Arts & Sciences Curriculum Committee

Responsibilities

1. The A&S Curriculum Committee is responsible for reviewing and either approving or rejecting all proposals relating to curriculum for the College. These proposals include new majors, minors, secondary majors, and certificates; changes to any major, minor, secondary major, or certificate; new course proposals; and changes to existing courses.  The Committee bases approval on need, student interest, academic integrity, including rigor appropriate to academic level, as well as best practices in the Academy. Also, the Committee considers whether the program or course overlaps with other programs and courses in any department and tries to coordinate the changes in order to avoid duplications and to steward A&S resources.
2. The A&S Curriculum Committee also receives proposals for approval from the A&S Core Curriculum Advisory Committee to add or remove courses from the College’s common courses or distribution lists in the Core Curriculum, as well as to amend distribution list requirements.

Submission of Proposals

Departments submit proposals through Bearquest, including all required information and documents. For new courses, departments must complete the syllabus template. For new majors, minors, secondary majors and certificates, departments must use Bearquest to submit documents indicating the objectives of the program, need, a proposed catalog listing, comparisons of such programs elsewhere (if possible), and connection to the strategic plans for A&S and for the University.

Membership

1. The A&S Curriculum Committee will include members from departments representing the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and fine arts. All full-time regular faculty members (lecturers, senior lecturers, tenure-track, and tenured) are eligible for appointment to the Committee. 
2. The Dean will appoint faculty members for a three-year term, subject to reappointment for one additional term.
3. The Committee Chairs will be Associate Deans for Undergraduate Studies. The Committee will have nine voting members. In addition, the Committee will have non-voting members, including the following:

• The Director of Degree Certification and Curriculum Management (DC&CM) will record votes, compile minutes of each meeting, and distribute the minutes to appropriate parties. The Director of DC&CM maintains records of the Committee’s actions to ensure that all new courses and programs, as well as all approved changes, appear in the University’s Undergraduate Catalog. The Director also provides input about proposals based on knowledge of the catalog;
• The Director of the A&S Advising office (CASA) assists Committee members regarding the impact of a particular change or new program on student progress through the curriculum;

1. Committee members should have a broad perspective on curriculum across A&S. Also, they should be committed to transformative liberal arts education within a community of Christian scholars.  

Meetings

1. The A&S Curriculum Committee will meet monthly to consider proposals. Extra meetings may be added, as needed, to meet deadlines for the inclusion of proposals in the Undergraduate Catalog.  The Committee does not meet during the summer.
2. The Director of DC&CM will distribute proposals to Committee members one week before the meeting to give everyone time to review the proposals.
3. At least five voting members must be present at each meeting to constitute a quorum.
4. Proposals may be approved by majority vote, tabled to allow members to gain further information (usually based on a request from the Committee co-chair), or rejected by a majority vote.
5. The Committee may invite leadership of the department submitting a request to attend a meeting to answer Committee members’ questions about a proposal. Invited guests do not stay for the Committee vote on their proposals.
6. Current Committee members:

• Co-Chairs: Carrolle Kamperman (Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies) and Marcie Moehnke (Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies);
• Voting members:  Katie Binetti (ANT), Blair Browning (CMTN), Ginger Hanchey (ENG), Lisa Denman (THEA), Kevin Dougherty (SOC), Brad Keele (PSYN), Paul Larson (SPA), Ben Ryan (ENV), Michelle Stover (CHE)
• Non-voting members: Jason Bushnell (CASA) and Lauren Muhl (DC&CM).