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Introduction to General Education Curriculum Approval Process

The approval process for curriculum development in General Education: The Human Community was developed in 1998 and approved by the General Education Council after input from all of the college C&I Committees. The approval process is designed to place course approval in the appropriate college C&I committees, and gives the General Education Council responsibility for reviewing courses and groups of courses to determine their appropriateness for meeting the goals of general education. In addition, the General Education Council decided that for curriculum approval purposes, all voting members of the council would constitute a General Education C&I Committee.

The General Education Curriculum Approval Process ensures that Cluster goals and objectives will be met. Clusters maybe organized in a variety of ways. The tier system is the primary structure for combining courses to meet all cluster objectives. The structure divides Cluster goals and objectives into subsets for which one of a set of approved courses is selected to satisfy a subset of the Cluster’s goals and objectives.

Although all courses go through the C&I process in the appropriate college(s), the grouping of courses within a cluster is approved through an analogous process within General Education. There are two phases to the General Education approval process, designed to encourage appropriate experimentation in the development of curricula to meet cluster objectives, and to reserve formal approval until student learning can be assessed. In the first phase, a course can be endorsed for initial offering. After the course has been taught twice, it is reevaluated for formal approval, taking into account evidence of student learning. During both the endorsement and the approval phases, there are multiple opportunities for discussion among the originators, colleges and departments/schools, C&I groups and the relevant Cluster Committee. Upon posting of any change to the structure of a Cluster on the appropriate web site, all faculty have the opportunity to review and comment on courses that are to be considered for general education credits. Both endorsement and approval take into account how well the courses meet specific cluster objectives, as well as their adherence to the mission and philosophy of the General Education Program and the “Guiding Principles.”

Both initial endorsement and formal approval consist of two steps. The proposal is first acted on by the appropriate Cluster Committee and, if endorsed or approved, is then considered by the General Education Council. This process is designed to parallel the college approval process that begins in schools or departments and progresses to a college C&I Committee.