190.1 Curriculum Committee Operating Procedures

190.1 Curriculum Committee Operating Procedures

A. Background

The Faculty Constitution (Article V, Section 5b) charges establishes the Curriculum Committee. with the study of proposals involving addition and deletion of specific courses in the light of Furman's purposes, policies, and curricular goals. The committee is to present its recommendations to the faculty.

B. Policy

The Curriculum Committee, in carrying out its responsibilities in regard to the undergraduate curriculum, shall follow the guidelines outlined below. The Curriculum committee studies all proposals involving the addition revision and deletion of specific courses in light of Furman’s purposes, policies, and curricular goals. The committee is to present its recommendations to the faculty.

C. Guidelines

1. The committee at large shall determine guests and resource people to meet with the committee, normally at least 48 hours before a Committee meeting. In case of emergencies, potential guests shall wait outside until the Committee decides whether an invitation shall be extended.

2. Items shall be placed on the agenda in the order determined by the Committee. In the absence of Committee action, items shall appear on the agenda in order submitted.

3. Proposals for new courses, extensive revisions of current courses, renumbering of courses, or deletion of courses shall come to the Committee from department chairs. In special cases (e.g., Humanities or Women's Studies concentrations) proposals would come from the chair of the appropriate oversight committee. The appropriate document ("Course Proposal Form") The Course Proposal Form shall be used for new, extensively revised, or renumbered courses. Requests for deletions should be made on departmental stationery by memorandum to the Committee chair and should explain briefly the reason(s) for the request.

4. Each department chair should have a copy of the appropriate form on file. The form may be obtained from the current chair of the Committee.

5. Unless the Committee makes an announcement to the contrary, the deadline for catalog course proposals is January 15 of the preceding academic year. The deadline for special topics (95) proposals is January 15 for courses to be offered in the following Fall and Winter terms. The deadline for special topics (95) proposals is November 1 for courses to be offered in the Spring term.

6. Every late course proposal should be accompanied by a letter explaining why the proposal was not submitted on or before the appropriate deadline.

7. All proposals to the Committee shall be acted upon.

8. If the Committee approves a proposal for a special topics (95) course, the course may be offered only during the academic year specified in the course proposal. If the course is canceled for any reason, then a new course proposal must be submitted to the Committee in order for the course to be taught in a future academic year.

Special topics courses:  A special topics course may be taught up to a maximum of three times before they must be proposed and approved as catalog courses, with a new course proposal submitted to the Committee on each occasion. However, a new course proposal must be submitted to the Committee on each occasion. Any subsequent offering must be proposed and approved as a catalogue course.

9. If the Committee approves a proposal involving a catalog course, then it shall present the proposal to the faculty with recommendation for approval.

10.  If the Committee rejects a course proposal involving any course, it , the committee chair shall inform the appropriate department(s) of its decision and the reason(s) for rejection. The department(s) may then withdraw the proposal, rewrite and resubmit the proposal, request a hearing before the Committee, or request that the proposal and the Committee's action be presented directly to the faculty. The faculty may then take such action as it sees fit. for resolution.

• New and revised course proposals for General Education credit, Asian-African Credit, or use within a concentration will be considered by the Academic Policies Committee (APC) after the proposal has been reviewed and approved by the Curriculum Committee. As indicated on the Course Proposal Form, all such proposals require statements indicating approval by the originating department, the Asian-African Committee and/or Concentration Oversight Committee. After the APC vote, the chair of APC will report decisions to the chair of the Curriculum Committee, who will then make all appropriate presentations to the faculty.
• Committee recommendations for catalogue courses, General Education credit, Asian-African credit, or courses to be used in a concentration require a faculty vote for approval. Special topics (95) courses approved by the Committee do not, but are presented to the faculty for their information.
• At the end of each academic year, the Committee will set and announce deadlines for both catalogue and special topics (95) course proposals for the following year. Course Proposal Forms (electronic format only) are available from the chair of the Committee.

11. The Academic Policies Committee has delegated the review of request for Asian-African credit to the Curriculum Committee. Until further notice, requests for Asian-African credit for new or existing courses should be made both to the Asian-African Committee and to the Curriculum Committee. The Curriculum Committee will present the recommendations of both the committees to the faculty before a faculty vote.

12. Any course proposal or other request requiring faculty approval shall be circulated to the faculty in advance of the faculty meeting at which it is to be considered. In most cases, a memo from the Curriculum Committee shall accompany the agenda for the faculty meeting.

• Agenda items to be considered by or reported to the faculty shall be posted on the Faculty Notices bulletin board in accordance with deadlines established by the Chair of the Faculty.

13. Requests for general education credit for new or existing courses should be made to the Academic Policies Committee.

...........................