Best Practices for Curriculum Committees

The information provided on this page is intended to promote best practices among committees and councils as they strive to ensure rigorous, high-quality reviews of curriculum that meet the needs of CMU students.  Efficient and effective processes for approving curriculum are essential to ensure timely delivery of new courses, course changes, new programs, and program changes.  Therefore, it is important for curriculum committees and councils to periodically evaluate their effectiveness based on the roles and responsibilities outlined in the Curriculum Authority Document (CMICH login required). The content found on this site directly supports Department Curriculum Committees, College Curriculum Committees, and Senate Review Committees during such periodic evaluations.  

General resources for committees 

These resources (CMICH login required) are typically used by committee and council members to guide decisions such as the impact on time to graduation for students, determining approval levels, and general rules of order during meetings.  In addition, general resources specifically focused on curriculum committee protocol can be found here. 

Managing curriculum meetings and engaging members 

This section contains resources intended for Curriculum or Council Chairpersons (CMICH login required) to establish annual goals, assign member roles and tasks, formulate annual reports, conduct virtual curriculum meetings, develop agendas, process meeting minutes, and evaluate committee effectiveness. 

Department curriculum committees

The Department Curriculum Committees (DCC) (CMICH login required) often serve as the first approval authority in the curriculum approval process.  Therefore, it is imperative that the DCC employ strategies to ensure consistency among curriculum proposal materials, communicate with stakeholders, proofread proposals, oversee and monitor approval progress of proposals, ensure alignment through curriculum mapping, and identify implications pertaining to students, faculty, and advisors. 

College curriculum committees

A great majority of curriculum proposals receive final approval at the College Curriculum Committees (CCC) level.  The information provided in the CCC documents folder(CMICH login required) can be used to guide CCCs while establishing member liaisons to ensure cross-collaboration among departments, identify key areas for quality reviews specifically assigned to CCCs, develop strategies for meeting preparation, guide decisions while identifying approval options, processing and approving minutes, and providing feedback to initiators. 

Senate review committees

The Senate Review Committees (SRC) represent the academic senate and hold significant responsibility during the curriculum approval process.  The resources and information found in the SRC document folder (CMICH login required) consist of engaging SRC members, managing meetings, establishing member liaisons to ensure cross-collaboration among colleges, identifying key areas for quality reviews specific to SRC, handling objections, addressing curriculum criteria in relation to accreditation, and ensuring Academic Senate policies are implemented.