Courses

Program Courses

All courses offered by a program must be approved by the program, by the Committee on Curriculum and Degree Requirements, and by Graduate Council. They are listed in the Graduate Center Bulletin, which is the official document used by students and faculty. Specific courses for the semester are found on CUNYFirst's Dynamic Course Schedule.

Courses for the Semester

The Executive Officer determines the courses to be offered each semester after consultation with representative groups of faculty and students. The Executive Officer assigns faculty to teach the courses. A complete list of courses and assigned faculty is sent (with such details as the Registrar requests, including preferred times and classrooms) to the Provost's Office and to the Registrar, who assigns classrooms and arranges for entry on the GC portal.

The Mina Rees Library sends requests for reserve reading list materials several months before classes begin and asks that lists be submitted in a timely fashion so that librarians can arrange to place all reading materials on reserve. (Faculty may also send their own copies of books and photocopies of articles for placing on closed reserve; see the librarians for further information.)

The Executive Officer must arrange for the participation of doctoral faculty whose appointments are not at the Graduate Center. Confirmation letters must be sent each semester to the academic deans and department chairs of the appropriate CUNY campuses.

Course Limits

Course limits for each program began in Fall 2003, primarily to control instructional costs. Each program's units were calculated to include courses, independent studies, and administrative releases for deputies. Released time assigned for Executive Officers and dissertation directors is not included in the program's allocation. Annual limits for courses, independent studies (budgeted as 0.2 of a course), and administrative releases have been assigned to each program.

In fashioning each semester's schedule, Executive Officers should manage these categories to achieve desired goals. The program might, for example, offer fewer independent studies and more seminars. Similarly, as administrative releases could increase or lessen depending on the program's curricular and mentoring needs. Team-taught courses - and the budgetary implications of that pedagogic mode- can be considered. The formula may vary from semester to semester. The program's annual course units should not exceed the assigned limit.

The rule of five remains in force. Because that rule is a workload issue with implications beyond the Graduate Center, all seminars must have five enrolled students (twelve in team-taught courses). Any exceptions to that restriction requires the approval of the Provost.

Instructional and administrative activity for the current and previous semesters is shown on the GC portal on each program's Report Selection Page under "Academic Administrators Reports."

Minimum Enrollment

All doctoral courses (and master's courses at the Graduate Center) require minimum enrollments. A course taught by a single instructor (apart from dissertation advisement and independent study) must have a minimum enrollment of five. A day or two before the first day of classes is the final date for the calculation of enrollment to determine whether a course will be canceled or changed to independent study. The program is required to cancel courses that do not have minimum enrollments on that date unless the Provost has granted an exception. See the "Academic Administrators Reports" in the GC portal's Self Service Banner for the programs course and student information.

Curricular Changes

All changes in curriculum (new courses, changes in credits or description, changes in degree requirements and so forth) must be approved by the program, by the Committee on Curriculum and Degree Requirements, Graduate Council and the CUNY Board of Trustees. Proposals for program changes should first be approved by the appropriate program committees and sent electronically to the Provost's Office, along with a request from the Executive Officer. Note that each proposed change must have a rationale. Changes should be in the format used in the Graduate Center Bulletin; note that material to be deleted must be in brackets and new material underscored.

"Major items" involve general policy and curriculum regulations pertaining to the Graduate Center Bulletin does not include course descriptions, proposals for new courses should include such descriptions.

"Minor items" include non substantive changes in existing courses, changes in course numbers and hours, editorial changes, and dleteions of courses.

There is now only one template for the Chancellor's University Report (CUR) for all curriculum changes. The template includes examples of what is to be included and how it should be placed on the template. All items should be typed in CRTEXT and Ariel 12. The examples and all information in Blue should be deleted from the final document before submission.

21 July 2015