College Committees – Curricular Affairs – End of Year Report
Final Report of the Behrend Curricular Affairs Committee for Academic Year 2021-2022
Members: Paul Becker, Lisa Elliott, Melanie Ford, Linda Hajec (chair), Molly Monahan Lang, Ibrahim Naseem, Peter Olszewski, Lily Rasmussen (SGA student member), Zachary Williams
Purpose: The Curricular Affairs Committee reviews and evaluates all course and curriculum proposals submitted by the Schools of the College. It studies and reviews all existing courses and curricula of the College and maintains liaison with the College administration and faculty as necessary for the implementation of the procedures outlined in the Guide to Behrend College Curricular Procedures. The Curricular Affairs Committee maintains and makes available the Guide to Behrend College Curricular Procedures which provides instructions for submitting course and curriculum proposals. The policies and procedures in the Guide to Behrend College Curricular Procedures are subject to the approval of Faculty Council and are to be consistent with the University Faculty Senate's Guide to Curricular Procedures.
Meetings:
- 7/12/21 – summer review / approval of ARTSA program
- 11/5/21 – hybrid meeting – organizational meeting to discuss charges
- 12/15/21 – online meeting – subcommittee meeting on curriculum process
Review of Progress:
Charge 1
(Standing Charge) Review, evaluate and approve undergraduate courses and program proposals; Make specific recommendations to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs regarding proposals for the creation, revision, and discontinuance of programs and courses at Behrend.
- Standing charge: ongoing
- During this academic year, reviewed six courses and one certificate
Charge 2
(Carried Forward) Create a uniform approach to submitting curricular proposals in all four schools.
- The prior year committee recommended that each school adopt the online form that the School of Science uses and, furthermore, that the form include a link to the process for each school. Also recommended was a reset button on the form in case the person needs to submit more than one proposal, and that it be published on the Faculty and Staff resources page or to the BD intranet. Bill Gonda incorporated the link on the Faculty and Staff resources page under Academic Resources in the 20-21 academic year. However, due to the other schools not having full involvement and buy-in, this adoption did not happen. (All four schools' processes were uploaded to Box, no further action was taken as requested during the Faculty Senate meeting on 2/10/20. Those processes were migrated to Teams on 2/19/2021.)
- School administrative support staff who are directly involved in the process met for the sake of sharing information and process, but did not reach consensus on process. Agreed to meet again in summer when time would be more likely conducive to working on an agreement.
Charge 3
(New Charge) Make recommendations to gather faculty support and create appropriate processes to encourage a college-level view of curriculum.
- CRCS is being replaced by CIM, so the timing is appropriate to build a better system that encourages and enforces a stronger process.
- CIM is 10 months behind implementation as of this report date.
- Charge will stand and be addressed following the competition of Charge 2 once there is a process in place for submission of curricular proposals.
Submitted by:
Linda Hajec
College Curricular Affairs Committee, Chair
5/16/22