A Guide for Arts & Sciences Chairs

Also in Faculty & Staff

Related Links

Reviewing & Revising the Department’s Curriculum

Your department should carry out a thorough review of your academic programs once every 5-10 years (in addition to identifying and fixing problems each year). It is often more convenient to consider the undergraduate program one year and the graduate program five years later, but in some departments they are best considered together. This review should solicit opinions from both current students and recent graduates. The basic questions are whether each program meets the needs of the students; covers the field in sufficient breadth and depth; is structured so that it uses resources efficiently and effectively; is coherent, and presents material at a point when the students are prepared to assimilate it.

If the faculty decide to revise one of the department's academic programs, then you need to take the following steps:

  1. Discuss your ideas with Senior Associate Dean Susan Jackson.
  2. For the purposes of discussion, it is expedient to have a concrete, written proposal. To this end, have a delegated faculty member, a committee, or yourself draft a revised version of the description of the program that appears in the Undergraduate Bulletin or Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Bulletin, whichever is relevant.
  3. Have the same person or committee write a brief document (in normal prose) that gives an overview of the program, the rationale for changing the program, a clear description of the changes, and a review of the impact (both positive and negative) on the students in the program.
  4. Discuss the revisions at a departmental faculty meeting; have your faculty vote to approve the revisions. (You cannot proceed without this approval.)
  5. Fill out forms proposing new or revising existing courses associated with the program revisions.
  6. If the program is offered jointly with another department, the above should be done by a joint committee.
  7. Solicit cognate comments—using the appropriate forms—from the chairs of all departments that might be affected by the changes. These include departments that offer courses required in the program, departments that offered courses required in the old version of the program but not the new, etc. (If in doubt, request a cognate letter—it is much better than having someone raise a surprise objection at the College faculty meeting where approval of your revised program is proposed.) It is useful to give a cutoff date for the cognate letter (send a reminder, though, as the date approaches).
  8. Submit the paperwork to Peter Law, CAS Academic Administrator, including a cover memo addressed to the chair of the Academic Policy Committee (APC) and signed by you (and the chairs of the other relevant department if it is a joint program). The memo should indicate the support of the faculty in your department. If the revisions have an impact on the budget or on staffing, state this clearly in the cover memo.
  9. The relevant College curriculum committee will review your proposed program revisions, including any proposed new courses or revisions to existing courses. Upon approval, the College's Academic Policy Committee will review the proposed revised program. The chairs of these committees will notify you if they have objections or require revisions to the proposal.
  10. After committee approval, the proposed revisions will be considered at the next College faculty meeting. If approved by the faculty, the revised program will be effective at the start of the following academic year, unless you have specified a later start date.