Course and Program Proposals

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Proposals for New Courses/Programs and for Course/Program Modification. The University of Hawaii system’s Executive Policy E1.201, E5.201, and Board of Regents policy 5-1b govern curriculum change and review. UH Hilo has revised its campus curriculum review process, effective August 2009, so that the roles of faculty governance and administration are clearly defined and distinguished, and so that the faculty Congress has oversight over curriculum processes that affect more than one college. The review process and other information and links are posted at http://hilo.hawaii.edu/curriculumcentralThese documents are also posted as “Curriculum Policies” on the university’s Policies webpage at http://hilo.hawaii.edu/policies/index.php

The following kinds of proposals are submitted and undergo review via Curriculum Central online system, described at http://hilo.hawaii.edu/curriculumcentral

    • Proposals for new courses and modifications of existing graduate and graduate courses
    • Proposals for new programs and modifications of existing programs, both graduate and undergraduate, including degrees, majors, minors, and certificates
    • Requests for Approval to Plan (ATP) graduate and undergraduate programs, including degrees, majors, minors, and certificates

The Curriculum Central homepage provides the questions to be completed for the proposals, curriculum review deadlines for the current academic year, and instructions for preparing and submitting proposals.

Special topics (-94),experimental (-97, -98), and directed reading (-99) courses use a paper form available at http://hilo.hawaii.edu/registrar/documents/SpecialTop-Experimental.pdf and generated by the Office of the Registrar and do not go through the usual review process.  Deadlines for these special course proposals are stated on the form and at http://hilo.hawaii.edu/curriculumcentral .

Requests to de-activate a course (temporarily remove from the catalog), re-activate one, or "archive" (remove permanently) are also submitted in a paper form available from the Registrar at http://hilo.hawaii.edu/registrar/documents/CourseArchivingForm8-2010.pdf

In the curriculum review system, the colleges and the graduate council each retain their own internal processes for the generation and review of proposals. The new system also establishes criteria for internal review of proposals. Once a proposal has been approved by the college dean or the graduate council, it is passed on to the new campus-wide curriculum review committee (CCRC) for review. The CCRC passes approved proposals on to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, who makes the final decision. Approved proposals are sent to the Office of the Registrar for entry into the student information system and the next university catalog.It is expected that all tenured/tenure track faculty in a department or program have participated in any curricular changes. Individual faculty will submit proposals via Curriculum Central, and each department or program chair will move forward as a package all related departmental proposals.

Training on Curriculum Central is offered on an as-needed basis to departments; contact the campus CC administrator April Scazzola at komenaka@hawaii.edu or Professor Jean Ippolito at jippolit@hawaii.edu to arrange for training.

Timelines. Deadlines are established each Fall for the curriculum review process. Departments and faculty should begin to design and plan curriculum changes a year to 18 months before the Fall semester in which they are to take effect.

For Fall 2013 catalog, deadlines will be announced by the Vice Chancellor for Administrative Affairs in August 2012, and are posted on the Curriculum Central webpage http://hilo.hawaii.edu/curriculumcentral

College-Specific Curriculum Processes

The colleges have their own internal review procedures for curriculum matters. The dean is the decision-maker for internal changes and as appropriate forwards approved proposals to the campus-wide curriculum review committee or, for graduate courses and programs, to the graduate council.

  • CAFNRM and CHL: These college follow the same procedure. Proposals are reviewed by the Faculty Senate of the whole. Once approved there, they are reviewed and acted on by the CAFNRM dean or CHL director.
  • CoBE : After review and approval by the department chair, the Curriculum Review Committee and action by the Senate of the whole, proposals go to the dean.
  • CoP: Proposals are reviewed by the Curriculum Committee, and voted on by the entire faculty; once approved by faculty vote, proposals go to the dean for final review and approval.
  • CAS: After approval by the department faculty, department chair and division chair, proposals go to the college Curriculum Review Committee, then to the dean.

Special Topics and Experimental Courses

UH Hilo Policy on Special Topics and Experimental Courses. In addition to courses listed in the University catalog and offered regularly by departments,special courses may be offered under -94 (special topics) and -97, -98 (experimental courses) numbers.

In addition to courses listed in the University catalog and offered regularly by departments,special courses may be offered under -94 (special topics) and -97, -98 (experimental courses) numbers. A course on the same special topic may be offered only twice. The same course content may not be offered as both a Special Topics and Experimental Course.

A special topics or experimental course can not be offered more than twice as such; to offer the course again, the department must propose it as a regular course and submit it to the curriculum review process via Curriculum Central at least one year in advance.

Special topics (-94),experimental (-97, -98), and directed reading (-99) courses use a special paper form (http://hilo.hawaii.edu/registrar/documents/SpecialTop-Experimental.pdf ) generated by the Office of the Registrar and do not go through the usual review process.  Deadlines for proposals for these special courses are September 30 for courses to be offered the following Spring semester, December 1 for the following summer session, and March 1 for the following Fall semester.

Detailed information about these courses is provided in the "Special Courses" section of the Curriculum chapter of this handbook.

Updated July 2012--AKS