Proposal to Change the Structure of an Existing Major or Minor

Do not confuse requirements with courses.

As an example:
A department currently has a major requirement that specifies:

• five core courses and;
• five courses chosen from any departmental electives

The department now wants to require:

• four core courses;
• an internship and;
• departmental electives from three specific subject areas

This constitutes a change in the structure of the major. It requires a proposal to change the structure of a major or minor.

Note that adding a course to the list of courses that satisfies an already existing requirement does not require this proposal. Instead, faculty can simply submit a course proposal indicating that the course will now apply to the (already existing) requirement.

Likewise, simply changing the description of the program in the Catalog (but not the requirements) would not require anything but editing in the catalog.

INSTRUCTIONS

Submit the following to the Chair of the Curriculum Committee and the Registrar of the CAS

1. Statement of Change
   1. Clearly identify the changes that are proposed
2. Rationale for the change 
3. Explanation of how this change fits with trends in your department’s discipline 
4. Explanation of how the change may collaborate with, or impact, other departments
   1. Does it duplicate curriculum in another department?
   2. Does it augment curriculum in another department?
   3. Will it impact course enrollment in another department’s courses?
   4. Will it change your department’s contribution to interdisciplinary programs? 
5. Explanation of how this change may affect a department’s contributions to general education or other wider college curricular commitments 
6. Provide a plan for teaching out students who will still be completing the requirements from previous catalog years 
7. Provide supplemental material:
   1. Copy of relevant catalog page with changes clearly marked
   2. Clean copy of new catalog page, including any changes to the overview page or major/minor description(s)
   3. Identify courses that will require a course proposal to apply them to new requirements or remove them from applying to outdated requirements
   4. Approval from other department chair(s) if the proposal impacts other departments

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PDF version of the above instructions

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