Academic Affairs
Permanent and one-time course proposal online forms can be found on the Policies & Forms page.
The same online form can be used for both one-time and permanent course proposals. Please check the correct box under "proposal type" to indicate it.
One-time Course Proposals
One-time course proposals are considered when received by the office of the Dean of Academic Departments and Programs. Turn-around approval time is usually two weeks. Once approved, the Registrar, the department chair, and the professor who submitted the proposal will be notified.
A new course needs to be approved before it can be listed in pre-registration materials by the Registrar's Office.
Permanent Course Proposals
Permanent course proposals are considered when received by the Dean of Academic Departments and Programs’s office by the *third* week, two terms prior to its first offering. That means if you want to offer the new permanent course in the fall term of the next academic year, you will have to submit the proposal by the 3rd week of the winter term of the current academic year.
The Sub-council on Courses and Programs will meet to consider courses each term. They will then bring the courses to a meeting of the Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) for final approval. The AAC meets once a term to approve permanent courses. Once approved, the Registrar, department chair, and the professor who submitted the proposal will be notified.
Only permanently approved courses will be listed in the Academic Register.
Submission Guidelines
1. The Formstack platform now has "Save and Resume" button and so you can come back anytime to complete the time.
2. Faculty has to contact the Registrar's Office at registrar@union.edu to obtain a new course code prior to completing this online form.
3. Use Union personal address, instead of department address, whenever you are asked to provide email addresses.
4. Attach a detailed course syllabus that includes student learning objectives, the Common Curriculum learning outcomes, a list of textbooks and/or assigned readings, a list of weekly or daily topics, grading criteria, and sample problems for QMR and SET course proposals.
5. For questions, please email courseproposals@union.edu.
Review and Approval Process
Each approver listed below will receive an email via Formstack notifying them that there is a course proposal to review. The proposal will not be sent to the next approver in the workflow until it is reviewed by the current approver. The approvers, in sequence, are:
(1) the department chair
(2) the Director of Interdisciplinary Programs (for permanent course proposals only)
(3) additional department and programs chairs
(4) the Director of General Education
(5) the Director of International Programs (for term-abroad programs only)
(6) Dean of Academic Departments and Programs
After the proposal is approved by all these parties, a copy of the course proposal will be emailed via Formstack to the faculty who submitted it, the approvers and the Registrar's Office.