Curriculum Guidelines and Help

1. The Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee reviews undergraduate curriculum proposals.
2. Course modification proposals that include a request for inclusion or exclusion in our General Education program are reviewed by the Faculty Senate General Education Committee. New courses, credit changes and other changes that affect programs will additionally go to the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee for review
3. The Faculty Senate Graduate Studies Committee reviews graduate curriculum proposals.
4. The Faculty Senate Honors Committee reviews undergraduate honors curriculum proposals. New courses, credit changes and other changes that affect programs will additionally go to the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee for review.
5. These four committees (Curriculum (CC), General Education (GEC), Graduate (Grad) and Honors (Honors)) are collectively referred to as “Curriculum Evaluation Committees” and are advisory to the Faculty Senate. Recommendations by the Curriculum Evaluation Committees to approve or disapprove a curriculum proposal must be confirmed at the Faculty Senate level (with the exception of FYS General Education and Honors topics proposals).

See the Faculty Senate Committee charges page for more information.

See 1. Current contacts and committee links on the IV. Help page for direct links to the General Education, Honors and Graduate Committee home pages.

• Access the curriculum portal using the WOU Portal: wou.edu/portal.
• Under “My Programs”, click on the link: Create, view & approve curriculum requests.
• Select the “View & Approve Requests” tab. Depending on your status, you will find proposal requests under the menus “Programs/Courses awaiting approval” or “Programs/Courses available for public review”.
• Select “View” at the right of each listing.
• Once you and any relevant committee members have reviewed a proposal and made a decision, scroll to the end of the proposal to the “Decision” area. Select “Approve” or “Disapprove” per your decision.
• As a proposal moves up the routing queue, each approver in the queue has an opportunity to approve or disapprove the proposal.
• Note: Faculty Senate Curriculum Evaluation Committees, per the Faculty Senate bylaws, give recommendations only. “Disapprove” recommendations by a Faculty Senate Curriculum Evaluation Committee sends a proposal forward to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee for the final decision.

Approve or disapprove hit by accident?

• The last approver in the queue can change or undo an entered decision.
• The approver must open the proposal, scroll down to their approval, and below the note “A decision has already been registered on this request. You may change it below” reenter your decision.
• Note this includes the option to undo your decision, which will set the approval back to the previous level.

• All proposals begin with the sponsor, and are always visible to the sponsor via the “My Requests” menus in the curriculum portal.
• Proposals are viewable per individual in the routing queue until they reach the “public level”. Once proposals reach the public level, they are visible to all WOU Portal users under the “Course for public review” or “Fully approved courses” menus.

Routing for FYS topic proposals

• Sponsor
• General Education Committee (public level)
• General Education director
• Notifications are sent to department head/program coordinator and division/unit chair

Routing for Honors topic proposals

• Sponsor
• Honors Committee (public level)
• Honors director
• Notifications are sent to department head/program coordinator and division/unit chair

• All proposals begin with the sponsor, and are always visible to the sponsor via the “My Requests” menus in the curriculum portal.
• Proposals are viewable per individual in the routing queue until they reach the “public level”. Once proposals reach the public level, they are visible to all WOU Portal users under the “Course for public review” or “Fully approved courses” menus.

Permanent course (non-FYS) proposal routing

• Sponsor
• Department head/program coordinator (units without departments will skip to division chair)
• Division/unit chair
• Division curriculum or graduate committee
• Curriculum evaluation committee(s) (see Courses) (public level)
• Faculty Senate (may be approved by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee or sent to the full Faculty Senate by the Executive Committee)
• College dean
• University provost

• All proposals begin with the sponsor, and are always visible to the sponsor via the “My Requests” menus in the curriculum portal.
• Proposals are viewable per individual in the routing queue until they reach the “public level”. Once proposals reach the public level, they are visible to all WOU Portal users under the “Course for public review” or “Fully approved courses” menus.

Temporary course proposal routing

• Sponsor
• Department head/program coordinator (units without departments will skip to division chair)
• Division/unit chair
• College dean (public level)
• University provost

• Sponsor
• Department head/program coordinator (units without departments will skip to division chair)
• Division/unit chair
• Office of Academic Effectiveness

• All proposals begin with the sponsor, and are always visible to the sponsor via the “My Requests” menus in the curriculum portal.
• Proposals are viewable per individual in the routing queue until they reach the “public level”. Once proposals reach the public level, they are visible to all WOU Portal users under the “Course for public review” or “Fully approved courses” menus.

New minor and new certificate proposal routing

• Sponsor
• Department head/program coordinator (units without departments will skip to division chair)
• Division/unit chair
• Division curriculum or graduate committee
• Curriculum evaluation committee(s) (see Courses) (public level)
• Faculty Senate (may be approved by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee or sent to the full Faculty Senate by the Executive Committee)
• College dean
• University provost
• University president
• WOU Board (Academic and Student Affairs Committee)

• All proposals begin with the sponsor, and are always visible to the sponsor via the “My Requests” menus in the curriculum portal.
• Proposals are viewable per individual in the routing queue until they reach the “public level”. Once proposals reach the public level, they are visible to all WOU Portal users under the “Course for public review” or “Fully approved courses” menus.

New focus and new concentration proposal routing

• Sponsor
• Department head/program coordinator (units without departments will skip to division chair)
• Division/unit chair
• Division curriculum or graduate committee
• Curriculum evaluation committee(s) (see Courses) (public level)
• Faculty Senate (may be approved by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee or sent to the full Faculty Senate by the Executive Committee)
• College dean
• University provost

• All proposals begin with the sponsor, and are always visible to the sponsor via the “My Requests” menus in the curriculum portal.
• Proposals are viewable per individual in the routing queue until they reach the “public level”. Once proposals reach the public level, they are visible to all WOU Portal users under the “Course for public review” or “Fully approved courses” menus.

New program proposal routing

Internal review

• Sponsor
• Department head/program coordinator (units without departments will skip to division chair)
• Division/unit chair
• Division curriculum or graduate committee
• Curriculum evaluation committee (public level)
• Faculty Senate (full Faculty Senate)
• College dean
• University provost
• University president
• WOU Board (Academic and Student Affairs Committee)

External review
May take six months to one year | Not required for a new minor or certificate proposal

• Provost’s council
• Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC)
• Northwest Commission (NWCCU)

• All proposals begin with the sponsor, and are always visible to the sponsor via the “My Requests” menus in the curriculum portal.
• Proposals are viewable per individual in the routing queue until they reach the “public level”. Once proposals reach the public level, they are visible to all WOU Portal users under the “Course for public review” or “Fully approved courses” menus.

Modified program proposal routing 

• Sponsor
• Department head/program coordinator (units without departments will skip to division chair)
• Division/unit chair
• Division curriculum or graduate committee
• Curriculum evaluation committee(s) (see Programs) (public level)
• Faculty Senate (may be approved by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee or sent to the full Faculty Senate by the Executive Committee)
• College dean
• University provost

• All proposals begin with the sponsor, and are always visible to the sponsor via the “My Requests” menus in the curriculum portal.
• Proposals are viewable per individual in the routing queue until they reach the “public level”. Once proposals reach the public level, they are visible to all WOU Portal users under the “Course for public review” or “Fully approved courses” menus.

Dropped program proposal routing

• Sponsor
• Department head/program coordinator (units without departments will skip to division chair)
• Division/unit chair
• Division curriculum or graduate committee
• Curriculum evaluation committee(s) (public level)
• Faculty Senate (full Faculty Senate)
• College dean
• University provost
• University president
• WOU Board (Academic and Student Affairs Committee)| Notification

External routing

• Northwest Commission (NWCCU) | Notification

• Each time a proposal is entered into the system, approved or disapproved, the faculty sponsor and the next person on the routing chain receive a notification email.
• These emails require an action if you are an approver, as indicated by the subject line “Please review: Curriculum Proposal”.
• If you are the faculty sponsor, you can file the email for your personal reference. Note the comment in the email “This email was copied to: faculty member memberf@wou.edu”.

• Access the curriculum portal using the WOU Portal: wou.edu/portal
• Under “My Programs”, click on the link: Create, view & approve curriculum requests
• APAs: Select the “Committee Management” tab and select “View/edit Division Curriculum Chairs”,   “View/edit Division Graduate Curriculum Chairs”, or “View/edit Department Chairs “. Hit GO.
• Committee Chairs: Select the “Committee Management” tab and select “View/edit current committee members”. Hit GO.
• Use the buttons on this page to edit, delete or add committee members or committee chairs.
• See Roster management directions and links for further details.