Lumen Program is a complex proposal system/form that engages many individuals and units throughout the university over the course of a proposal's cycle. Following are some general principles, notes, and tips to navigate the system:

1. The form is a "smart form," meaning how you answer once question will inform which questions/fields subsequently appear. For example, if you select Suspend Admissions in the "Program State" field, indicating you are preparing a proposal to suspend admission to the program, the entire "Suspension and Discontinuation" section of the form will appear. 
2. All questions/fields that appear on the form should be completed entirely and accurately.
3. Within the "Curriculum and Requirements" section of the form, there are a series of fields that integrate directly with Guide. Guide is the university's online academic catalog/bulletin that includes all academic offerings, including courses, programs, etc. The Guide integration points within the Lumen Program form publish directly into the upcoming Guide edition, meaning that proposers must be careful to utilize Guide's very specific formatting guidelines and ensure that the content is publish-ready upon approval. The Guide integration points within the Lumen Program form are Admissions/How to Get In, Requirements, and Graduate Policies (for graduate-level programs). There is an entire KnowledgeBase library dedicated to Guide and its standards, which should be accessed for assistance with completing the integration points. 
4. Lumen Program utilizes an automated workflow process that was established to create the correct workflow for proposals. There are workflow steps established for departments, schools/colleges, governance bodies, and other appropriate units; and there are various individuals assigned to each workflow who thus have the responsibility to review and approve proposals at each step. Individuals in approval roles are expected to be experts on policy within their realm of approval and ensure that all proposal expectations are met before advancing the proposal to the next step in workflow.
5. At each stage of the workflow, a proposal can be edited, approved, or rolled back. A proposal that is rolled back is deemed to be insufficient or incomplete. The individual who rolls back the proposal should use the provided text field to clearly delineate the issue(s) within the proposal and what is necessary to resubmit for approval.  
6. A key feature of Lumen Program is its approval tracking capabilities. As such, it is very important that the Approvals section be completed for each step, namely the department, school/college, Graduate Faculty Executive Committee (for graduate-level programs, and University Academic Planning Council. 
7. While the Lumen software provides better transparency about programs in development, it does not substitute for personal communication among those individuals/units that will impacted by a new or changed program. As such, it is important to reach out to communicate with those impacted by a proposal and not expect that the workflow will adequately address the proposal. 
8. While anyone with an academic unit can start a proposal, it is strongly recommended that you consult with your school/college academic planner(s) and the academic planners within Academic Planning and Institutional Research before starting a proposal. This step will help ensure the proposal is appropriate, complete, adequately vetted, and moved through approvals without hurdles.
9. Users working in the form should save often. The system times out after 90 minutes of inactivity.
10. While the system allows for easy collaboration, make sure only one person is editing a proposal at a time. The system is not designed to have multiple people editing a single proposal at the same time.