Office of Academic Affairs

Curriculum is the province of the faculty. However, development of new programs and modification of existing ones must undergo rigorous peer review beyond the departmental level by both college and university curriculum committees. Further, because expansions of the curriculum may require additional resources, each one must be reviewed and approved in advance by College administration.

As the first step in developing a proposal for a new program, the unit administrator must submit to the Dean an executive summary. The summary should include:

1. Outline of the content and goals of the new program
2. How the new program advances the goals of the unit and the College
3. What resources will be required to implement and sustain the new program over the first 3 years

The Dean’s approval of the executive summary is required before further development can occur.  If the Dean agrees that the program can be supported by the College, the unit should notify the CCC of their plan and may proceed to develop the program curriculum.

When the program curriculum is complete and has been approved by the departmental faculty and the unit administrator, it should be sent to the chair of the CCC for distribution to the committee members at least 10 business days in advance of the committee’s regular meeting. Guidelines for submitting a new degree proposal to the PH Curriculum Committee are attached in the appendix.

Proposals for new programs or new courses may be considered only in face-to-face meetings, with the normal 10 business days advance notice.  Additional face-to-face committee meetings may also be scheduled (and convened when necessary) immediately prior to university catalog submission deadlines, with the normal 10 business days advance notice.

Most proposals for new programs will require consideration at two college-level meetings for approval. At the first meeting, the committee will identify weaknesses in the proposal and agree on revisions they require or recommend before approval. Following this meeting, the submitting unit will make revisions they deem acceptable and develop written rationales for not making those they do not accept. The revised proposal, along with rationales, if any, should be re-submitted to the committee chair at least 10 business days prior to the next meeting, and the chair will distribute them to the committee members.

If the program proposal is approved by the CCC, the unit will be notified and the proposal will be forwarded by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs to the university’s Undergraduate or Graduate Council. To open the following Fall, an executive summary must be submitted to the Undergraduate/Graduate Council no later than August and the program must be approved by the Council by September.

Following Undergraduate/Graduate Council approval, the sponsoring unit will submit the SCHEV proposal to the university Board of Visitors (BOV) for approval and then to the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV). Normally, the BOV and SCHEV approval process requires at least 4 months after submission and can take much longer. If either BOV or SCHEV do not approve a proposal, it will be returned to the unit for revision and resubmission.

1. All new program submissions must be distributed to the committee members at least 10 business days prior to the committee meeting date in order to be included on the agenda.  All other materials must be distributed to the committee members at least one week prior to the committee meeting date in order to be included on the agenda. 
2. All materials must be in FINAL form in order to be voted on.
   1. All courses must have course numbers.
   2. To obtain a course number, email the Director of Academic Administration with the following information:
      1. Intended course level (2xx, 3xx, 4xx, etc)
      2. Draft syllabus (See template - Contact: Academic Affairs)
      3. Course type (lecture, lab, seminar, etc)
      4. Intended start term
   3. Proposals must be approved by the department head before the deadline for submission to the committee.
3. Course titles should be kept as short as possible – 100 characters are permitted for catalog titles. Course titles over the 30 characters allowed to be printed in the course schedule will must also require a shortened version of 30 characters or less.
4. Course descriptions are limited to 1000 characters.
5. All submissions must include a justification.
   1. This information is essential to the submission
   2. The justification addresses WHY the course, program, etc., is being created/modified/deleted.
   3. Please include in the justification how the overall curriculum will be affected by the creation/modification/deletion.
   4. The justification does not need to be long, but it needs to be a thorough explanation
6. PLEASE remember, if a new course is created or a course is deleted and these courses are to become a part of, or be removed from programs, a separate program modification must be submitted.

Modifications of a course include:

1. Changing a course title
2. Changing the credit level
3. Changing the prerequisites or co-requisites
4. Changing the grading type (from graded to pass/fail, for example)

Each of these changes to an existing course will require administrative unit, CCC, and Undergraduate/Graduate Council approval.

Changing a course number (from 500-level to 600-level for example) requires the inactivation of the existing course and creation of a new course. Each will require Undergraduate/Graduate Council approval and can be done simultaneously. Additionally, a program’s curriculum would need to be modified to include the new course.

CCC is the final approval body for the following modifications if they are the only changes proposed:

1. Changing the course description.
2. Changing enrollment restrictions.
3. Substantial modification to the course objectives, so long as it does not overwhelmingly change the focus of the course (which would require developing a new course rather than modifying the existing course).

Modifications to repeatability or schedule type only will require approval by the department chair and associate dean but not committee review.

1. Proposals are distributed to committee members one week prior to the meeting date in order for the committee members to review the material.
2. The first time a new program proposal or program modification proposal with substantial changes as defined by SACSCOC is brought to the committee meeting, it is for discussion purposes.
3. Department representatives will report to their respective faculty on any suggestions for edits or any questions that occurred during the discussion.
4. At the next CCC meeting, the finalized proposal may be brought to the committee for a vote
   1. Proposal must be distributed one week prior to the CCC meeting
   2. Proposal must be in final form (see above guidelines as to what final form entails)
5. If a proposal is brought to the committee for discussion and no significant changes are suggested for that proposal, it may be voted on by the committee members.
6. If a proposal for course modification or program modification needs to be immediately reviewed before the next scheduled committee meeting for purposes of accreditation or extreme special circumstance, it should be sent to the chair of the CCC for electronic distribution to the committee members at least 5 business days in advance of the date a decision is needed. Proposals for new programs or new courses are only considered in a regular or called meeting, with the normal 10 business days advance notice.
7. In order to receive the necessary university approvals before the catalog deadline set by the Registrar's Office, submit course proposals and program modifications to the CCC in December or earlier.

Approved July 2009
Revised March 2013
Revised May 2019
Revised October 2019

View the Guidelines for Submitting a New Degree Proposal to the PH Curriculum Committee (PDF).  

Courses

Adding, modifying, or inactivating courses may be requested in CIM year-round. If the proposal is fully approved after the catalog revision deadline, it will not be published until the following academic year’s catalog.

Programs

If the program is fully approved in CIM after the catalog revision deadline, it will not be published until the following academic year’s catalog.

• Catalog Production Timeline: August 1-Early-April
• Units Submit Proposals via CIM Courses/Programs: July 1 – Late-March
• Office of the Registrar and Units Review/Edit Catalog Content: August 1-Late-April
• CAT/CIM Training Workshops: Contact Office of Academic Affairs
• Office of the Registrar Conducts Final Review of Catalog Content: First two weeks in May
• Courseleaf makes preview site available: Third week of May
• All Campus Review of University Catalog: Last week of May
• Courseleaf Publishes University catalog: June 1 – June 2

The College of Public Health Director of Academic Administration is the Catalog Author for the College.  This person is responsible for soliciting and collecting feedback from the academic units and other college stakeholders. The College Catalog Author will then input the information into the working catalog in CIM.