Program Changes

Proposing changes to existing academic programs

Unit administrators may request changes to existing degree objectives—be it a degree, major, concentration, minor, or certificate—during the academic program change window (generally the fall semester prior to the announced deadline). Routine modifications to existing degree programs may be approved through administrative action, but more extensive changes must be approved by the College's Committee for Undergraduate Education (CUE).

Please note that proposals to change the name of an existing degree, major, certificate, minor, track or concentration must be submitted using a different process (and timeline) than other changes.

Proposal process

This process is for changing requirements, names of requirements, and lists of courses that fulfill requirements. For proposing name changes to academic programs, see the next section.

If you are simply adding or subtracting newly-established or existing courses offered through College of Arts and Science units to an already-existing requirement's course list, you do not need to notify the Office of Undergraduate Curriculum, Policy, and Records (OUCPR) beforehand.

If you are adding or subtracting requirements to a degree program or otherwise changing an existing requirement, you should send a brief summary of the proposed change(s) to OUCPR beforehand at ugcurric@indiana.edu. The goal of this step is to help reduce the liklihood of problems later in the review process.

In order to more efficiently track academic program change proposals, unit administrators and curricular assistants should download the appropriate file from the Bulletin Updates and Review app in the Curricular App center. 

The file should be saved to your local computer or server and changes made (adn saved) using Word's Track Changes feature. 

The proposal must secure the approval of the unit per the governance policies and procedures of the unit. If the unit is part of a College school (Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture, and Design; Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies; or Media School), the proposal must obtain approval at the school level before being routed to the College.

In developing the proposal, units should consider the impact changes may have on students already enrolled in the academic program. Note that:

  • In most cases, changes to course lists (as long as a requirement is not fundamentally changing) will be inherited by previous versions of the academic program
  • Other changes will only affect students who matriculate (or elect to move) to requirements as of the implementation date of the approved change

Once unit approval has been obtained, a unit administrator or curricular assistant uploads the change proposal document to the Bulletin Updates and Review app in the Curricular App center. 

You will be asked to provide a description of the changes as well as a rationale for them. Please keep these brief. 

This step is completed by the announced deadline (typically late November). 

The Office of Undergradaute Curriculum, Policy, and Records will review the proposed changes and bring proposals before the Committee for Undergraduate Education as necessary and appropriate. 

This step is typically completed during December through March.

Once change proposals are approved, the Office of Undergradaute Curriculum, Policy, and Records will enter the changes into a draft form into the College Bulletin. At this point, units will notified of the proposal status and asked to review and approve these drafts via email. 

This step is typically completed in March and April. 

Approved changes will be queued until the next publication of requirements in the College Bulletin. 

The Bulletin is typically published in May. 

Proposals to change the name of an academic program

Proposals to change the name of an academic program must be approved at levels beyond the College. They, therefore, follow a process akin to new academic programs. 

Units who wish to propose changing the name of an academic program should write a proposal memo that contains the following information:

  1. The specific request
  2. Rationale and description of any curricular changes that are associated with this request (a separate academic program requirement change proposal is required)
  3. Letters of support, as appropriate

Once the proposal has obtained unit (and, if necessary, school) approval, a unit administrator should send the proposal to Associate Dean Rich Hardy and Assistant Dean Justin Grossman.