PLEASE NOTE:
- All proposals must include a signed cover sheet.
- Following review and approval at the department and school levels, all course and program proposals must be sent electronically to the Curriculum Committee chair (Kathy Murphy: murphyk@nwpaltz.edu), copied to the Provost's representative (Valerie McAllister: mcallisv@newpaltz.edu).
All courses:
__ Please address all parts of the forms for proposing new courses or revising existing courses.
__ Please ensure that the title of a proposed course accurately indicates the emphases of its contents. If the title is general in orientation, but the content is specific in application, then please change the title to better inform students of the actual course content.
__ Syllabi must align with the syllabus requirements distributed annually by the Provost’s Office. These, along with a syllabus template (ADA-compliant Word document, aligned with the syllabus requirements), are available in OIT's Knowledge Base and on Academic Affairs’ website (see Instructional Resources).
- Student learning outcomes (SLOs) must specify what students will know or be able to demonstrate when they have completed a course and must describe observable and measurable actions or behaviors. Additional information and links to helpful resources are included in the syllabus requirements posted on the sites linked above.
- Syllabi must indicate the relative weight of each assignment in determining final grades and include information as to how each will be assessed.
- If participation makes up a significant share (10% or more) of the final grade, be sure to communicate what you expect of students and how you will assess their participation. Here is one example of how evaluation of participation might be described in the syllabus.
- Syllabi must include all required academic policy statements or link to the Academic Policies web page.
__ If a proposed course is similar (in content, approach, or aims) to an approved course from another unit, that unit's chair or program director must consult with the proposing department/program to ensure that any content duplication is appropriate and justified. Such consultation must be documented via a signature on the cover sheet or statement appended to the proposal.
All GE courses:
Please refer to the GE 5 Narrative Supplement, which must be appended to all GE course proposals.
__ All courses proposed for GE, as well as their sample syllabi, must directly address the content of the proposed GE category and SUNY’s student learning outcomes for that category. In addition, courses proposed to meet either of SUNY’s two required competencies - Critical Thinking & Reasoning and Information Literacy - must align with SUNY’s learning outcomes for those competencies. Please refer to the SUNY GE Framework website.
__ All GE course proposals must indicate how the course learning outcomes directly correspond to SUNY's General Education learning outcomes for the proposed category/competency.
__ All GE courses are subject to assessment. SEIs alone are not acceptable for assessing a GE course.
All upper-division GE courses:
__ Upper-division (3xx/4xx) courses proposed for GE must address how prior lower-division (1xx/2xx) GE coursework helps to prepare students for the upper-division course.
__ Upper-division courses without prerequisites that are proposed for GE must address the issue of fairness if the likely enrollees include students without any background in the subject matter as well as students who have extensive background in the subject matter.
__ If a department/program proposes an upper-division course for GE when it already has a lower-division course in the same category, then the course proposal should address the likely enrollees in the proposed upper-division course. If enrollees are likely to be primarily, or exclusively, majors of the proposing department/program, and this is documentable by past enrollments, then the course proposal should include a rationale for why the upper-division course is appropriate for GE.
Program Proposals
For proposing new degree (i.e., major) or certificate programs or revising existing degree or certificate programs, please use SUNY's forms. If you are unfamiliar with SUNY's forms and/or the program-proposal process, please contact Valerie McAllister (mcallisv@newpaltz.edu) for guidance on getting started and assistance throughout the process.
For proposing new minors or revising existing minors, a local proposal form is used. All forms are posted on the Curriculum Committee’s Forms page.
__ Please append an “old” major (or minor) plan and a “new” major (or minor) plan any time a department/program proposes to change the configuration of its major/minor. If a change in a major/minor also affects students from a different department/program, please notify the relevant chair of the change(s) and obtain that person's signature on the cover sheet to document consultation.
__ All program proposals must clearly indicate the links between a prerequisite, or sets of prerequisites, and other required or recommended courses. For majors, inclusion of an 8-semester plan helps to address this need.
__ Please outline how students are to progress in programs with separate concentrations or tracks and explain how these respective tracks provide equivalent depths of study.
