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UMW Curriculum Approval Process

If desired, select one of the links below to go directly to the corresponding section on this page:
UMW CourseLeaf CIM Information and User Guide
Curriculum Deadlines for Academic Year 2023-2024
Additional Curriculum Process Resources
UMW CIM Training Videos and Opportunities (**Updated with September 2023 Training Dates**)
Leepfrog Technologies CIM Training & Additional Resources
University Curriculum Committee Minutes Archive
Archived Proposals

Curriculum Inventory Management (CIM) Information & User Guide

UMW uses the Curriculum Inventory Management system known as “CIM” (pronounced KIM). As articulated in the Statement on Shared Curriculum Governance, the primary responsibility for curriculum development rests with the faculty. Grounding curriculum review and approval on the principle of shared governance recognizes that both the faculty and the administration have important roles to play in the process of approving and revising educational programs. CIM is designed to enable effective enactment of this shared curriculum governance process. The UMW CourseLeaf CIM User Guide provides further information and will take you through the process of submitting course, program, and course designation proposals. The UMW CourseLeaf CIM Approver’s Guide provides additional information for those in roles where they will need to approve proposals. After you’ve reviewed these guides, it’s also recommended you peruse or bookmark Tips and Suggestions for Using CIM as this will definitely answer some questions you may have when working on a proposal.

The office responsible for oversight of CIM at UMW is the Office of the Provost. The current UMW CIM Manager is Kevin Caffrey (kcaffrey@umw.edu).

The following curriculum actions are managed in CIM:

  • Propose a New Course – CIM Course Admin
  • Edit an Existing Course – CIM Course Admin
  • Propose a New Degree Program (State approval required) – CIM Program Admin
  • Propose a New Academic Program (State approval is not required) – CIM Program Admin
  • Edit an Existing Program – CIM Program Admin
  • Add a designation (digital intensive, first-year seminar, all general education courses including community engagement, honors, majority online course, speaking intensive, or writing intensive) to a course (or an instructor’s section of that course) – CIM Designation Admin

Faculty and administrators with access to CIM can review current proposals pending approval at the Pages Pending Approval
page. From the Your Role drop down menu, select the appropriate committee.

Curriculum Deadlines for Academic Year 2023-2024

  • For course and program curriculum changes (including new majors and minors) to be implemented in the fall 2024 semester and reflected in the 2024-2025 academic catalog, all required levels of approval must be achieved by the January 24, 2024 University Faculty Council (UFC) Meeting. Additional information on the UFC and its meeting schedule can be found at https://ufc.umw.edu/. To make sure you achieve all required levels of approval prior to the January 24th UFC meeting, review the schedule of Faculty and Council Meeting Dates at https://provost.umw.edu/schedule-of-faculty-and-committee-meeting-dates/ 
  • For new academic programs or current programs with significant modifications to be implemented in the fall 2024 semester and reflected in the 2024-2025 academic catalog, proposals need to be approved by the October 18, 2023 UFC meeting to allow enough time to be approved by the BOV in November and then submitted for SCHEV approval by January. An example of a new program requiring SCHEV approval would be a new certificate program (i.e. undergraduate Criminal Justice certificate) or a new degree program (i.e. Bachelor of Fine Arts). An example of a significant modification to an existing program may include increasing or decreasing the total credit hours by more than three (3) credits from what was originally approved by SCHEV (i.e. a proposal to increase the credits required for the MSGA program from 30 to 36.). It also includes adding a new delivery format or ceasing to offer a program in the format in which it was approved by SCHEV as well as altering program requirements in a way that results in a fundamental change to the curriculum, purpose, focus, or identity of the program. To review all that constitutes new programs and/or significant program modifications requiring SCHEV approval, go to Academic Approval Policy at https://www.schev.edu/institutions/policies-guidelines/academic-affairs-policy/approval-of-program-actions-at-public-institutions
  • NO course changes, new courses, program changes, or new programs that are intended to take effect in the fall 2024 semester and be reflected in the 2024-2025 academic catalog will be approved after these dates.

Additional Curriculum Process Resources

UMW CIM Training Videos

Fall 2023 CIM Training Dates

CourseLeaf Annual Refresher Training with Shuva Rahim
Tuesday September 12th 4-5pm
Perfect training opportunity if you need a refresher using CIM or if the 2023-2024 academic year will be your first time reviewing/submitting/approving curriculum proposals using the software. Held online via https://meet.goto.com/829597381

CIM On-campus Training Labs with Kevin Caffrey
Wednesday September 13th 10am-12pm – HCC 130
Thursday September 14th 3-5pm – HCC 130
Have general questions about using CIM or wish to go over CIM-related topics and policies? These labs are open to all and can provide an interactive learning opportunity on using CIM.

To complement the UMW CourseLeaf CIM User Guide and the UMW CourseLeaf CIM Approver’s Guide, these prior training videos are great resources to see demonstrations on how to navigate through and use CIM. At the beginning of each fall semester, faculty will be emailed with new CIM training opportunities. If you would like to schedule a 1-on-1 demonstration on how to use CIM, email Kevin Caffrey (kcaffrey@umw.edu) for assistance.

 

CIM User Training – September 12, 2023

 

CIM User Training – September 8, 2022

 

CIM User Training – September 14, 2021

 

For further information, feel free to view the Users Training session and the Approvers Training session held on 10/23/20. The users session covers all aspects of proposal submission and approval; the shorter approvers session only covers tasks from the perspective of approving actions submitted in CIM.

Leepfrog Technologies CIM Training & Additional Resources

A number of help guides, tip sheets, and video tutorials prepared by Leepfrog Technologies are provided below to assist in learning how to use CIM effectively. The various pages linked include written step-by-step explanations and some video demonstrations of how to perform certain actions in CIM. You need to be logged in to CIM to access these materials.

University Curriculum Committee Minutes Archive

Recent Committee Minutes

Prior year Committee minutes — from 2011-2012 through 2019-2020.

Archived Proposals

Proposals reviewed and acted upon by the University Curriculum Committee from October 2012 – January 2020 may be found in the Curriculum Proposals section of the Digital Collection, managed by the UMW Libraries as part of its Special Collections and University Archives. All proposals submitted in October 2020 and thereafter will be archived in CIM.