February 1, 2013

To: Campus Community
From: Gene Lucas, Executive Vice Chancellor
Re: Scheduling Courses within the Academic Curriculum - Policy is approved

 

The policy on Scheduling Courses within the Academic Curriculum <https://www.policy.ucsb.edu/files/docs/policies/classroom-scheduling.pdf> has been approved. I thank everyone who participated in the review, including the Academic Senate, the Council on Faculty Issues and Awards (CFIA), the Council on Planning and Budget (CPB), the Undergraduate Council (UgC) and Graduate Council (GC), and the Faculty Executive Committees from Letters and Science, Engineering, and Creative Studies; the deans, faculty and staff. Overall, respondents were supportive of the goals of the policy and its implementation. We also received requests for some refinements; these are reflected in the approved policy. The key changes are:

  1. The introduction section was shortened to focus on the primary objective of the policy.
  2. Section IIIE was added to describe the exception process. The exception process will provide flexibility in the policy's implementation.
  3. Section IIIF (phase II) was incorporated into the policy as an encouraged action, as recommended by many. We clarified that Section IIIF doesn't apply to secondary courses. Definitions of primary and secondary courses were added to Section IIIF.

The new policy is effective for the Fall 2013. The first release of the Fall 2013 schedule will be sent to departments shortly. We will continue to refine the implementation of the policy as we create tools for departments and identify improvements. Your support in helping us to distribute courses throughout the day and week will be appreciated.