Faculty Senate Approved Procedures

The Faculty Senate approved the Baccalaureate Core Learning Outcomes, Criteria and Rational in 2010 to include scheduling criteria for courses within the Perspectives, Synthesis and Writing Intensive Course (WIC) categories. In an effort to adhere and become compliant with curricular policies for continuation in the Bacc Core, the new CLSS system is programed to enforce policy and create a new workflow approval process for Bacc Core classes. Specific to this, the following policies are in the Bacc Core Committee workflow:

• Perspectives courses
  • Prerequisites or class‐level restrictions for Perspectives courses must not create unreasonable barriers for students seeking to fulfill these categories. Therefore, courses cannot have Field of Study (major/minor/option) restrictions, college restrictions, or class restrictions, and cannot have Departmental Approval (SAPR) restrictions.
• Synthesis courses
  • Course capacities cannot be larger than 70 students. If enrollment is over 70, then break-outs (recitations) or GTAs should be used to ensure that students receive adequate and timely writing feedback.
  • Courses in Synthesis must use a multidisciplinary approach and be suitable for students from diverse fields. Therefore, courses cannot have Field of Study (major/minor/option) restrictions, college restrictions, or class restrictions, and cannot have Departmental Approval (SAPR) restrictions.
• WIC courses
  • Courses cannot have capacities larger than 25 students except in special cases, such team-taught classes, with an instructional structure approved by the director of Core Education and the Bacc Core Committee.

If courses are submitted which have any of the restrictions listed above, the courses will be sent to the Director of Core Education  for review. Some courses within WIC already have an approval for course sizes larger than 25 and those agreements will continue to be honored until the next Category Review cycle.

Requests for exceptions: 

• Perspective courses: Request for exceptions should include the error message you are receiving and rational for the requested exception. 

• Synthesis courses: Request for exceptions should include the error message you are receiving and rational for the requested exception. If the error message is related to course capacity, your request for exceptions should include a statement of the level of GTA support for the class showing adequate and timely writing feedback for the intended enrollment. 

• WIC ONLY - Please send your request for exceptions via email to [email protected]. Exceptions may be granted by the Core Education Director via CLSS workflow, but please consider updating this section to be compliant with the rules.

Design vs. Refine 

• Design Mode: Bacc Core rules cannot be broken in CLSS during Design Mode unless prior arrangements and approval have been granted by the Director of the Bacc Core via the Bacc Core Committee. This means that you will need to set your capacities and restrictions to align with the rules in Design Mode before you will be able to save a section or submit your Scheduling Unit for review. You will have an opportunity to request an exception to the rules after your unit has been approved for Refine Mode. 
• Refine Mode: If you would like to request an exception to the triggered Bacc Core rules, please email the Director of the Bacc Core - [email protected] . Very limited exceptions may be granted by the Bacc Core Committee via CLSS workflow, please consider updating your section to be compliant with the rules.