POLICY ON HALF-SEMESTER COURSES
(Proposal 4-00)
(Proposal 10-03)
Senate Policy 305.1
Half-semester length courses are those courses offered in either the first or the
last half of a
semester. In order to avoid inefficient use of classrooms and scheduling problems
for students,
half semester courses will be approved only for one of the following purposes:
1. The course's primary role is to offer elective, specialized education to senior
undergraduate students on subjects that would not reasonably require 45 class meetings,
2. The course's primary role is to provide students with specific skills that will
be used
immediately thereafter in another course,
3. The course's primary role is to serve as an "on track" course, offered in the second
half of
a semester, for students who have withdrawn from a required fundamental course due
to
lack of sufficient preparation,
4. The course primarily involves physical education or activity, including first aid.
RULES
To ensure that half-semester courses do not negatively impact students' progress toward
their
degrees by either limiting the number of credit hours they can earn during one semester
or
requiring them to take excessively heavy loads of credits for half-semesters, the
following rules
will apply:
1. Those courses offered in pairs must be scheduled for the first and second half-semesters
for the same time slot.
2. Pairs may consist of courses from different departments but should be addressed
in a
common proposal.
3. No curriculum may require a student to take more than one free standing (unpaired)
halfsemester
course in four consecutive semesters.
4. Only "on track" or physical education or activity courses may be offered unpaired
in the
second half of a semester.
All other University policies and procedures for adding courses remain in effect for
halfsemester
courses.
Proposal 4-00:
Adopted by Senate: 10 November 1999
Approved by Administration: 20 Januar y 2000
Proposal 10-03:
Adopted by Sen ate: 12 February 2003
Approved by President: 18 February 20 03