Forms & Information
Timelines for Submitting your Proposal
Proposals will be considered by the Graduate Committee after they have been reviewed by Executive Committee of Graduate Committee. Please bear in mind the following guidelines for implementing graduate curriculum proposals.
| Approval by | Implementation | Note |
|---|---|---|
| End of December | May be scheduled for the following fall | |
| End of March | May be scheduled for the following fall | -Makes the 1 April editorial deadline for the following year's College Catalog -Fall course schedule is already set |
| April and May meetings | Fall implementation for a year from the following year is recommended | -May not make the editorial deadline for the next year's College Catalog |
| Please note that proposals that need Board of Governor approval (i.e. new or substantially altered programs) will take longer to gain their final approval. | ||
Information On Preparing Your Proposal
To get a general sense, you should first read over the guidelines in Section 4.2 of the Graduate Committee Manual, "Information About the Preparation of Proposals." Then, download the Proposal form, below, and complete all the necessary sections as directed. Name your proposal to reflect its content (eg. The number of the course being proposed or changed [such as CEP532] or the discipline of the program [such as TESLprg], and do not leave spaces in the name as these cause problems when we upload). There are more specific guidelines on the form itself for certain questions.
What you can do on this form:
- Propose a new course, either as a free elective or as part of a program. Please use a separate form for each new course you are proposing
- If your new course is to be included within a specific program, then you should also complete the section covering a program revision (this can be done using the same form).
- If your new course is replacing an already existing course, you should indicate this on the form and mark the old course for deletion. Check to see if this deletion will affect any other programs, and ensure those affected are informed and indicate any changes in the program revision section (an acknowledgment signature will be required).
Possible Revisions to courses:
- Change a course number
- Change a course title
- Change the description of a course
- Change the number of contact hours
- Change the number of credit hours
- Change a course's prerequisites
- Change a course grading system
- Delete a course
- Make another change not listed above.
You may use one form to make multiple changes to a single course. You may also use one form to make the same change to more than one course (for example, to make the same prerequisite change to two or three courses.). But if you are making different changes to different courses, please use separate forms for each course. Some changes may be approved and others not, and so we need to keep different kinds of requests separate to ensure accurate recordkeeping.
- Propose a new graduate program, or add a concentration to an existing program. Bear in mind that new programs will require approval from the Board of Governors, which can take some time, so determine ahead of time if this really is a new program, or just a revision of an existing one. The measure is whether or not you are changing more than 25% of the program. Guidelines for new or drastically altered programs (which also need approval from the Board of Governors) can be found on the
RIBGHE website. - Propose a revision or revisions to a graduate program. If the changes constitute 25% or less of the program, then the Board of Governors only needs to be notified of said changes, and no approval from them is necessary. If you will be offering new or revised courses as part of this revised program, please include proposals to cover these in addition to this form, as needed. Do not include new courses or revisions to courses on the same form as some changes may be approved and others not, and so we need to keep different kinds of requests separate to ensure accurate recordkeeping.
What Other Information Does the College Need?
The editor of the College Catalog needs to know exactly what changes to make in new editions. To make the editor's job easier and to ensure the catalog has accurate information, you must include a file that depicts the catalog changes and clearly shows your requested revisions. If you are submitting several connected proposals, you may prepare a single catalog file that covers all of these, but please indicate this in the message when you send. Use the "Track Changes" feature in Microsoft Word. General guidelines on how to do this can be found under the "Submission of Proposals" heading in section 4.2 of the current Graduate Committee Manual, which is on the website. There are also step-by-step instructions below, with downloadable Microsoft Word files of the catalog. Please name the file to match the proposal (eg. The number of the course being proposed or changed [such as CEP532cat] or the discipline of the program [such as TESLprogcat] and do not leave spaces in the name as these cause problems when we upload).
To Whom Do I Send The Form?
After completing the form, please acquire all necessary signatures. The copy of the form with signatures must be sent in paper form to the Chair of the Graduate Committee in time for that month's Executive Committee meeting for Graduate Committee.
The electronic version of your completed form (with typed names where the signatures will be), and your revised catalog copy must be emailed to the Chair of the Graduate Committee, at graduatecommittee@ric.edu by noon on the deadlines noted on the website. Please note, any additional explanatory notes, tables, charts etc. or syllabi, must be pasted into the proposal document, and should not be sent as separate files.Documents
College Catalog
- Do an electronic search to identify all catalog pages affected by your proposed change, including general education, program listings and course descriptions. If you are revising the course number, title, credit hours, prerequisite, or description, you must find any page that lists the course as a requirement, elective, cognate, or general education course, etc. Remember that other departments or programs may also list the course and it is your responsibility to find these. You should use the most recent edition of the college catalog that will be on the Records Office website.
- From the list below, select and download the file(s) that contain the materials you need to update. They have been divided into sections to try and make these easier to find
- Cut the pages that you will need to change and paste into a separate Microsoft Word document. All of your catalog changes for a proposal need to be contained within a single file. Use page breaks to separate the different sections, to make it easier for the Catalog editor to follow, and also ensure you have given sufficient context in your extracts.
- If you are submitting several connected proposals, you may prepare a single catalog file that covers all of these, but please indicate this in the message when you send.
- Before editing, ensure you turn on "Track Changes."
- Make the changes, save the file, and give it a name that connects it clearly to your proposal.
- Send this file, along with the proposal, in an attachment to graduatecommittee@ric.edu.