1 KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY Kutztown, Pennsylvania 19530 UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM COMMITTEE BYLAWS April 2015 CONTENTS OF DOCUMENT I. PURPOSE II. MEMBERSHIP III. TERMS IV. OFFICERS V. VOTING RIGHTS VI. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE VII. GENERAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE (GEC) VIII. CURRICULUM MATTERS IX. MEETINGS X. AGENDA XI. RULES OF ORDER XII. PROPOSALS XIII. SUPPORT SERVICES XIV. AMENDMENT OF UCC BYLAWS I. PURPOSE The University Curriculum Committee (UCC) shall function as the chief body of the University in all curricular matters. The UCC shall represent the interests of the students, faculty, and administration regarding the University curriculum. The UCC reviews course and program changes and new proposals and forwards recommendations to the University President for approval and implementation. The UCC shall address long-term planning issues and shall develop and coordinate the curriculum based upon the goals and mission of the University. II. MEMBERSHIP A. The UCC will have fourteen or fifteen (14 or 15) members with specific representation as follows: 1. Faculty * : Ten (10) members with the total comprised of two (2) members by election from each of the four College Curriculum Committees: Business, Education, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Visual and Performing Arts, plus two (2) Graduate Faculty identified by Graduate Council. 2. Library * : One (1) representative from the Library Faculty. * Faculty shall have served a minimum of two (2) years at the University in a tenure-track position, in order to be eligible to serve on the UCC. 3. Students: Two (2) members appointed by the Executive Committee, one (1) undergraduate student and one (1) graduate student. 4. Administration: Provost or designee (1). 5. Other: General Education Committee Chair, if not already a member of UCC (0 or 1).
2 III. TERMS A. Faculty shall be elected for two-year terms. There shall be no limit to the number of consecutive terms a faculty member may serve. B. Administrators terms are determined by the President. C. Students terms are for one year and may be renewed. IV. OFFICERS A. All officers of the UCC shall be faculty members. B. A candidate for Chairperson must be able to serve a full two-year term or complete the remaining time of a two-year term if being elected to complete a prior Chair s incomplete term in office, barring any unforeseen event. A Chairperson shall be elected by the committee biannually for a two-year term. The Chairperson s duties, responsibilities, and powers shall be: 1. Determining a schedule of meetings. 2. Conducting meetings. 3. Arranging screening of proposals to assure that proper procedures have been followed. 4. Deciding what matters will be placed on the agenda. 5. Through electronic means, providing access to agendas and proposals to the UCC membership, three days in advance of the meetings. 6. Announcing the UCC meetings in the University s Daily Brief. 7. Sending approved list of proposals to the Provost or designee. 8. Appointing ad-hoc subcommittees as needed. 9. Advising department chairpersons and faculty about the structure, implementation, and routing of programs and course proposals as needed. 10. Conducting the UCC Executive Committee meetings. C. A Vice-Chairperson shall be elected annually for a one-year term and shall assume all of the duties and responsibilities of the Chairperson in the absence of the Chairperson. If the Chairperson cannot continue to serve, the Vice-Chairperson will become Chairperson and a new Vice- Chairperson shall be elected. D. A Secretary shall be elected annually for a one-year term whose duties and responsibilities shall be: 1. Providing official minutes of the meetings. 2. Maintaining the UCC webpage. E. If there is a vacancy in the offices of the Vice-Chair or Secretary before the end of a term, the vacancy will be filled by election. F. There shall be no limit to the number of terms that an officer can serve on the UCC. G. Any officer may be removed from office by a vote of nine (9) voting members. H. Elections shall take place in sequential order starting with Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary.
3 V. VOTING RIGHTS A. Faculty members (8) from each of the four colleges, two (2) Graduate Faculty, one (1) library faculty representative, and the Provost or designee (1) will have full voting rights. Thus, the UCC has 12 voting members. B. Members who need to be absent may send a substitute who will have the same voting rights as the person replaced. C. Proxy votes will not be accepted. VI. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE A. The Chairperson, the Vice-Chairperson, and the Secretary of the UCC will constitute the membership of the Executive Committee. B. The UCC Chairperson will chair the Executive Committee. C. The Chairperson will call meetings as necessary. D. The Chairperson shall bring Executive Committee concerns and proposals to the UCC. Executive Committee proposals/recommendations are subject to a vote by the UCC. VII. GENERAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE (GEC) A. Function and Duties. 1. The GEC will function as a standing committee reporting to the UCC. 2. The primary purpose of the GEC will be to make recommendations about the structure and content of the General Education Program. 3. The GEC will have its own Chairperson who will report to the UCC, and serve as an exofficio member of the UCC. 4. The GEC will operate according to the GEC bylaws. Any changes to the GEC bylaws must be approved by the UCC. VIII. CURRICULUM MATTERS A. Matters directly related to curriculum proposals. 1. Proposals to initiate new or revise existing programs, courses, and policies. 2. General Education proposals. 3. Distance Education proposals. 4. Selected Topics and One-Time-Only courses. B. Other matters impacting curriculum as outlined on the current Curriculum Proposal Cover Sheet but not addressed in section VIII. A. IX. MEETINGS A. Meeting Schedule.
4 1. A minimum of seven (7) monthly meetings will be scheduled for each academic year. 2. A calendar for monthly meetings and agenda deadlines shall be posted to the UCC webpage by the first meeting of each academic year. B. The regular meeting of UCC shall be on the fourth Thursday of the month, when possible, from 11:00 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. C. A quorum of six (6) voting members shall be necessary to conduct the UCC meetings. D. The Chairperson reserves the right to call additional meetings following the regular monthly meeting if pertinent business is not completed at the regular monthly meeting. E. With the consensus of the membership, the Chairperson may call special meetings. Special meetings will address the UCC business that falls beyond the scope of the agenda for regularly scheduled monthly meetings. F. All students, faculty, and administrators are welcome to attend regular UCC monthly meetings. They can express their views, if ruled in order by the Chairperson. X. AGENDA A. The agenda shall consist of the following in order of priority: 1. General announcements by the Chairperson. 2. Matters considered by the Chairperson to be of an emergency nature. 3. Procedural matters. 4. Approval of Minutes. 5. Committee reports. 6. Old Business including tabled proposals. 7. New Business. a) Program and Course Proposals. b) Proposals will be placed on the agenda alphabetically in rotating order of college name, by the college from which they originate. Proposals will be in numerical order within each college designation. c) General Education proposals will retain the numerical designation of the originating unit. d) Distance Education. 8. Announcements of One-Time-Only and Selected Topics. 9. Any curricular matter submitted to the Chairperson by any student, faculty, or administrator. The Executive Committee must first review such matters and judge them appropriate for consideration by the UCC. XI. RULES OF ORDER A. Robert s Rules of Order shall govern the UCC proceedings in all cases where they are applicable. XII. PROPOSALS
5 A. All proposals for revised and new courses must be completely developed and include: 1. Course Description (as it will appear in the University catalogs) a succinct description of the course content, with key words from the course objectives, should be written. The number of clock hours, semester hours of credit granted, and prerequisites must be included. 2. Rationale the rationale must include the reason(s) for the development of the course, which can include a description of how the course will help to achieve the goals of the program for which it is intended (either the major program and/or General Education). 3. Course Objectives these objectives should be written in such a way as to reflect the desired outcomes from the course as observed in student behaviors. They must indicate demonstrable learning expected of the student for the successful completion of the course. 4. Assessment a list of the instruments used to assess students achievement of the course objectives must be included. The composition of this list and the nature of the assessments themselves are at the discretion of the submitting department. 5. Course Outline the course outline should provide sufficient detail so that course content can be determined from the outline. 6. Instructional Resources a list of instructional resources supporting a proposed course must be provided. The resources may be print or electronic in nature. The list may include any combination of books, journal articles, media, reputable websites, or other formats appropriate to the course proposed. The resources should be listed in alphabetical order, using the citation style of that discipline. Persons proposing a course should ensure that the Library owns, or has electronic access to, at least 50% of the core literature for the course. Where appropriate and applicable, resources should be as recent as possible and should meet the accreditation standards for the particular program. 7. Additional information some departments may wish to include such items as controls, special costs or needs, and unusual procedures or teaching strategies to be used in the course. The decision as to whether or not to include such information is at the discretion of the individual department. B. One-Time-Only/Selected Topics Course Proposals. 1. These course proposals are routed directly to the University Curriculum Committee following departmental approval. 2. These proposals will be announced at the UCC meeting but not voted upon. 3. These proposals must be accompanied by the appropriate and complete cover sheet. 4. A One-Time-Only course may be offered only one time. To be offered again, the course must receive full approval through the regular approval curriculum process. 5. A specific course title for a Selected Topics course may be offered up to two times but must be announced each time so that it is noted in the curricular records. (Please note that if a department wishes to offer a specific course title for a third time, the department must route the course proposal through the UCC process as a regular course.) C. All new and revised program proposals must include a new and revised check sheet. D. All proposals for new and revised courses and programs must follow the curriculum routing procedure.
6 E. All proposals must be accompanied by a complete cover sheet and the accompanying documents specified on the cover sheet. F. All proposals must be uploaded to the UCC s proposal submission website by the announced deadlines. Compliance is necessary for a proposal to be placed on the agenda for that particular month. XIII. SUPPORT SERVICES Support Services for the UCC shall include but are not limited to: A. No less than six (6) hours of reassigned time per academic year for the UCC Chairperson. B. The services of a University Secretarial Staff Member to expedite the UCC business. C. Office space for the Chairperson to conduct the UCC business and to house the UCC records. D. An appropriate budget for the UCC mailing, phone, and supplies. XIV. AMENDMENT OF UCC BYLAWS A. Bylaws may be amended at any time with an affirmative vote by nine (9) of the voting membership of the UCC. B. Amendment of the UCC Bylaws is subject to review and approval by Representative Council of APSCUF. Drafted 2/96: A. Chasse, UCC Chair Editorial Revision only: 8/96 by K. Gupta Rev. Draft 8/97: J. Burnett, UCC Chair, R. Schaeffer, UCC Vice-Chair, E. Cunfer, UCC Secretary Editorial Revision Draft 5/98: J. Burnett Approved by UCC: 6/98 Approved by APSCUF Rep. Council: 3/99 Approved by UCC: 10/06 Approved by APSCUF Rep. Council: 11/06 Rev. Draft 4/15: J. Walker, UCC Chair, J. Vafeas, UCC Vice-Chair, S. Czerny, UCC Secretary Approved by UCC: 10/16 Approved by APSCUF Rep. Council 3/17