UMW Curriculum Approval Process
If desired, select one of the links below to go directly to the corresponding section on this page:
Curriculum Inventory Management (CIM) Information (How To Submit Proposals in CIM)
Curriculum Deadlines for Academic Year 2024-2025
Additional Curriculum Process Resources
UMW CIM Training
Leepfrog Technologies CIM Training & Additional Resources
University Curriculum Committee Minutes Archive
Archived Proposals
Curriculum Inventory Management (CIM) Information
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 Dr. 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 CIM Dashboard. From the Pages drop down menu, select the appropriate committee.
Curriculum Deadlines for Academic Year 2024-2025
- For course and program curriculum changes (including new majors and minors) to be implemented in the fall 2025 semester and reflected in the 2025-2026 academic catalog, all required levels of approval must be achieved by the January 22, 2025 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 22nd UFC meeting, review the schedule of Faculty and Council Meeting Dates at https://provost.umw.edu/schedule-of-faculty-and-committee-meeting-dates/
- New academic programs or current programs with significant modifications require a more extensive process since they must go through SCHEV for final approval before implementation. As of Fall 2024, SCHEV has submission windows in October, March, and July for institutions to submit their proposals for new programs or significant modifications to existing programs. This proposal comes after our regular curriculum proposal process and BOV approval. Therefore, keep this timeframe in mind when submitting proposals of this nature. The sooner they can be approved by UFC and the BOV, the sooner our SCHEV academic liaisons can submit the proposals to SCHEV. 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 MBA program from 30 to 45.). 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
SCHEV Academic Approval Policy at https://www.schev.edu/institutions/policies-guidelines/academic-affairs-policy/approval-of-program-actions-at-public-institutions . Please email our SCHEV academic liaisons Dr. Debra Schleef (dschleef@umw.edu) or Dr. Kevin Caffrey (kcaffrey@umw.edu) should you have any questions. - NO course changes, new courses, program changes, or new programs that are intended to take effect in the fall 2025 semester and be reflected in the 2025-2026 academic catalog will be approved after these dates.
Additional Curriculum Process Resources
- UMW Academic Program Terminology (definitions of key terminology)
- Description of Prospectus Requirements (A Prospectus is required for all new program proposals)
- Current University Curriculum Committee Minutes
UMW CIM Training
Fall 2024 CIM Training Dates
Tuesday, September 10th 3-5pm – Hurley Convergence Center, Room 111
Wednesday, September 11th 10am-12noon – Hurley Convergence Center, Room 111
Ready to get started on a proposal for the first time? Need a refresher on how to use CIM? Have general questions about using CIM or want to go over CIM-related topics and policies? Then drop by HCC 111 for one of the above CIM Open Training Labs this fall semester. These labs are open to all and can provide an interactive learning opportunity on using CIM. If you cannot make one of these sessions and would like to schedule a 1-on-1 demonstration on how to use CIM, email Dr. Kevin Caffrey (kcaffrey@umw.edu) for assistance or refer to one of the UMW CIM Training Videos below.
Recorded UMW Training Videos
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.
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.
- CIM Overview
- Course Proposals
- Program Proposals
- Working with Course Lists in a program proposal
- Inserting Footnotes in a program proposal
- For Designation proposals, see the Course proposals information.
- FOR APPROVERS (persons with a role in the workflow process) – guidelines for approving or rolling back course and program proposals
University Curriculum Committee Minutes Archive
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.