Small Changes
“Small changes” are defined as changes that do not impact other campus units and involve fewer than 40 percent of the credit hours in the major, minor, program, certificate, or concentration.
Chairs/directors should email the committee chair to submit these curricular changes. The last deadline to make the 2024-25 catalog is Friday, December 22, 2023.
Submit a memo as a Word document that includes:
- the existing catalog description
- the proposed catalog description, formatted as it will appear in the catalog
- the rationale for the change
- evidence of consultation with other departments or programs that may be affected by the proposed changes
Letters of support should be emailed to the chair as PDF files. A single PDF containing all relevant letters is preferred.
Substantial Changes
“Substantial changes” are defined as a change to 40 percent or more of the credits involved; smaller changes that are likely to have an impact on other units at UVM; and changes that require action by the registrar’s office, like the addition or removal of a concentration. These changes go through the Faculty Senate’s Curricular Affairs Committee and, in many cases, the Graduate College and/or the Board of Trustees before they are implemented by the Registrar.
Draft proposals are due Friday, September 1, 2023, and complete proposals are due Friday, September 29, 2023. The relevant forms are available on the Faculty Senate Curricular Affairs Committee website; please note that the forms were updated in May 2023.
Chairs/directors should email the committee chair to submit these curricular changes.
The necessary files include:
- The main proposal as a Word document
- The abstract as a Word document
- The cover sheet as a Word document (preferred) or a PDF
- The letters of support as a single PDF (individual PDFs are acceptable if necessary)
- For proposals that need to go through the Graduate College, a separate, hard copy signature page is required. The necessary CAS signatures can be obtained at the college faculty meeting at which the proposal is approved.
New Majors, Minors, or Certificates
The deadlines and materials are the same as for “Substantial Changes.” Be sure you have been in touch with Associate Dean Abby McGowan about your plans before you submit a draft, and if it’s a graduate-level item, be in touch with Associate Dean Alicia Ebert.
Guidelines for B.A. Majors
For the degree of Bachelor of Arts, a major must have at least 30 credits and not more than 45 credits that constitute the major itself. Prerequisite and/or ancillary courses can be required in addition as long as the entire total for the major does not exceed 60 credits. A major does not have to contain any 3000- or 4000-level courses.
The general rule is that, for B.A. students, no more than 45 credits in courses with the same departmental prefix may be used toward completion of the 120 credits required for graduation.
Guidelines for B.S. Majors
For the degree of Bachelor of Science, a major must have at least 42 credits that constitute the major itself. At least 14 credit hours of ancillary coursework in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science and the natural sciences must also be required. Of those 14 credit hours, at least 6 hours must be in Mathematics at or above the level of MATH 1234 (calculus), and at least 6 hours must be in Computer Science and/or the natural sciences.
The general rule is that, for B.S. students, no more than 50 credits in courses with the same departmental prefix may be used toward completion of the 120 credits required for graduation.