to review and approval by Representative
Council of APSCUF.
Drafted 2/96: A. Chasse, UCC Chair
Editorial Revision only: 8/96 by K. Gupta
Rev. Draft 8/97: J. Burnett, UCC Chair, R. Schaeffer, UCC Vice-Chair, E. Cunfer, UCC Secretary
Editorial Revision Draft 5/98: J. Burnett
Approved by UCC: 6/98
Approved by APSCUF Rep. Council: 3/99
Approved by UCC: 10/06
Approved by APSCUF Rep. Council: 11/06
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