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L&S Procedure: Suspending, Restructuring, or Discontinuing Majors/Programs

This document provides a link to campus-level policy concerning requests to close or suspend admissions to existing academic programs. For L&S Programs, all requests flow through a governance process that includes review by the L&S Curriculum Committee and approval by the L&S Academic Planning Council.
Contact Information:  Please consult the Associate Dean for Academic Planning (elaine.klein<at>wisc.edu) to discuss the need to suspend admissions to, or restructure, academic programs.
From time to time it becomes necessary and desirable to suspend admissions to an academic program while it is being revised, restructured, or slated for discontinuation.This step helps to reduce the number of new students who may be subject to old requirements, for whom "teach out" plans would need to be developed to ensure that they are able to complete the program to which they were admitted.


Faculty considering such actions must follow the campus policy, which was created to protect the interest of students who may be enrolled in programs slated for closure or reformulation.  If suspension of admissions or program closure may be on the horizon, it is important to consult early and often with your Associate Dean, as well as with the Associate Dean for Academic Planning, who will consult, in turn, with the Provost's Office of Academic Planning and Institutional Research. 

For a more detailed discussion concerning other matters related to department/program restructuring, which may relate to suspending admissions to and closing academic programs, please see the L&S L&S APC Policy on Creating, Restructuring, or Discontinuing Departments, Programs, and Department-like Units .