LAS Curriculum Committee

Anthropology/Sociology	Jason Crockett
Biology	Cristen Rosch
Computer Science & Information Technology	Charlie Shim
Criminal Justice	Lindsey Runell
English	Jennifer Forsyth
Geography	Mathias LeBosse – Fall /Moira Conway – Spring
History	Patricia Kelleher
CLAS Dean's Office	Laurie McMillan
Mathematics	Brooks Emerick
Modern Language Studies	Lynn Kutch
Physical Science	Matthew Junker
Philosophy and Government	Joseph Jedwab
Psychology	Derek Mace
Social Work	FangHsun Wei
Student Representative	TBD

I. Purpose

The Curriculum Committee of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) functions as the representative body of the College in all curricular matters.

 II. Membership and Selection

A. The Committee shall have 15 or 16 members as follows.

a. One representative from each of the 14 CLAS departments
b. The Dean of the College or designee
c. One CLAS student representative

B. Each department of the College shall elect one representative from its full-time faculty who have served in a tenured/tenure-track position for at least two continuous years.

C. The student representative shall be selected in a manner decided by the Student Government Board. The student representative must be a major in CLAS.

D. In the event a representative is not able to attend a meeting, the representative shall select a Substitute representative from the department to attend, alerting both the Dean’s office and the Chair of the Substitute’s name.

 III. Terms

A. Faculty terms shall have no limit.

B. The student representative term shall be one year and may be renewed.

 IV. Voting

A. All members of the Committee have full voting rights.

B. Substitute members shall enjoy full voting rights.

C. Voting shall require an absolute majority (8 votes) of those present and voting in all cases except:

1. amending the Bylaws, which shall require an extraordinary majority of two-thirds (10 votes), and

2. those actions which normally require an extraordinary majority according to Robert’s Rules of Order, e.g., to shut-off debate or suspend the rules.

V.  Officers and Representatives

A. The Committee shall elect 3 Officers: Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary. The term of each Officer is for two years and may be renewed.

B. The Committee shall elect 2 Representatives and at least 1 Alternate to the University Curriculum Committee (UCC). The term of each Representative/Alternate shall be staggered with one Representative serving a one year term and the other Representative serving a two year to provide continuity. All terms may be renewed.

C. The Committee shall elect 1 Representative and at least 1 Alternate to the General Education Committee (GEC). The term of each Representative/Alternate shall be two years to provide continuity. All terms may be renewed.

D. The last business meeting of the year is used for Committee business and any necessary elections. If the current Chair has resigned, then the meeting shall be called by the Dean of the College or designee to preside until a new Chair has been elected.

E. The Chair (or the Vice Chair acting in the Chair’s absence) shall:

1. agree to the schedule of the meetings set by the CLAS Dean’s office;

2. conduct meetings;

3. appoint subcommittees when necessary;

4. sign and date approved curricular proposals;

5. call necessary Committee Officer and Representative/Alternate elections;

6. coordinate with the CLAS Dean, Dean’s office staff, and Chairs of the UCC and GEC; and

7. perform such other duties as the Committee may direct or as specified in Robert’s Rules of Order.

 VI. Agenda

A. The agenda shall consist of the following in order of priority:

1. announcements, including one-time only courses, Distance Education courses, Special Topics courses, and First Year Seminar courses;

2. matters considered by the Chair to be of an emergency nature;

3. procedural matters;

4. reports (e.g. from UCC and GEC);

5. old business;

6. curricular proposals from departments, which are given LAS ID numbers in the order in which they are received by the Dean’s office. Proposals will be considered in numerical order, but may be considered out of order by the vote of the Committee; and

7. any matter submitted to the Chair by any member of the faculty, administration, or student of the College, which, in the judgment of the Chair, should be appropriately considered by the Committee.

B. A copy of the agenda for meetings and minutes of the previous meeting, as well as copies of any curricular proposals to be considered at the forthcoming meetings, shall be available to the members of the Committees at least one week in advance, if possible.

VII. Format for Curricular Proposals

A. All formatting of curricular proposals to be submitted to the Committee must follow the requirements of UCC and/or GEC, which can be found on Kutztown University’s website.

B. The submitting department is responsible for providing the Dean’s office with a coversheet that has been signed and dated by the department Chair and all the required proposal documents.

VIII. Approval Signatures

A. All formatting of curricular proposals to be submitted to the Committee must follow the requirements of UCC and/or GEC, which can be found on Kutztown University’s website.

B. The submitting department is responsible for providing the Dean’s office with a coversheet that has been signed and dated by the department Chair and all the required proposal documents.

IX. Amendment of the Bylaws

The Bylaws may be amended at any time with the approval of two-thirds (10 votes) of the full membership of the Committee.

 XI. Rules of Order

A. Robert’s Rules of Order shall govern the Committee’s procedures in all cases where applicable.

B. A quorum shall consist of a simple majority of the members of the full Committee (8 members).

C. Voting shall be by simple majority of those present and voting in the presence of a quorum in all cases except:

1. amending the Bylaws which shall require an extraordinary majority of two-thirds of the full Committee (10 votes); and,

2. those actions which normally require an extraordinary majority according to Robert’s Rules of Order, e.g., to cut off debate or suspend the rules.

D. No member of the faculty, administration, or student body will be barred from meetings, or prevented from expressing his/her views, so long as s/he is ruled in order by the Chair and so long as the physical facilities will accommodate him/her.

  

Approved 03/14/90
Rev. 05/08/1990; 11/10/1998; 9/12/2000; 4/21/2020

Department level:

1. Obtain a Curriculum Proposal Cover Sheet from your department secretary or the UCC website.

2. Check appropriate Action Items (Table 1).

3. Produce the required supplementary documentation (Table 3).

4. Get approval of your department for the changes (department vote/Table 2).

5. Obtain an LAS-CC Identification Number* from the LAS-CC support - Lisa Meyers by email (lmeyers@kutztown.edu). Please indicate this is LAS-CC business in the subject line. You must indicate the following in your email request:

   • Prefix and course number for existing courses

   • The exact title of your proposal

   • Contact person with their email address and/or phone number

   • Type of proposal (e.g., new course, change in syllabus, etc. See Table 1 of cover sheet.)

Examples:

MAT 105	College Algebra	Paul Ache	ache@kutztown.edu	change in syllabus
AST XXX	Stars, Galaxies and Black Holes	Phill Reed	preed@kutztown.edu	new course
AST XXX	Stars, Galaxies and Black Holes	Phill Reed	preed@kutztown.edu	online
SOC 224	Immigration and Assimilation	Mauricia John	john@kutztown.edu	online

*IF you are creating a new course AND it is to be offered online via Distance Education you will need to request separate routing numbers (one for the new course, one for the online part).

6. Neatly type or write your LAS-CC Identification Number in ink in the appropriate box on your Curriculum Proposal Cover Sheet.

7. Obtain your department chair signature and date on the Curriculum Proposal Cover sheet. 

Routing Your Proposal for LAS-CC:

Email your scanned document to Lisa Meyers (lmeyers@kutztown.edu) by the appropriate deadline indicated in the schedule.

Delivery exceptions*:
One-time only proposals are to be delivered directly to UCC.
Distance Education (online) proposals for existing courses are to be delivered directly to UCC.
Selected topics proposals (if the department already has a general selected topics course on the books) are to be delivered directly to UCC.

 *Even though it is not required to send these to the LAS Dean’s Office, please send one courtesy copy.

 At the LAS-CC meeting:

1. Paperwork must be submitted by the deadlines in order for your proposal to appear on the agenda. When it appears on the agenda your department representative, accompanied by optional backup faculty, should present your proposal during the meeting.

2. The four things that can happen to your proposal at the meeting and what to do about it:

a. If your proposal passes with no corrections or amendments then: 

The LAS-CC Chairperson will sign your cover sheet in the presence of your department representative during or immediately following the LAS-CC meeting.

If your representative is unable to stay after the meeting while the proposal is being signed, they must make arrangements with Lisa Meyers in order to pick up the signed proposal from the LAS Dean’s Office.

Follow the UCC Routing procedures.

b. If your proposal was approved with revisions pending signature (small changes, but still ok), then:

After the meeting, Lisa keeps the proposal along with the cover sheet.

Make the suggested changes and seek department approval if necessary.

Email a revised proposal to the LAS-CC chair, copy Lisa Meyers (lmeyers@kutztown.edu).

Once the revisions are confirmed by the LAS-CC chair, and Lisa has the final copy, a completed, signed proposal will be scanned to you (or the contact person). 

Follow the appropriate routing procedures for the next committee (UCC, GEC, etc.).

c. If your proposal was tabled, then: You (and the contact person) must address the concerns of the committee.

Once the changes have been made, you may choose to resubmit the proposal for a future meeting.

If this is done within the same academic year, the same LAS-CC routing number may be used. LAS-CC routing numbers expire at the end of the academic year.

d. If the proposal was rejected, then:

Your (and the contact person) must address the concerns of the committee.

3. After the meeting, department reps should:

1. 1. Let your department and contact person know if the proposal was a) approved, b) approved with revisions pending signature, c) tabled, or d) rejected.

   2. Take the appropriate action 

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is the responsibility of your representative to get department approval and provide the appropriate materials by the designated deadlines. The LAS Dean’s office is a drop-off site and works in coordination with the LAS-CC Chairperson to distribute your proposals to LAS-CC.

Please note the time between approval in LAS-CC and the UCC deadline is very short.

Reviewed  2/20/23 JF

Lisa Meyers (lmeyers@kutztown.edu) maintains the proposal ID database. Please contact her via email to get ID numbers assigned for your proposals.

University Curriculum Committee

• Proposal Cover Sheet download
• Routing Procedures
• SharePoint

General Education Committee

• D2L page

The LAS D2L page contains the meeting documents including the agenda and minutes. Please reach out to your committee members for details.