New Courses
The Committee on Instruction (COI) must approve all new courses, as well as existing courses that have not been offered in three or more years, before they can be included in the College curriculum. You are responsible for submitting all relevant curricular material to the COI, including the appropriate forms for course proposals.
When your colleagues refer their completed Course Approval Requests (available from your Departmental Administrator) to you for COI approval, you should review each one for accuracy and the inclusion of course requirements; course rationale; a detailed weekly course syllabus that includes the required readings for each week and that indicates the number of pages read from each text; a complete reading list; a full course description; a bibliography; and, in the case of an adjunct, visiting, or new instructor, a curriculum vitae. Course approval requests must be complete and signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies before the COI can review them.
In order for courses to be reviewed in time for registration and change-of-program periods, departments should adhere to the following schedule.
Mid October – deadline to submit spring courses for the current academic year in order to ensure they are approved in time for registration in November
Mid November – deadline to submit spring courses for the current academic year in order to ensure they are approved in time for the change-of-program period in January
Mid March – deadline to submit fall courses for the coming academic year in order to ensure they are approved in time for registration in April
Mid April – deadline to submit summer courses in order to ensure they are approved in time for summer school registration in May
Mid April - deadline to submit fall and spring courses for the coming academic year in order to ensure they are approved in time for inclusion in the Columbia College Bulletin on-line
Faculty should begin preparing for these various deadlines by the end of September and should have their courses to you or the departmental administrator in time for you to review them before submitting them to the COI.
Once a course is approved by the COI, the course should be scheduled with the Registrar and, if the course is to be offered in the current academic year, it should be added immediately to your course listings in the on-line College Bulletin through UNIFY. If the course is for the coming academic year it should not be entered into UNIFY until after you are notified that the cycle for producing the new Bulletin has begun.
All questions about new course proposals raised by the COI will ordinarily be directed to you for clarification.
For detailed information about preparing new course proposals see the booklet Preparing a Course for the Columbia College Committee on Instruction. Please contact Mia Mendicino, Coordinator for Academic Affairs, at 4-2442 and mm313@columbia.edu, with any questions that you may have.