Curriculum at SCC
and
Role of the Senate
Presented by Craig Rutan and Joyce Wagner
SCC Academic Senate Fall 2013 Retreat
Board of Governors/Chancellors
Office
Sets policy and provides guidance
 Edits the Program and Course Approval
Handbook (PCAH)
 Final approval of educational programs.
 Maintains the CCC Curriculum Inventory
 Is directed to maintain, to the maximum
degree permissible, local authority and
control.
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Local Governing Board
Establish policies for and approve courses
of instruction and educational programs.
 May adopt policies and procedures
related to curriculum only if
recommendations on these policies and
procedures are made through collegial
consultation with the local academic
senate.
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Legal Authority of Academic Senate
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The Governing Board shall … ensure …
the right of academic senates to assume
primary responsibility for making
recommendation in the areas of
curriculum and academic standards.
◦ Education Code §70902 (B)(7)
The “10+1” and CIC
From Section §53200 (c)
1.
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5.
Curriculum, including establishing prerequisites
Degree & Certificate Requirements
Grading Policies
Educational Program Development
Standards & Polices Regarding Student Preparation and
Success
Creation of the Curriculum
Committee
Title 5 §55002:
Curriculum Committee. The college and/or
district curriculum committee recommending the
course shall be established by the mutual agreement
of the college and/or district administration and the
academic senate. The committee shall be either a
committee of the academic senate or a committee
that includes faculty and is otherwise comprised in a
way that is mutually agreeable to the college and/or
district administration and the academic senate.
Curriculum Committee
Responsible for the development, review,
and renewal of curriculum.
 Recommends to the BOT those courses
and programs which meet stated
standards.
 Must be a committee of the senate or a
college committee, and its composition
must be mutually agreed upon by
administration and the senate.
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Other duties typically assigned to
Curriculum Committees
Catalog and schedule of classes
 Program Review
 Record keeping and dissemination
 Prerequisite review
 Articulation
 Placing courses in disciplines
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Administration

Defined in local shared governance
policies and procedures of the district in
the areas of curriculum development and
renewal.
Current Structure at SCC
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CIC is part of shared governance and is
listed as reporting directly to the senate.
The senate does not review most CIC
decisions; they go straight to the BOT.
The CIC chair gives regular summary
reports to the senate under a standing
agenda item.
The CIC chair is now an elected position.
The senate has reviewed new graduation
requirements and programs changes.
Proposals come from the discipline faculty.
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Review is done via CurricUNET
Approval/review chain for courses: curriculum
office, honors advisory committee, articulation
officer, department, curriculum chair, dean,
curriculum cluster, technical committee, CIC,
curriculum office.
First reading/second reading format at CIC.
Originators are asked to come to CIC meeting.
Additional forms are required for honors and
distance education courses.
Course SLOs are reviewed at CIC.
CIC made plans for assessment of liberal arts
degrees
Current RSCCD Policies:
AR6133—January 1997
Prerequisites/Corequisites/Advisories/
Limitations on Enrollment
 Information dissemination
 Challenge process
 Review process
 Program Review
 Implementation
 Requirements
AR6134—January 2000
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Program discontinuance procedure
◦ Two semesters of program review
◦ Formal notice sent to AS Pres., CIC chair,
FARCCD, VP Academic affairs, SCC Pres.
◦ Convening of District PDRC
◦ BOT
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If mutual agreement between faculty and
administration, and students are not
adversely affected, the processes of this
procedure do not need to go into affect.
Where Do We Go Next?
Our existing practice is not documented
anywhere. We need to officially adopt a
set of procedures for how the
Curriculum and Instruction Council
should operate.
 Once the SCC Academic Senate has
decided how to proceed, the procedures
will be drafted, approved, and kept in the
Curriculum Handbook.
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Possibilities
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The authority to make any recommendation to the
Board of Trustees on academic and professional matters
belongs to the Academic Senate. The SCC Academic
Senate could choose to change current practice to be
more involved in the process:
◦ Every course/degree proposal could come to the Academic
Senate after being reviewed by CIC. The CIC vote would be a
recommendation that the senate approve the change. Under
current practice, this would require a formal resolution to
adopt each item.
◦ All of the curriculum items could be brought in a package to
the senate for approval before sending the memo on to the
Board of Trustees.
◦ We could continue out practice of having CIC recommend
curricular changes directly to the board.
Policies in General
Should be clearly understood and
accessible.
 Should maintain high curriculum
standards.
 Should be possible to implement in an
organized, efficient manner.
 Should be flexible and responsive to the
needs of students.
 Should meet regulations.
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Possible Policies for Senate
Consideration
Quadrennial Review
 Units/LHE relationship
 Challenging of decisions
 Program suspension
 Credit by exam
 Online teaching readiness
 Prerequisites by content review
 Term lengths of CIC members
 Others?
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Other Issues
How closely do SCC policies and
procedures need to align with those at SAC?
 Is the workload of the CIC manageable?
 Should we develop subcommittees for
prerequisite and/or distance education
review?
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Summary
The authority of the academic senate for
curriculum comes from education code
 The “10+1” is the implementation of the law
in regulation by the Board of Governors
 The SCC Academic Senate has previously
delegated some of its authority to the
Curriculum and Instruction Council.
 The authority of CIC is not written
anywhere and this needs to be addressed.
 The SCC Academic Senate must decide if
they want to maintain current practice or
modify it.
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Resources
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ASCCC 1996 Paper: The Curriculum
Committee: Role, Structure, Duties, and
Standards of Good Practices
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SCC Curriculum and Instruction
Handbook
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ASCCC Curriculum Website