Standard Application for General Education status

New or Existing Permanent Courses

Curriculum approval and General Education certification are separate and parallel processes at Ferris.  The following steps are for a proposal to add one or more general education attributes to a new or existing permanent course.  For more information or additional contingencies, review the full proposal process.

STEP 1:  PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION. A proposer sends a proposal to the Director of General Education ("DGE", [email protected]).

A complete proposal includes:

1. A Form G

The Form G forms a “cover sheet” for the proposer as well as a record of decisions.

There should be one Form G for each complete proposal.  So if there is a single proposal that addresses multiple courses, a single Form G will be required.

The proposal will not be sent to Academic Affairs until decisions have been rendered on all courses covered by the proposal.  Proposers should consider that when deciding whether to submit one proposal or several.

2. A General Education Competency Implementation Plan (“CIP Form”) for each attribute.

The CIP Form is the substantive heart of the proposal.  It indicates in detail how the course will meet the operational definition and each Ferris Learning Outcome (“FLO”) for the competency and includes a description of how each FLO will be assessed.

3. A Sample Syllabus or Content Outline

A sample syllabus or course outline provides the decision-makers with an overall view of the course under consideration, and should provide enough detail to understand how the information in the CIP Form fits into the course as a whole.

For withdrawals of general education attribute, the Form G is all that is necessary. See the process for deletion of a gen ed attribute for more details.

STEP 2: SUBCOMMITTEE REVIEW. Once all components of the proposal are received, the DGE will send the proposal to the chair of the appropriate Competency Subcommittee(s). The subcommittee(s) will have 15 working days from the date the proposal is received by the chair to render a decision and report back to the proposer.

Working days are any day in the fall or spring semester in which classes are held.  Final exam sessions do not count as working days.

Proposals received by the chair of a Competency Subcommittee during the last three weeks of classes of a semester will be deemed to have received the proposal on the first day of classes the following semester (not including summer semesters).

The Competency Subcommittee will vote to either approve the proposal, reject the proposal, or ask the proposer to revise and resubmit the proposal.  The Competency Subcommittee may only vote to revise and resubmit twice.

Decisions to reject a proposal can be appealed through the appeals process.

STEP 3: UNIVERSITY GENERAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE REVIEW.  The role of the University General Education Committee (the “UGEC”) depends on the decision made by the Competency Subcommittee.  In each case, only one of the following will be followed.