Temporary Adoption of a Three-Year Catalog (2022-2025)

Background

Since 2019, Cal Poly has been operating on a quarter-based one-year catalog cycle, in which proposals for catalog edits are submitted to the Registrar and Academic Senate curricular committees in June and edits become effective in the subsequent summer (e.g., proposals submitted in June 2021 will become effective in the Summer term of 2022, the beginning of the 2022-2023 catalog). The current catalog contains approximately 4,000 courses, 67 undergraduate degree programs, 44 graduate degree programs (11 in suspension), 89 minors, and various other constructs (e.g. certificates).

Cal Poly will convert to a semester-based schedule as of Fall 2025 in response to a mandate from the Chancellor’s Office. The conversion of the existing catalog to the semester system will require a significant investment of faculty and staff time, beginning in mid-Fall quarter of 2022. Simultaneously continuing the regular process of one-year Catalog review would place excessive demands on curricular staff and committees at all levels or review.

Additionally, the development, review, and Academic Senate approval of the 2025- 2026 semester-based Catalog must be complete by the end of Winter 2024 in order to allow the Registrar, University Scheduling, Evaluations, Advising, Financial Aid, Student Accounts, ITS, and other units adequate time to complete work, which cannot begin until the semester curriculum is fully approved (e.g. update and implement relevant processes, communicate new requirements to current and prospective students, and advise current students on pathways to degree completion). All currently effective quarter-based catalogs will need to be mapped to the new semester-based catalog becoming effective in Fall 2025.

As such, the Academic Senate approved the following policy reclassifying the 2022-23 catalog currently undergoing final review as the 2022-2025 catalog. This resolution will expire in Fall 2025, returning Cal Poly to a one-year cycle of catalog review.

 

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Policy on Converting to a Three-Year Catalog until the Implementation of the Semester-based Catalog

 

In order to effectively complete development and full review of the Fall 2025-2026 semester-based Catalog by the end of winter quarter 2024, the following changes to the process or curricular review are to be made:

1. The 2022-2023 Catalog currently undergoing final review at the Senate level will be reclassified as the 2022-2025 Catalog.

2. Any critical program changes currently in preparation at the department and college level for the 2023-2024 catalog may be fast-tracked by review committees for late inclusion in the 2022-2025 catalog, with due dates determined by the Office of the Registrar and the Senate curriculum committees.

   1. College curriculum committees are responsible for identifying and reviewing which program edits are critical late additions to the upcoming 2022-2025 Catalog.

   2. Critical changes should be those that are:

      1. essential to student success, and/or

      2. not allowed out-of-cycle, so if these changes are necessary they must be completed before the 2022-2025 Catalog goes into effect (for example, program name changes, edits to course catalog description, changes to grading method, mode changes, addition of prerequisites to courses, editing programs to add or remove requirements).

3. Out-of-cycle edits for the 2022-25 Catalog will be permitted for the following reasons and with deadlines determined by the Office of the Registrar in consultation with the Academic Senate Curriculum Committee, General Education Governance Board, and United States Cultural Pluralism Committee (as appropriate):

   1. adding virtual modalities to existing courses,

   2. relaxing prerequisites for existing courses,

   3. proposing new programs or sub-programs,

   4. proposing new courses (except for new GE courses) intended to serve as additional electives or blanket substitutions within existing programs,

   5. recertifying GE and USCP courses.

 

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Source: AS-930-22 "Resolution on Temporary Adoption of a 3-Year Catalog During Quarter-to-Semester-Conversion" (pdf). 08 February 2022.

 

posted February 22, 2022.