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Procedures: Courses that must be included in the Public-Facing Curriculum (Guide/Lumen Programs)
Policy
Lumen/Guide - Lumen Content
Policy Number
UW-1090Responsible Office
Data, Academic Planning & Institutional ResearchType
University PolicyRationale/Purpose
Lumen is the gateway for faculty, staff, and governance bodies to propose, update, track and/or approve academic and curricular information at UW-Madison. As a large and complex organization, it is imperative the campus community rely on one source of truth for course and curricular information.
Policy
Single Source of Truth
The Lumen/Guide complies with accreditation requirements, promotes data integrity and efficiency, provides students with consistent and easy-to-access information, and aligns with institutional priorities. For these reasons, the Lumen/Guide is the single source of truth, and the Lumen suite of tools is the official repository for all course and program information.
- All course changes, including course proposals and course deactivations, must be made through Lumen Course Proposals and, if approved, will appear in the Guide for the effective term of the proposal. All course proposals must be effective for a future term, while all discontinuations become effective in the current term.
- All curricular changes must be made through Lumen Program Proposals and/or Structure Proposals and, if approved, will appear in the Guide for the term listed in the administrative section of the proposal in accordance with the publication deadlines. All curricular changes must be effective for a future term; no changes will be retroactive. Non-governed content is to be updated annually, as necessary. See Knowledge Base for more information on Updating Principles by Tab, for the publication deadlines, and for more information on procedures.
Academic structure revisions can only be made with the approval of governance process and, when required, the approval of the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), and/or State Legislature approval.
Accreditation Requirements
In alignment with the Higher Learning Commission’s Criteria for Accreditation, the Guide clearly and completely ensures all academic programs and curricular paths therein are:
- Approved by the appropriate level of formal governance (e.g., department, school/college, university, etc.); and
- Recognized as fulfilling current degree/major/certificate requirement(s) for any student pursuing a degree/major/cert based on date of declaration or matriculation in that program; and
- Actively offered and available for enrollment by UW-Madison students seeking credit.
Expiration for Proposals
It is imperative the information in Lumen be up to date. Once a course or program proposal is started, it must be submitted to workflow within 6 months (180 days). Once a proposal is in workflow it must be completed within 1 year (365 days). Any proposal that fails to meet these deadlines will be removed (shredded) from the proposal system. It is the responsibility of the submitter to ensure the proposal moves through the approval process in a timely manner.
Related UW–Madison Documents, Web Pages, or Other Resources
External References
Approval Authority
Vice Provost for Data, Academic Planning & Institutional ResearchPolicy Manager
Vice Provost for Data, Academic Planning & Institutional ResearchContact
Associate Director, Data, Academic Planning & Institutional Research -- Michelle Young, MEYOUNG@WISC.EDU, (608) 262-2143Effective Date
05-30-2023Source: View policy UW-1090 in the UW-Madison Policy Library
Procedures
The UW-Madison Guide is intended to serve as the source of truth that represents governance-approved degree/major/certificate and related (plan and subplan) requirements and the curricular paths that students can pursue in fulfilling said requirements. The content of the Guide will be published in such a way that the institution may demonstrate compliance with the Higher Learning Commission’s Accreditation Core Component 2.B. of presenting “itself clearly and completely to its students and to the public with regard to its programs, requirements, faculty and staff, costs to students, control and accreditation relationships.”
Given the need to present clear and complete information to students and to the public regarding degree/major/cert requirements, compliance with the foundational principle below is expected.
Degree/major/cert (i.e. plan and subplan) curriculum listings within the Guide must display any course that has:
- Received the appropriate level of formal governance-approval (e.g. department, school/college, university, etc.), recognizing it as fulfilling current degree/major/cert requirement(s) for any student pursuing said degree/major/cert based on date of declaration or matriculation in that program and;
- Is offered at and can be enrolled in by UW-Madison students seeking credit.
While there is an expectation of transparency in presenting the approved curriculum, requirements and available student choices in the Guide, it is acceptable to not list a course as eligible to meet a program requirement in Guide if any of the following is true:
- A student cannot enroll in the course because it is inactive during the publication period
- A student cannot enroll in the course because it is used exclusively for posting credit to a student’s record. (e.g., transfer course electives, study abroad topics courses in the STDY ABRD subject listing).
- The course is only temporarily acceptable to fill an unplanned gap in the curriculum
- The course is a more advanced offering of an acceptable course, and it is not typical that students would need the course to meet the requirement (e.g., MATH 222 can substitute for MATH 221 but it is not typical that a student would take MATH 222 without having passed MATH 221 first).
Approved at the October 2017 ACPRAC meeting
Revised, approved at the January 2018 ACPRAC meeting