V-6. Approval of New Courses

1. The Curriculum Committee is charged with screening all new course and seminar offerings at the law school and with making recommendations to the faculty concerning new offerings. Unless a course is among those listed on the Permanent Curriculum of the University of St. Thomas School of Law, faculty members proposing to teach a course or seminar should submit the following information, as well as a course description of suitable length for the law school’s course list, to the Curriculum Committee.

A.        Experimental Courses

Whenever possible, proposals for experimental courses for the entire academic year should be submitted by February 15 of the preceding academic year to give the Curriculum Committee enough time to properly consider the addition of the new course. If the February 15 date cannot be met, the “deadlines” for submission are March 1 for fall semester courses and September 15 for spring semester courses.

Experimental courses ordinarily may be scheduled in the curriculum one time upon the approval of the Curriculum committee and the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. In exceptional cases, and for good cause, the Curriculum Committee and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs may approve an experimental course to be offered a second time before requiring the course to be submitted for full faculty approval as a permanent addition to the curriculum. The Curriculum Committee shall report all approved experimental offerings during the faculty meeting immediately following the Committee’s action. Full faculty approval is required for any permanent addition to the curriculum.

B.        Title, Description, and Justification

Along with the title of the course, the proposal to offer an experimental course must provide an overall description of the course, including its general subject matter, its objectives, and the major issues to be examined or themes to be explored. The proposal should provide a justification for adding the course to the curriculum. For example, the proposal should address how the course relates to other courses offered at the law school, to the law school’s mission, to developments in the legal profession, to fields of intellectual inquiry in the academy, or to courses offered at other law schools. If there is apparent overlap with another course presently offered, the proposal should explain how the new course differs from the existing course, and if there is indeed a significant overlap, whether students should be allowed to receive credit for both courses.

C.        Course Content

The proposal should include materials that detail the subject matter to be covered as well as the structure of the course. If an established textbook will be used, a photocopied table of contents with indications of the parts to be covered will generally be sufficient. Where new materials are being assembled from a number of sources, such as law review articles, or where a test is being created by the professor, a detailed thematic description of the materials should be provide along with a representative sample of the materials. The goal of the Curriculum Committee under this section is to receive some minimal guarantee of the intellectual content and academic rigor of the course materials.

D.        Conduct of the Classes

The proposal should describe the method of instruction and grading and should include a syllabus of the course if it is available. Otherwise, the proposal should describe generally the way the classes will be conducted. For example, will the course principally involve lectures, with grading done on the basis of an examination, or will the class be conducted as a seminar, with a combination of lectures and student presentations of their research projects?

E.        Credit Hours

The proposal should indicate how many credit hours should be allotted to the course and explain why the material will require the number of credits requested.

F.         Restrictions on Enrollment

The proposal should list any prerequisites and justify any restrictions on enrollment (e.g., in the number of students or any special selection criteria to be used instead of open registration).

G.        Permanent Additions to the Curriculum

1. Report: Once a course has been taught on an experimental basis, the instructor must report back to the Curriculum Committee on the success of the experiment no later than the sixth week of the following semester. The instructor should submit this report whether or not the instructor intends to propose that the course be permanently added to the curriculum. After grades have been posted for the course, the instructor must submit the following items to the Curriculum Committee: (1) the syllabus; (2) the instructor’s narrative evaluation of the desirability of the course. The Associate Dean for Academic Affairs should provide a summary of the student evaluations for the course to the Committee.
2. Faculty Action: Based on the information provided by the instructor and the Associate Dean after an experimental course offering, the Curriculum Committee will recommend to the full faculty whether to adopt or reject the experimental course as a permanent addition to the curriculum. Full faculty approval is required for a course to become a permanent offering.

Adopted by the Law Faculty, November 21, 2003
Revised by the Law Faculty, April 30, 2012

Permanent Curriculum
of the
University of St. Thomas School of Law

Approved List of Courses*
 

Accounting for Lawyers

*Most, but not all of these courses are currently being offered. The list of currently active courses can be found at www.stthomas.edu/law/academics/courses/all/default.html

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