Section 3: Comprehensive Standards

3.4.13 For each major in a degree program, the institution assigns responsibility for program coordination, as well as for curriculum development and review, to persons academically qualified in the field. In those degree programs for which the institution does not identify a major, this requirement applies to a curricular area or concentration.

Judgment of Compliance:
Compliance

Narrative/Justification for Judgment of Compliance:
Christopher Newport University is in compliance with this comprehensive standard.

Luter School of Business
The Dean of the Luter School is responsible for program coordination. The school offers a single degree program. The business core crosses departmental lines, and all students are subject to identical standards. The Luter School Curriculum Committee (LSCC minutes) conducts curriculum development and review. All disciplines are represented on the committee. Department chairs are also members. The dean, through the chairs and the School of Business Curriculum Committee, has responsibility for ensuring that development and review occur. Department chairs must be probationary or tenured faculty members; therefore, they have appropriate terminal degrees and are current in their fields. Currency includes both scholarship and professional development activities.

The Luter School faculty conducts a two-day Core Course Conference (CCC) biennially. All core courses are subject to the same review. Each core course coordinator presents a synopsis of the content and learning outcomes of the course. The course, both content and pedagogy, is discussed in the context of other core courses as well as courses from all specializations (the core is also intended to support the specializations). Important changes resulted from the first CCC in spring 2004, including significant adjustments in the gateway and capstone courses and the creation of new specialization courses to address specific needs of those areas not met by the core course. An example is the development of a marketing research course that includes advanced statistical methods not required by other concentrations. The next conference is scheduled for 2006.

Course content delivery varies, although few all-lecture courses exist. Each faculty member builds projects, activities, guest speakers, etc. into the course to drive student engagement. The Luter School's mission focuses on applied learning. Students in a cross section of courses have "real-world" projects that require them to apply theory to make reasonable recommendations to their clients. Clients include campus offices and organizations as well as local businesses and non-profit organizations.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The Office of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences manages the academic programs in the College. Department chairs and their designees—for example, the Director of Writing Program, or the coordinator of general biology—have primary responsibility to manage major curriculum and other academic programs, such as Film Studies, housed in their departments.

In some cases, such as the Department of History, the curriculum committee is made up of specified faculty members, each holding an appropriate terminal degree. But the entire Department of Mathematics forms a subcommittee on curriculum as needed. The Department of Music adheres to curriculum standards set by the National Association of Schools of Music and designates individual faculty with expertise to manage such “tracks” as theory, history, music education, piano, and voice. The Department of English names a coordinator of the curriculum committee, currently made up of five tenured and/or probationary faculty, all of whom hold appropriate terminal degrees. The Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures designates an individual or individuals holding terminal degrees in each language of instruction to serve on the department's curriculum committee. All curriculum changes that originate at the departmental level must follow the curriculum approval processes detailed in the University Handbook, Section IV, Academic Regulations and Information.

During the past two years, the creation of the liberal learning core curriculum has led to changes in departmental curricula. The Faculty Council on Liberal Learning, charged with managing the general education core, was formed in 2003 in response to core curriculum changes. All university departments, both in the College and School of Business, have representatives on the Faculty Council, a standing faculty committee, responsible for oversight of the liberal learning core. For the past four years, as part of the dean's leadership initiatives, selected department chairs have attended either the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences or the American Council of Education training sessions for chairs, including sessions on curriculum change and management.

Curriculum matters are reported on in annual departmental reports as well as in periodic University Program Reviews.

Graduate Studies
The three graduate programs at CNU are led by program coordinators—full-time faculty with appropriate terminal degrees and graduate-faculty appointments in appropriate departments.

Each coordinator works with the graduate faculty in the unit to develop the program curriculum. The curriculum is reviewed by the three-person Graduate Curriculum Committee, which forwards its recommendation to the Graduate Faculty Council consisting of the three program coordinators and six elected graduate faculty members. The Graduate Faculty Council, in turn, sends its recommendation to the Provost.

Several responsibilities of the program coordinators, which appear in full in the Graduate Faculty Membership and Governance document, pertain to this comprehensive standard:

  1. completing program self studies and filing reports;
  2. initiating reviews and updates of program curricula, standards, and admission standards;
  3. editing the program description, requirements, and course offerings in the graduate catalog;
  4. setting, in concert with program faculty, short and long range program goals;
  5. accepting or rejecting transfer credits for graduate work at other institutions.

Support Documentation:
Curriculum Content and Review: Chapter 4, from the Self-Evaluation Report for Initial AACSB Accreditation
University Handbook: Academic Department Chairs
University Handbook: Section IV Academic Regulations and Information
Graduate Faculty Membership and Governance document
Luter School Curriculum Committee Minutes:

9-23-04 9-30-04
9-28-04 10-14-04

 



Additional Live Web Resources:
Self-Evaluation Report for Initial AACSB Accreditation: http://schoolofbusiness.cnu.edu/selfevaluation.html