Faculty

Proposal and Approval Process

When a proposal has been submitted it will be forwarded to the department and college for approval. When the proposal has been approved at the college level it will proceed to other levels of approval. The levels of approval are dependent on whether the proposal requires review from other departments, colleges, General Education Governance Board (GEGB), United States Cultural Pluralism (USCP), or Academic Senate Curriculum Committee (ASCC).

The Role of Faculty in Regard to Curriculum

In March 1985, the Academic Senate CSU (ASCSU) approved "Collegiality in the California State University System," a statement that includes the following regarding the curriculum:

The university's curriculum is central to the operation of the institution and is the principal concern of the faculty.

The faculty have a professional responsibility to define and offer a curriculum of the highest academic quality. In some fields, this professional responsibility is exercised within accrediting guidelines developed and enforced by professional associations. This professional responsibility cannot, be its very nature, be delegated. The faculty, therefore, have primary responsibility for making curricular recommendations to the president. Normally, the president will accept the advice and recommendations of the faculty on curriculum matters. Faculty appropriately have this responsibility because they possess the expertise to judge best whether courses, majors, and programs adhere to scholarly standards.

Among curricular decisions for which faculty should have primary responsibility are:

1. The initiation of new academic courses and programs, and the discontinuance of academic courses and programs;
2. Course content, including choice of texts, syllabus design, assignments, course organization, and methods of evaluating students;
3. The designation of courses as degree or nondegree applicable, lower or upper division, or graduate level;
4. The content of the general education program within system wide guidelines. Faculty should designate appropriate courses and establish the requirements for completion of the program. Faculty should be responsible for review and revision of the program;
5. The adoption, deletion, or modification of requirements for degree major programs, minor programs, formal concentrations within programs, credential programs, and certificate programs;
6. The establishment of minimum conditions for the award of certificates and degrees to students, and the approval of degree candidates; and
7. Recruitment decisions affecting curriculum.

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* From the May 17, 2005 memo from the Chair of the ASCSU to Campus Senate Chairs.