Procedures for New Programs and Curricular Changes

CUNY Procedure for the establishment of new degree programs, undergraduate or graduate, require the submission of a Letter of Intent (LOI) for an initial review.  Once the LOI is approved by CUNY, the College must submit a proposal to CUNY, which must be approved by the relevant departments, divisions, and faculty councils.

Faculty Handbook for the Creation of New Academic Programs 2016

Curricular Changes in The College of Liberal Arts and Science

CLAS Faculty Council Guide Book for Curricular Changes

Adding a Minor in CLAS

Curricular changes in one of the categories listed below must be first approved by the relevant Faculty Council and then submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs in the appropriate format.  The templates presented below include two forms - One required by the Faculty Council and one for submission to CUNY.

CLAS Template for a New Course Fall 21

CLAS Template for Change in an Existing Course Fall 21

CLAS Template for Change in Degree Programs Fall 18

Chancellor's University Report (CUR) is now the Academic University Report (AUR) / Committee on Academic Program, Policy, and Research(CAPPR) Report

For those of you who may not be familiar with the Chancellor's University Report (CUR), it is comparable to an ever evolving CUNY-wide bulletin. Curricular changes that are approved by school or divisional governance need to be submitted to CUNY's Academic University Report.

Recently the CUNY Board of Trustees delegated the approval of a variety of academic, human resources and fiscal matters to the Chancellor or his designee and now require some items to be approved by the appropriate Board Committee prior to receiving approval by the full Board of Trustees. This action eliminated the document known as The Chancellor’s University Report.

The new academic report is split into two different ones; the Committee on Academic Program, Policy, and Research (CAPPR) Detail; and Academic University Report Detail.

As a general rule, the following items should be placed in both the Committee on Academic Program, Policy, and Research (CAPPR) Reports and the Committee on Academic Program, Policy, and Research (CAPPR) Report Details:

• New degree programs based primarily on existing academic programs (central OAA approval required prior to submission)
• New Certificates and Advanced Certificates
• Curricular changes requiring approval of the New York State Education Department, such as changes to degree awards; changes to the name of a program; adding or deleting a concentration; cumulative curricular changes of 20% or more as well as changes to a culminating experience in a graduate program
• Addition of, or changes to campus-based academic policies effecting large segments of the student population
• Addition of, or changes to any undergraduate general education requirements

As a general rule, the following items should be placed in the Academic University Report:  

• Curricular changes minor enough to not require New York State Education Department approval
• Academic minors
• Standard international agreements (study abroad, student exchange)
• New courses
• Modifications to existing courses

Even though some of the information submitted is going to a different report, it doesn't change any current submission practices at the college level.

Deadlines for Submitting Academic Matters Items to the Provost's Office for Submission to the Chancellor's Report:

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is this necessary? Before any changes to existing programs can be made effective, they must be approved by the CUNY Board of Trustees. They must undergo qualitative reviews and receive approval from appropriate governing bodies at three levels:

• The College (School or Divisional Approval)
• The Board of Trustees
• (In some cases) The New York State Education Department

Who prepares the submission to the Academic University Report?  The Dean's office or department chair usually prepares the documents for submission to the Academic University Report. These items are then sent to the Office of the Provost for compilation.

What should be in the document?  A submission to the AUR does not need to be as detailed as the submission to faculty governance. The Academic Affairs webpage has separate forms to fill out for the AUR under the Academic University Report heading. The Guide to Presentation of Items in the Chancellor's University Report may assist you with form and language.The CUNY templates are the only forms that need go to the AUR: Adding a New Course, Changes to Requirements in an Existing Program, Changes in an Existing Course, Course Withdrawn.

How should the document be prepared? The documents should be submitted as a Word document. Sometimes we need to alter the format of submissions, and this is most easily accomplished with a Word document. If we must make minor changes before submission, we will advise the Dean or Department Chair who prepared the item.

To whom do I submit the document? Once the item is completed in using the correct form it should be submitted to Eric Lopez, elopez3@ccny.cuny.edu (N.B. For Pathways-related curricula changes, please see below*). Once a submission for the Chancellor's University Report is received the Provost Office will reply with a confirmation of receipt. If you do not receive one please follow up with a phone call.

How do I know when the item has been approved? There is some time before a submitted AUR is reviewed, approved and uploaded to the web. When a AUR is successfully accepted by the Board of Trustees, the Provost's Office will inform the pertinent Deans, and Chairs. After approval, Acadmic University Reports are published on the CUNY site. Program change approvals by Albany are communicated to the Offices of the President and the Provost and will then be shared with concerned parties.

What do I do next?

1. Once an AUR has been uploaded to the CUNY Portal, Mr. Leon Tachauer, the Scheduling Officer ( scheduling@ccny.cuny.edu ), will input changes from the AUR into CUNYfirst. All course, additions, and changes cannot be offered until they are inputted into CUNYfirst. Please refer to the dates on the table above to see when new courses will be able to be offered.
2. Change the item anywhere else it is published to be consistent with the version published in the AUR.
3. Update the item in the next published Bulletin.

*Pathways

Any changes to curricula that are being implemented to be Pathways compliant should be sent to Ms. Vasovic well in advance of the internal deadline ( jwilner@ccny.cuny.edu avasovic@ccny.cuny.edu ). Due to the volume of changes occasioned by Pathways, Ms. Vasovic has graciously agreed to help in the review of these items before final submission.

Templates

Template for New Course

Template for Change in Course

Template for Course Withdrawn - November 2012

Template for Change in Degree Program

Template for a New Minor - April 2018

Liberal Arts Designation

If you need assistance in determining if your program or class falls within the Liberal Arts, please refer to this guide.

CCNY Articulation Agreement Template

Articulation agreement template form

Codes

Preliminary Academic Programs Inventory by College and Academic Program - IRP/Program Code Listing - 2012

All items submitted to the CUR should include the Program (IRP) code that is uniquely assigned to the program in the item. You can find this code in the attached document (Fall 2012 API Report.)

The Program code is aligned to the left of the name of the program.

CUNY Faculty Handbook for Teacher Education Programs

Handbook for Teacher Education Programs

Establishing Research Centers and Institutes

The establishment of research centers and/or institutes is governed by the CUNY policy shown below. Before submitting a proposal to CUNY for the establishment of a new center or institute, the proposal must be approved by the Office of the Provost and by the faculty of the generating academic division/school and the Faculty Senate.

Board Policy on Centers and Institutes

Links to Older Academic Reports

January 2005 - February 2018: You have to login to the cunyportal, the reports are on the top left portion of the page. 

March 2018 - December 2018: Scroll to the bottom of the page. 

February 2019 -  November 2019: Current reports