ACADEMIC COUNCIL
Policies and Procedures Manual
This manual provides College of Education faculty and staff the procedures to use when submitting curriculum proposals to Academic Council. When the procedures specified here are followed, course and program proposals will move through the curriculum approval procedures with minimum stress.
The information contained in these pages is based on the current University Curriculum Committee's Policies and Procedures Manual and on current policies of Academic Council. For further explanation, copies of the University Curriculum Committee's Policies and Procedures Manual are available in the Faculty Senate Office, PC 113.
It is the responsibility of the chairperson of Academic Council to update the Academic Council's Policies and Procedures Manual annually as stated in the by-laws of Academic Council.
Some of the information is repeated in the College of Education Policies and Procedures Manual. However, this manual contains detailed, step-by-step procedures for handling each of the curriculum proposals to change/improve College Curricula. Prior to asking for assistance in completing any of these forms, faculty are strongly encouraged to read the relevant sections of this handbook with care.
Calendar for Submitting Proposals:
There are deadlines imposed by the University Curriculum Committee and based on the time it takes for courses and programs to go through the approval process and be placed in the list of University courses in the Office of the Registrar. As a result, course and program proposals for spring and summer semesters must be submitted by the beginning of the term before they are to be listed, and course and program proposals for the fall semester must be submitted by the end of the spring term. Every fall, the Chairperson of the University Curriculum Committee places a specific calendar of submission dates for the given academic year on the FIU website. This calendar should be consulted before submitting any proposals. The Chairperson will make a hard copy of the specific schedule for the academic year as soon as it is available and place it in all faculty mailboxes.
Academic Council holds regularly scheduled meetings on the first Wednesday of each month during the academic year (September through April from 1:00 to 3:00). One meeting might also be scheduled during the Summer A term to handle curriculum documents that were late for the April meeting. Any proposals approved during Summer A will be submitted to the University Curriculum Committee for inclusion in the Curriculum Bulletin in the fall of the next academic year. Meeting times, deadlines, and a progress report tracking system may be found on the Web Page of the Academic Council.
The agenda for each regularly scheduled meeting is created by the Chairperson of Academic Council and posted on the Web Site as well as all faculty's e-mail no later than 5:00 p.m. on the day preceding the scheduled meeting. All faculty submitting proposals need to check the web site to find out the time they should come to the meeting of Academic Council.
Additional meetings of Academic Council may be scheduled as needed. Public hearings sponsored by Academic Council may be scheduled as needed. Announcements of additional meetings and public hearings will be posted on the Council web page, and sent to all faculty by e-mail.
Procedures for Sumitting Proposals:
All proposals for courses and/or programs, including all experimental courses, must be submitted to Academic Council for approval. To submit course and/or program proposals, follow these procedures:
There are three kinds of course proposals that may be submitted to Academic Council:
There are four kinds of program proposals that may be submitted to Academic Council:
There are four kinds of program forms commonly used by the College.
Program Change Forms: These are used any time there is a change in a program. Changes can be as little as those associated with a change in the number of credit hours for a course or as major as a total revision in which none of the existing courses are retained. In either case, a Program Change must be submitted. This will guarantee that the information in the catalog and in the Registrar's office is accurate. A program change is the appropriate form to use for changing modified masters programs to MAT programs.
New Track Proposals: These are used whenever a new track is to be added to an existing program. This is the procedure used to add a Ph.D. track to existing doctoral programs or an MAT track to an existing MS program that does not have a modified masters program already in place
New Program Proposals: When a totally new program is to be offered, such as a specialist degree that is separate from a doctoral degree, one must go through the three-step process of:
developing a feasability proposal and getting this approved,
developing an planning proposal and getting this approved,
and finally developing an implementation and getting this approved.
Certificate Proposals: Occasionally there is a valid reason for developing a certificate program, a program that does not yield a graduate degree but provides a group of students with valid graduate-level knowledge. There was a time in the '80's that the College created a certificate program in urban education. This was done to meet the needs of MDCPS. When this happens, one must submit a proposal for a new certificate program.
Academic Policies for 2002-2003
Format for Curriculum Syllabus (approved by Faculty Assembly, October 18, 2000)
New/Change Course proposals submitted to Academic Council for approval shall be accompanied with a written justification statement using the following format:
Course Number
Course Name
Credit Hours
Program(s) in which used
Name of preparer
Rationale Statement
This is to be done in three paragraphs:
purpose of course with a focus on course content and how it helps meet requirements of professional organizations,
description of students for whom course is intended,
how course relates to program(s) such as where in program sequence the course occurs.
List of Current References
References should be contemporary including the latest editions of books. Older references must be classics in the field. The textbook for the course is NOT to be included in the list of references.
List of Course Outcomes
Course understandings, skills, and dispositions must be written as performance objectives. This means that the kinds of measures used to assess outcomes must be specified.
After each course outcome, indicate the program outcome(s) which the course outcome assesses. If the course is used in multiple programs, select one program as a sample.
Creation of MAT Programs (motion approved by Faculty Assembly on February 21, 2001)
There shall be two kinds of masters degrees offered in the relevant programs in the College of Education.
Masters of Arts in Teaching: This shall be an entry-level program for those who hold a bachelors degree in a field other than education from an accredited college or university. All courses shall be at the graduate level. The program outcomes shall align with the Florida Accomplished Practices, Preprofessional Level.
Masters of Science: This shall be the traditional advanced-level programs that are currently offered in the College. Program outcomes shall align with the Florida Accomplished Practices, Accomplished Level.
Authorization for Ph.D. Programs (approved by Academic Council, March 7, 2001)
The College has received from the State authorization for creation of Ph.D. programs within each of the following programs currently offered by the College: Curriculum and Instruction, Adult Education/Human Resource Development, Higher Education, and Educational Leadership.
Procedures for Tracking Curriculum Proposals
In order to facilitate the tracking of curriculum proposals, the chairperson of Academic Council posts a record of the decisions made about proposals on the Councill web site.
