COMMON ERRORS (When Filling Proposal Forms)

COMMON ERRORS (when filling proposal forms):

-Administering Faculty for graduate-level courses [600 and 700] and programs is always “GRADUATE STUDIES”.

-Second course title is to be used for spelling out abbreviated words in the original title ONLY; no words may be added to or subtracted from this title – titles need to be the same in both boxes.

-Course number change must ALWAYS include a restriction revision, which is to read “Not open to students who have taken [the original number]” – only exception is a SLOT course.

-When revising description/prerequisite/corequisite/restriction where none existed for the old, then the old description/prerequisite/corequisite/restriction should be listed as “None.” If this is not done, then it is not obvious that there is a revision. All revisions should be briefly explained/justified in the Rationale box on the form.

-Course descriptions should not contain information on how a course is given, student evaluation, what students will do (presentations, projects, labs, readings); do not include long specific list of topics;do not include statements like: “The course will examine …”, “The student will learn …” – just briefly indicate content; EXAMPLE: MECH 600 Advanced Topics in Mech Eng 1 has a description of “New developments related to mechanical engineering”.

-400- and 600-level course with the same title and description cannot be proposed; one 500-level course should be proposed. If the preference by the department is to have the two different level courses, title and description need to be differentiated by indicating “advanced” for the higher-level course.

-Two courses may not have the same title – with the exception of double-prefix courses; example: a jointly-appointed professor in two departments wishes to offer a course to both group of students in the different departments, then the same course is proposed under the two subjects codes [two separate proposals with exact info – number (with different subject codes), title, credit weight description etc. and restriction of “Not open to students who have taken (refer to other course)].

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-Graduate-level proposals are not reported to GPSO first – all proposals come to SCTP first via the SCTP Faculty Contact [following faculty approval] and I report approvals appropriately following SCTP meetings; if contact person indicates their e-mail address on the proposal, they will receive a c.c. of the follow-up.

-No more than one program per proposal – non-thesis option should be reported separately, as it is a separate program.

-A course split should be completed on two course revision proposal forms.

-In program layouts, credit weight needs to be indicated for each and every course – in both existing and proposed columns.

-ALWAYS indicate course/program credit weight on proposal forms – whether this is being revised or not.

Cindy Smith, Course and Program Administrator [

[09/28/07]