Instructions for Curricular Changes

Either cross-listing or tagging may arise when a course serves a major or a minor outside its home unit.

An interdisciplinary tag appearing in LOCUS’s display of Course Attributes marks the course as serving that particular Interdisciplinary major/minor.

The tag permits students to search in the Class Schedule for classes that may serve a given interdisciplinary program’s major or minor, regardless of the classes’ Subject Area Codes and home units. This use in Class Search is the tag's only function.
Tagging is separate in LOCUS from the course's inclusion in the major(s)/minor(s); nevetheless, tags should be coded only on courses included in the major/minor. If any curricular change alters the status of a course in relationship to a major/minor, applicants are responsible for ensuring that the course's home unit approves and that tags are added or removed from the course accordingly (for permanent tags/inclusions submit both program-documents and course-documents as applicable).
Tags may be incorporated in permanent course-coding when the course is permanently included in the major(s)/minor(s), or they may be associated with particular class-sections on a semester-specific basis through the Temporary Tag process.

“Cross-listing” means the same course, in terms of its defining content and objectives, is designated in LOCUS by course numbers in more than one Subject Area Code belonging to separate academic units.
- Courses are cross-listed most often when they might be taught by members of faculty holding appointments to different academic units (for example, our fictional course Peaches is cross-listed as both TREE 134 in the Department of Forestry and FZZZ 134 in the Department of Things with Fuzz): a particular instructor’s home unit schedules the class under its own Subject Area Code. Academic Requirements Reports for both units’ major(s) and minor(s) must be set up so as to ensure that either course-number will be read as cross-crediting and serving students in both programs.
- Whereas a permanent tag always appears on a course, cross-listed courses appear together in LOCUS only if they are scheduled together as Combined Sections.
Courses required by a major or minor of an interdisciplinary program may need to be cross-listed with departmental courses, but usually tagging suffices.

It is advantageous to cross-list courses in departmental Subject Area Codes when members of the faculty of either department can be expected to teach substantially the same class to students pursuing major(s) or minor(s) in either academic field (thus for example, our fictional Department of Forestry cross-lists TREE 134, Peaches, with FZZZ 134, Peaches, in the Department of Things with Fuzz). Typically the section of the course in the Subject Area of the home-department of the faculty member teaching the course is used as the enrollment section. Provided the equivalency of the cross-listed courses is correctly cross-credited in the applicable major(s)/minor(s), all students will receive the appropriate credit, whether or not the other cross-listed/equivalent course also appears in the Class Schedule in a Combined Section.
If there is no expectation members of both departments will teach the course, a second unit may include non-departmental courses in its own departmental majors and minors without cross-listing: the Department of Forestry requires its majors to take FZZZ 201, Bees, from the Department of Things with Fuzz, but never teaches an equivalent course.
Do recall for purposes of visibility, cross-listed courses appear together in LOCUS only if they are scheduled together as Combined Sections, regardless of whether or not they are also cross-credited.

This sample Table of Contents imagines the fictional Department of Forestry is proposing a package of curricular changes relating to its major in Forestry, FRST-BS, and to a handful of courses, some of which are shared variously with the equally fictional Department of Social Theory, Interdisciplinary Program in Gender Studies, and School of Public Policy. The Summary Memo's Table of Contents provides a brief outline of the applications contained in the package, the stakeholders who share an interest in each application, and the supplementary documents supporting each application, application by application: stakeholders and reviewers will thereby be enabled to navigate the package efficiently. The sample Table of Contents follows:

Since every application-package needs to include before-and-after grids for every major and for every minor that will be affected by the curricular changes being proposed, maintaining up-to-date grids in the academic unit's shared files, ready to go, will make all submitters' and partners' lives easier. It will also help ensure that all changes in majors and minors will be programmed correctly after they pass through the College's and University's approval-processes.

If starting from the absolute beginning, with a new major or minor never before programmed in LOCUS, work from the design for the major or minor in terms of the types of programming in which LOCUS will set up the Academic Requirements Report once the major or minor is approved:

"Individually required courses" are the ones that normally every student must complete successfully in order to earn the major or minor. Conceptual groups of individually required courses may be described by lists within the category (see sample grid for DANC-BA, previous FAQ-item).
"Requirements with options" permit students choices within sets of individually specified courses. A single major/minor may include more than one different requirement-option choice, according to its conceptual structure. Requirements for choices may be structured in terms of the course or of the credit-hour. (See sample grid for DANC-BA, previous FAQ-item.)
"Electives" are courses students may use to complete the course- or hours- requirements of the major or minor, when their choice is constrained not by a list of specified courses but by a Subject Area Code or level of courses within the Subject Area Code (e.g., 4 credit-hours DANC 2## or DANC 3##: see sample grid for DANC-BA, previous FAQ-item).
Having mapped the proposed major/minor in these programming terms of requirements, requirement-options, and electives, articulating any lists within each set as appropriate, fill in the "Proposed Changes" column of the grid with the map of the new major/minor. Total the credit-hours the major/minor will comprise in the "Credit Hours" box. In the "Other changes" box describe any additional structures the major/minor will use, such as a language-proficiency requirement or portfolio, that fall outside the three categories of programming for courses. The "Proposed Effective Date" is normally the fall semester of the following academic year or of a later academic year; it is always subject to the approval-timetable of authorities beyond the College and to implementation-timetables of other administrative units.
Upon receiving back from the Provost's Office the approval-document for the new major/minor with the Provost's time-stamped electronic signature, return to the grid you submitted with your application-package, incorporate any changes introduced since the initial application that have become part of the approved major/minor - note in particular the Effective Date finally approved for implementation - and move this updated and corrected version of the mapped major/minor into the "Current Major/Minor" column of the grid. It will now be your point of departure for any further modifications of your major/minor.

If composing a new grid for a major or minor that is currently programmed in LOCUS, consult its Academic Requirements Outline posted in LOCUS, and make sure it conforms with the changes of the major/minor approved by the College's and University's processes most recently for a current Effective Date.
- If the current ARO conforms with current approvals for the major/minor, articulate its requirements, requirement-options, and electives as described above, total the credit-hours comprised, describe any additional structures the major/minor uses, and fill in the "Current Major/Minor" column of the grid with this information. It will be your point of departure for any further modifications of your major/minor.
- If you identify discrepancies between the ARO posted in LOCUS and the most recently approved form of the major/minor, please get in touch with the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and outline the inconsistencies you have found, so that together you can troubleshoot as needed.

For purposes of the Program Modification Form, an academic program is "interdisciplinary" if it spans more than one School: please check the box accordingly.
Please list the home-unit submitting the application and all additional stakeholder-units involved.

The Academic Council has deputed some curricular changes to the Associate Dean for administrative action:
- discontinuing an inactive major;
- discontinuing an inactive minor;
- discontinuing an inactive course;
- discontinuing an inactive course from an active major or minor;
- re-numbering a course;
- approving specific sections of courses in specific semesters for a temporary tag or cross-listing (see instructions);
- implicitly, the Associate Dean's concern with maintaining the integrity of the Academic Council's approvals in curricular matters means that the Associate Dean will work to correct or clarify apparent errors in the programming or displays of LOCUS.
Discontinuations and re-numberings may be initiated by an e-mail message to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, outlining the specific change(s) sought and why.
- The Provost's Office requires a Program Modification Form (which incorporates a before-and-after grid) for all discontinuations of majors, minors, and certificate-programs: please complete the form and attach it to your message to the Associate Dean.
- Registration & Records normally requires a Course Inventory Form for all discontinuations or re-numbering of courses; the Course Inventory Form incorporates the authority of the Chairperson or Program Director of the academic home-unit requesting these changes. Please complete Course Inventory Forms as needed for your request and attach them to your message to the Associate Dean (NOTE: dowload current CI Form from R&R's Administrative Forms list).
- The Associate Dean will investigate the history and ramifications of the change(s) desired, so as to determine how they may be effected without complications: the Associate Dean will advise the inquirer about the results of these investigations.
Temporary tags and temporary cross-listing of courses are initiated by the stakeholding academic units by application through the CAS-AS DocFinity Platform: see instructions for Temporary Tags and Cross-listings.
Please direct inquiries about apparent programming-errors in LOCUS to the Associate Dean.

Yes: Temporary Tag/Cross-List requests concern changes that should be valid on a semester-specific basis, for particular sections of a course. Permanent changes affect all offerings of the course, or all students declaring the major or the minor, after the changes become effective.
Yes: please file all Temporary Tag/Cross-List requests in application-packages separate from application-packages containing permanent changes. Temporary changes need different approvals, so they need to be routed separately.
Please see instructions for Temporary Tag/Cross-List requests.

The Chairperson/Program Director of the academic unit submitting curricular-change application(s) may, or may not, serve as the Submitter of application-documents in the CAS-AC DocFinity Platform. For fuller explanation of the DocFinity Submitter's role, please see the question, What responsibilities do Submitters bear?, this page. This account describes responsibilities peculiar to the Chairperson or Program Director.

Formally, the Academic Council's process for review of curricular-change applications presupposes that the academic unit - department or interdisciplinary program - initiating a permanent change bears the responsibility to initiate the paperwork so as to effect that change. Nonetheless, some changes necessarily involve extensive collaboration by second unit(s) partnering in the curricular design proposed. Individual members of a second unit's faculty and its Chairperson/Program Director should work with the submitters, the Council, the Dean's Office, and other parties to the process so as to strengthen the proposal, the academic units concerned and their academic programs, and the collegiality of the College.

Instructions for Curricular Changes

In what steps does the College of Arts and Sciences approve permanent curricular changes?

Who needs to file paperwork?

What are the deadlines that can prevent an application from moving forward?

What is the difference between tagging and cross-listing?

Is cross-listing necessary?

How does one fill out a Summary Memo?

Fictional example of a Table of Contents for the Summary Memo

How does one apply to create a new major or minor?

How does one apply to make changes in an existing major or minor?

How does one apply to create a new course?

How does one apply to make changes in an existing course?

How does one apply to tag an existing course and add it to an interdisciplinary major or minor, permanently?

How does one apply to create a new course number for purposes of cross-listing an existing course and adding that course permanently to a departmental major or minor?

What Supporting Documents are required for each type of Application?

Before-and-after Grid

How does one maintain an up-to-date grid?

How does one fill out the Program Modification Form?

How does one fill out a Course Inventory Form? - Preliminary and general instructions

How does one fill out a Course Inventory Form? page 1

How does one fill out a Course Inventory Form? page 2

How does one fill out a Course Inventory Form? page 3

What curricular changes may be enacted by administrative action, and how does one apply to pursue such action?

Temporary Tag/Cross-List Requests are different from Permanent, right?

What responsibilities do Submitters bear?

What responsibilities do Chairpersons and Program Directors bear?

What responsibilities does a "second unit" bear?

What responsibilities does the Curriculum Committee bear?

What responsibilities does a member of the Academic Council bear?

What responsibilities does the Chairperson of the Academic Council bear?

What responsibilities does the Associate Dean bear?