Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the procedure for establishing and vetting minors?
  The current procedure for establishing a Steinhardt minor is found here.
• What key elements should the syllabus include?

  The syllabus serves as a contract between the instructor and the student and it should reflect clear expectations and policies. All syllabi must include the catalogue description, learner objectives, list of required and/or recommended readings, assignments and their weight towards the final grade.
  
  Learner objectives should outline three or four outcomes or skills students will achieve at the close of the class, (i.e., "at the end of this class students will be able to analysis, integrate, apply," etc). Instructors are strongly encouraged to define their attendance and participation policies, especially with regard to excused and unexcused absences and criteria for participation. Assignments should be descriptive in terms of length and scope (written assignments should be defined as review, analysis, research, etc.) Instructors should include a grading rubric outlining the criteria for the final course grade.

  A sample syllabus is available for download here. For a sample grading rubric, click here.

  For suggested grading guidelines, click here.

  In addition, please include the following:

  ACADEMIC INTEGRITY 

   All students are responsible for understanding and complying with the NYU Steinhardt Statement on Academic Integrity. A copy is available here.

  STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

  Students with physical or learning disabilities are required to register with the Moses Center for Students with Disabilities, 719 Broadway, 2nd Floor, (212-998-4980) and are required to present a letter from the Center to the instructor at the start of the semester in order to be considered for appropriate accommodation.

• Helpful Terms & Definitions

  Program: major or curriculum leading to a degree or advanced certificate. The educational requirements of a program must be registered with the New York State Education Department. The program title of a student's declared major appears on his/her transcript.

  Concentration: significant sub-area of a program approved by the New York State Education Department. The title of a declared concentration appears on the transcript.

  Specialization: a less formal sub-curriculum, usually constituted through electives by advisement rather than actual preset requirements; it is not indicated on the transcript.

  Dual Degree Program: typically a B.S./M.A. within the same school or between two schools that is specifically registered with the New York State Education Department and that results in two degrees awarded. The combined curriculum often allows students to reduce credits and time to degree completion. The title of a student's declared dual degree program appears on his/her transcript. The student may be registered in both schools at the same time.

  Joint Degree Program: combined curriculum that is registered with the New York State Education Department and for which two academic units contribute to the educational requirements that lead to one degree awarded.

  Standard Course: A standard course is one that the relevant department(s) have approved for formal listing in the official documents of the University—for example, catalogues and University web pages. It may be offered by the relevant department(s) on an indefinite basis. The course proposal form, including a sample syllabus, must be reviewed and approved by the department curriculum committee and chair as well as the CCP.

  Liberal Arts Core: course of a general or theoretical nature that are designed to develop judgment and understanding about human beings’ relationship to the social, cultural, and natural facets of their total environment. Working corollaries for counting liberal arts courses include:

  1. Independent of specific application

  2. Theoretical understandings as opposed to practical application

  3. Breadth and scope in principle covered

  4. Not definitely directed toward particular career or specific professional objectives

  5. Not chiefly "how to" in manipulative skills or techniques

  6. Not "applied" aspects of a field

  The Liberal Arts Core in Steinhardt is housed in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences in the Profesisons under the prefix E52, which acts as a service number for undergraduate students. Liberal Arts Core courses that originate in a department other then Humanities and Social Sciences are cross-listed under the designation of "same as" meaning that the courses have two numbers for administrative purposes, i.e., E52.0005/E59.0005 Introduction to Human Communication and Culture to reflect their designation both as a Liberal Arts Core course (E52) and as a course in the home unit.(E59 in this example).

  Pilot: (Please note: because pilot courses have academic limitations the Office of Academic Affairs only rarely grants administrative approval and strongly encourages faculty to pursue the standard course approval procedure).

  A pilot course is an experimental course lacking official status in the curriculum. It may only satisfy elective credit or excess credit above and beyond degree requirements; it may not substitute as a requirement in a program leading to certification or licensure. The course will be terminated after one semester and must be submitted to the CCP for faculty approval before being re-offered.

  Any full-time faculty member, with the approval of his/her department chair, may submit a request for a pilot course to the Academic Program Review Administrator. The request must include course title, student population, e.g., graduate, undergraduate, hours and points, description, and syllabus. A course number will be assigned so that the course may be made available for registration. Please note: approval of pilot courses is rare.

  Shadow: a technical course such as a studio or workshop in which skills development are offered at the same level and in the same format for both undergraduate and graduate students. A shadow course can only be developed out of a skills based existing undergraduate course, which sponsors the graduate course. Shadow courses only require administrative approval from the Academic Program Review Administrator.

  Umbrella: the umbrella course format allows for a general focus with different specific topics depending on location, context or module. The umbrella format is useful for advanced, specialized, or global courses that shift in topics/context, but which remain consistent with the general umbrella focus. Advanced courses call for prerequisites; Special courses are limited and serve a specific function. The advantage of the umbrella course is that it allows students to take the course more than once and indicates on the transcript the specific focus of the course thus eliminating the appearance that a student has taken the same course multiple times.

  The (umbrella) general focus requires CCP approval and topics may be added by submitting a brief description of the new topic, the change in title (what comes after the colon), and a syllabus to the Academic Program Review Administrator. Department Chair approval is required. The specific topic will receive a discrete number.

  Example of a Global Umbrella Course

  Food and Culture carries the broad description:

  Study of the complex interactions between food and culture, the effects of cultural factors on dietary practices, and the cross-cultural exchange of dietary practices, beliefs, and foods between the United States and countries throughout the world.

  The focus of this course will remain "the interactions between food and culture", but the topics will be influenced by the context of the global site. For example, this course can be offered in different global sites and is repeatable, e.g., Food and Cultures: New Orleans, Food and Cultures: Paris, Food and Cultures: Shanghai.

  Example of a Special/Advanced Umbrella Course

  Topics in Advanced Quantitative Methods refers to specific modules:

  This umbrella course provides abbreviated modules of quantitative methodology topics that are understood to be essential for graduate training in the social, behavioral, allied health and policy sciences. Module topics include analysis of complex surveys, classification and clustering, casual inference, factor analysis and latent variables, missing data, sampling, multi-level modeling and spatial data analysis.

  The faculty agreed that Advanced Quantitative Methods is too large to be covered by one course, and that students do not need to be exposed to each topic covered by its scope. The different topics are modules of Advanced Quantitative Methods.

  E10.2011 Topics in Advanced Quantitative Methods: Classification & Clustering

  E10.2012 Topics in Advanced Quantitative Methods: Causal Inference

  E10.2040 Topics in Advanced Quantitative Methods: Multi-Level Modeling Growth Curve

  E10.2041 Topics in Advanced Quantitative Methods: Practicum in Multi-Level Models Growth Curves

  E10.2042 Topics in Advanced Quantitative Methods: Multi-Level Modeling Nested Data

  E10.2043 Topics in Advanced Quantitative Methods: Practicum in Multi-Level Models

  
  

   

• What are the guidelines for submitting a course proposal?

  Please submit new course proposals, with accompanying syllabi, electronically in Microsoft Word format. You may submit the completed signature page in hard copy or scan and email. Please send all materials to the Academic Program Review Administrator in the Office of Academic Affairs one month in advance of the Faculty Committee on Courses and Programs (CCP) meeting. The Academic Program Review Administrator works in an advisory capacity to review proposals for content overlap, compliance with State and school policies, and to coordinate distribution to various entities within the university.

  Please email the course proposal form, syllabus, and scanned signature page to heather.herrera@nyu.edu

  If you are sending a hard copy of the signature page, mail it through Interoffice Mail to Heather Herrera, Pless Hall, 5^th Floor, MC 4746.

  2009-2010 CCP Submission & Meeting Dates:

  Meeting date	Proposal due to Heather by
  October 7, 2009	September 9, 2009
  November 4, 2009	October 7, 2009
  December 2, 2009	November 4, 2009
  February 3, 2010	January 6, 2010
  March 3, 2010	February 3, 2010
  April 7, 2010	March 10, 2010
  May 5, 2010	April 7, 2010

  Submission Deadlines

  To secure a room assignment for all new courses and to upload course offerings to the Albert registration system, new course proposals must be submitted to Heather Herrera for Academc Review by the following deadlines.

  Semester the course is to be offered	Submission deadline
  Spring 2010	September 9, 2009*
  January 2010 Intersession (on-campus only; contact Office of Academic Initiatives and Global Programs for study abroad deadlines)	September 9, 2009
  Summer 2010	November 4, 2009
  Fall 2010	February 3, 2010

   *If the course requires university meeting space, proposal must be submitted by September 9. If the department is providing classroom meeting space, the deadline is extended through October 7, 2009.

• What is the procedure for proposing a new program? How long does it take for a new program to be approved?

  Faculty must first consult with the department chair and the Deans of Academic Affairs and Planning and Communication for authorization to proceed with planning. In developing new programs/revising existing or dormant programs, proposers should consider implications for faculty staffing, space, long-term viability, resource allocation and marketability, and review these well in advance with the department chair and deans.

  Once a program has been approved for planning, the proposer must complete the appropriate program proposal form. Please see below for links.

  The department’s curriculum committee must approve the initial proposal before sending it to the Academic Program Review Administrator, who reviews the proposal for compliance with school/university and State Education Department (SED) regulations. Faculty may consult with the Academic Program Review Administrator at any stage of the proposal design process once the chair and Deans have authorized the proposal concept.

  Once the initial level of review is completed, the proposer should meet with the Director of Finance to develop the revenue and expense projections. The Academic Program Review Administrator will then forward the proposal to the Dean of Academic Affairs who will review it with other deans in the School as needed. Following approval by the Academic Dean, the Academic Program Review Administrator forwards the proposal to the CCP (except for Teacher Certification programs) for review and approval and then to the appropriate university-level committee.

  The Undergraduate Curriculum Advisory Committee http://www.nyu.edu/provost/about.office/committee.ucac.html reviews new undergraduate degree programs and the Graduate Commission http://gsas.nyu.edu/object/grad.about.apr reviews new graduate degree programs. These groups, which meet twice a year—once in the fall and once in the spring -- advise the Provost and submit the program to the university for final approval.

  Once school and university committee approvals are granted, the Academic Program Review Administrator sends all new program proposals to the University’s Assistant Provost and Director of Academic Program Review who submits the final document to SED on behalf of the University.

  The SED typically sends notification of a new program registration three to six months after it has received the request. However, these time lines vary considerably depending on the SED’s resources available for review. Faculty proposing new programs should be reminded that the Undergraduate Curriculum Advisory Committee and the Graduate Commission meet only twice a year and should plan accordingly.

  Please note that the SED does not permit universities to advertise or promote new programs prior to their official approval of the program. Faculty are advised to work closely with the Associate Dean for Planning and Communication on a timeline for creating and launching any new program.

  Timeline: Initial CCP Approval to Program Launch

  CCP Approval	UCAC/Grad Comm	State Approval	Launch Date
  September 2009 October 2009	UCAC: October 2009 Grad Comm: December 2009	January- April 2010 March-June 2010	spring 2011 spring 2011
  December 2009 February 2010	UCAC: March 2010 Grad Comm: April 2010	June-August 2010 July-October 2010	fall 2011 fall 2011

  Guidelines and Proposal Forms

  Guidelines and forms for new program proposals, below the doctoral level, except for programs that are professional licensure-qualifying or lead to teacher certification, e.g., BS in Musical Theatre, MA in Public Health, MA in Communication, may be found at: http://www.nyu.edu/apr/newprogram.htm

  Guidelines and forms for new doctoral level graduate programs may be found at: http://www.nyu.edu/apr/doctoral.htm

  Guidelines and forms for new program proposals leading to licensure-qualifying programs, e.g., MA in Counseling, MA in Physical Therapy, except for teacher certification, may be found at: http://www.nyu.edu/apr/licensure.htm

  Guidelines and forms for new program proposals leading to teacher certification may be found at:

  http://www.highered.nysed.gov/ocue/registration/teacherprep/index.htm

  Please note, programs leading to teacher certification do not require CCP approval; however, the department’s curriculum committee, the school’s certification officer, the Academic Program Review Administrator, and the Academic Dean must review them.

• Who may propose a new course?
  Any full-time professor on a tenure or clinical line may propose a new course. If the course is to be taught by a visiting professor or an adjunct professor, a full-time professor must be the course proposer.
• What is the procedure for proposing a new course? Where is the course proposal form located?

  The sponsoring department’s chair and curriculum committee must approve new courses before submission to the CCP. Once the department chair and curriculum committee approve a proposed course, the proposer submits the course proposal form located at http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/governance/ and syllabus to the Academic Program Review Administrator, who will review the proposal. Often the Academic Program Review Administrator will have questions or will consult with the Dean of Academic Affairs before submitting the course proposal to the CCP.

• What types of courses may be offered?
  Apart from standard courses, faculty may also propose pilot, shadow and umbrella courses. Please click to see the definitions of each since some types of courses have restrictions on their use.
• Who may propose a new program?
  Full-time professors on a tenure or clinical line may propose a new program.
• What is the procedure for proposing a dual degree program consisting of existing programs?
  Proposers of dual degree programs shaped from existing programs must consult with the department chairs and the Deans of Academic Affairs and Planning and Communication.
  
  The CCP must review and approve all dual degree programs, except those involving teacher certification program.
  
  When a proposed program involves more than one school, upon completion of the planning process, the proposer is responsible for acquiring a memo of approval from the deans of the schools offering the programs.
  
  For all dual degree programs, proposers submit program proposals to the Academic Program Review Administrator, who forwards them to the Academic Dean and to the CCP, to the university-level review committee, if applicable, and to the University’s Assistant Chancellor and Director of Academic Program Review, who submits the final documents to the SED on behalf of the University.
• What is the role of my department’s representative to the CCP?

  The department CCP representative is responsible for the following:

  • guiding colleagues through the proposal process, e.g., answering questions about the forms and procedures
  • ensuring review and approval by the department curriculum committee and department chair prior to submission to the CCP
  • reporting the CCP’s comments to the department chair and course proposer.
• As a proposer, do I attend the CCP meeting?
  Course proposers are not required to attend the CCP meeting but may decide to do so after consulting with the department CCP representative.
• How will I know if the course has been approved? How is a course number assigned? How is the course entered in Albert so students can register?
  The Academic Program Review Administrator reports all approved new courses to Steinhardt’s Director of Registration Services, who assigns a course number and lists the course on the University Inventory of Courses allowing for student registration through Albert. Registration Services is also responsible for emailing the assigned course number to the proposer, the department CCP representative, the department chairperson, and the department administrator. The proposer and the department administrator may then work together to schedule the course by submitting to the University Registrar a Course Schedule Change Form.
• What should I take into consideration when creating a course title?
  Since transcripts and the on-line student registration system limit course titles to 24 characters or two lines, which are often abbreviated, it is best to craft course titles that easily convey the focus/topics of the course.
• What is the word limit for course descriptions?
  Course descriptions should not exceed 90 words. Descriptions should state, without using jargon, the course focus and the topics to be covered.
• What is the ratio of contact hours and points?

  Steinhardt follows the following formula as decreed by the State Education Department:

  0000 and 1000 Level Courses 2000 and 3000 Level Courses

  Points	Hours	Weekly Class Meeting		Points	Hours	Weekly Class Meeting
  1	15	50 minutes		1	10	30 minutes
  2	30	100 minutes		2	20	70 minutes
  3	45	150 minutes		3	30	100 minutes
  4	45	150 minutes*		4	40	130 minutes
  4	60	200 minutes

  *Applicable only to baccalaureate programs in Media, Culture & Communication and Applied Psychology

• Can a course be pass/fail and for a grade?
  No, a course should be either pass/fail or listed for a grade. Students may opt to take a course pass/fail, with permission of an advisor. The student must complete and process the appropriate form to declare a graded course pass/fail. A student in an assigned pass/fail course cannot opt for a weighted grade.
• Can a course have both pre-requisites and co-requisites?
  Yes, as long as these are identified separately. Requisites must be in the form of an identifiable course number, i.e., E99.1XXX.