1. Describe the Special Topics course(s) involved (title, summary of content, prerequisites).

2. Tell which requirement(s) (GDRs or departmental major/minor requirements) the course(s) is/are proposed to satisfy.

3. Give a brief rationale for the proposal. In particular, explain (in terms understandable by readers outside the discipline) how the course(s) plan to achieve the goals behind the indicated requirements.

Guidelines for Proposals of Type (2)
Proposals need to do all of the following, preferably in the order given:

1. Describe the proposed curricular changes.
If new courses or changes in existing courses are being proposed, briefly describe these. (Detailed material for the College Catalog will be requested below.) If you propose to delete existing courses, tell which ones they are. If you are proposing that courses be added to or removed from some list(s) of requirements (major, minor, GDR, LADR), list these changes.

2. Give a brief rationale for the proposal.
In particular, explain (in terms understandable by readers outside the discipline) how the course(s) plan to achieve the goals of any existing requirements (major, minor, or GDR) which they are proposed to satisfy.

If the proposed change is supported by, or is a response to, existing assessment data, please describe those data as part of the rationale.

3. Report any new resources that will be required in order to implement the proposal.
List or describe any resources not currently at hand (library holdings, lab equipment, consumable materials, support staff, etc,) which will be required for the implementation of your proposals, and indicate where you expect the funding for these to come from (Department budget, regular departmental library allocation, Departmental Gift Fund, etc.)

4. For new, or significantly altered, courses, describe the goals of the proposed course(s) in terms of desired student learning outcomes, and tell how the degree of attainment of these goals will be assessed.
This information will be transmitted to the Assessment Committee. In many cases, assessment of outcomes will be based on regular student assignments made within a course.

5. For new or existing courses being proposed to (eventually) satisfy Liberal Arts Distribution Requirements (LADRs) under the Vision Plan:
LADR courses must address all the objectives listed in the Academic Vision Plan for the specific LADR(s) involved, and at least two of the overall objectives of the LADR program.

Click here to refer to a list of LADR objectives

Proposals for such courses should therefore identify the two or more "overall" objectives that are to be addressed, and explain why the proposed courses will have a good chance at achieving both the chosen "overall" objectives and all of the specific objectives for the individual LADR(s) involved.

Further, the proposal must identify one or several of the aforementioned objectives whose degree of achievement will be assessed when the course(s) is/are offered for the first time, and describe student assignments that will be used (one within each course) in performing this assessment. For assistance in formulating such assignments, contact the Assessment Committee. The data eventually generated from these assignments, in addition to being used in departmental assessment, are to be made available to the Assessment Committee.

If a proposed LADR course is also being proposed to satisfy an existing GDR until the LADR system is implemented, please address the objectives of the given GDR as well (if they are different).

6. Describe all the changes in the Catalog that will be required to implement the proposal.
[If you are only proposing to have an existing course satisfy a GDR or (eventually) satisfy a LADR, you may skip this item, as the necessary Catalog changes will be obvious. ]

A. If you are proposing a new course or courses, give a title and catalog description for each. The Registrar will assign course numbers to new courses, but if you have a preferred number for some course, please suggest it.

The title of a proposed new course should be short and give readers a good idea of what the course is about. The reason for this is that preregistration schedules and student transcripts do not contain course descriptions and there is not much room on them for course titles. Thus, a course title like "Cancelled Czechs: Long-Range Consequences of the Defenestration of Prague" is bad because it will probably appear on schedules and transcripts as "Lng Rg Cns Def of P". Similarly, unnecessary superfluous words should be omitted; e.g. eschew "Looking at Mammals" in favor of just "Mammals".

The part of the catalog description that presents the content of the proposed course should be readily comprehensible to people who are ready to take the course but have not yet done so, while at the same time allowing readers outside the College (such as graduate school admissions committees) to quickly determine how much is covered in the course and the level at which it is taught. Try to limit descriptions to about the same length as the descriptions already in the Catalog. Avoid being so specific about course content, works to be read, etc. that the description will need updating every time a different instructor offers the course. At the same time, please avoid descriptions like "Mat 222. Prime Numbers. An examination of the prime numbers."

Groups of courses with a common theme may be best listed by title only, with a subsequent paragraph describing them all at once (cf. HIS 211-214, ID 113-215).

The catalog description should also include any of the following phrases (or similar ones) which apply to the proposed course:

"Identical to ____." [for cross-listed courses]

"Not open to students with prior credit in ____."

[if course largely duplicates another course]

"Satisfies General Degree Requirement ___."

"Prerequisite: ____."

"Corequisite: ____."

"Prerequisite or corequisite: ____."

"Offered alternate years."

"May be repeated for credit."

"May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor."

Since any Hanover course may be taken with the permission of the instructor, it is not necessary to list "Permission of instructor" as a prerequisite unless you especially want to invite people to seek such permission.

B. If you are proposing to delete a course or courses, tell which courses they are. If they are courses which have had significant enrollments, you may wish to maintain their listings in the Catalog for a year or two (augmented by the phrase "Last offered in [year]"), to help alumni who took the course show outside agencies what it was about. If you are proposing to change a course number, it may be wise to list both the old and new numbers in the Catalog (for example, in prerequisite listings for other courses) for a year or two, to avoid confusion. Similarly, if you are proposing significant changes in major or minor requirements, you may wish to list both the old and new major/minors in the Catalog (with a statement of the change-over date), for the convenience of students who declared under the previous requirements and choose to complete their programs under those requirements.

C. Be sure and list all Catalog changes implicit in your proposal. Places in the Catalog that may be affected by the creation or deletion of courses, or changes in course numbers, include:

Description of your Department's major and/or minor programs

Description of allied Departments' major and/or minor programs or pre-professional programs

Prerequisite lists of other courses in your Department and allied Departments

Lists of courses satisfying specific General Degree Requirements (pp. 26-35 in 2002-03 Catalog)

D. If you are proposing to delete or add courses which are involved or might conceivably be involved in any of the College's pre-professional programs (most notably, elementary or secondary teacher certification programs), please be sure and contact the people in charge of those programs to make sure that anything you say in your proposal (about relationships to those programs) is accurate.

E. If you are proposing changes in a major or minor program, simply give the requirements for the revised program as they would appear in the Catalog (using existing listings as models).

7. Provide any additional information relevant to the proposal.
Put here any additional information about the proposed changes as may be helpful to the Faculty in considering those changes, or which may be helpful in integrating proposed new courses into the existing curriculum in ways agreeable to your Department. For example, if a proposed new course is essentially a restructuring of an existing course which you propose to delete, your Department should not only decide whether or not someone with prior credit in the old course should be able to take the new one for credit (and if not, the course description for the new course should say this), but also consider whether a student with a low grade in the old course (which is being deleted) should be allowed to use the new course as a "repeat" of the old course (for purposes of raising the grade).