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Office of Undergraduate Studies

Office of Undergraduate
Studies
617-287-6330

So You Want to Submit a Course Proposal?

Before you do anything else, download and read this two-page document: The One Form Made Clear.

Once you have that, here's what you do in the following situations:

1. You are submitting a brand-new course (undergraduate or graduate): use The One Form and The One Resource Issues Supplementary Form. In CLA/CSM, send undergraduate courses to Steve Ackerman in Biology (chair of the Academic Affairs committee); in CLA, send graduate courses to Rosanne Donahue in the Dean's Office for inclusion on the CLA Senate Agenda.

2. You are submitting course revisions (title change, number change, etc.): use The One Form. Course proposals are distributed as described above for new courses.

3. You want your course to be approved for inclusion in Distribution II: use The One Form. Course proposals should be sent to Judy Zeitlin in Anthropology (chair of the GenEd committee).

4. You want your course to be approved as a Diversity course: use The One Form. Course proposals for CLA/CSM diversity courses should be sent to Tim Sieber in Anthropology (chair of the Diversity committee).

5. You want your course to be approved as a Quantitative Reasoning course: use The One Form. Course proposals should be sent to Maura Mast in Math (chair of the QR committee).

6. You are submitting a new First-Year or Intermediate Seminar: use The One Form. and The One Resource Issues Supplementary Form. Course proposals should be sent to Estelle Disch in Sociology (chair of the Seminars Assessment committee).

How do I know what the "rules and regulations" are?

Here are some potentially useful documents:

1. The Yellow Document - this spells out the "new" General Education Program from the University perspective.

2. The Purple Document - this describes how CAS (now CLA and CSM) chose to implement the principles spelled out in the Yellow Document.

3. The Tan Document - Updated in 2006, this now lists the various GenEd distribution areas and capabilities as approved by Faculty Council. Includes the expansion of Mathematics to Mathematics/Technology. Useful for faculty in all colleges.

4. A document discussing the use of Capabilities in First-Year and Intermediate Seminars.

What Else Might Be Useful?

Here is some "boilerplate" that should go on all course syllabi, regarding disability services and the Code of Student Conduct.