UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION POLICY COMMITTEE
Appendix

Procedural Document for Undergraduate Program Elimination
Defined by the Undergraduate Education Policy Committee of Faculty Senate
(January 2003/as amended, February 11, 2003)

In keeping with previous documents drafted by the Undergraduate Education Policy Committee of Faculty Senate (UEPC) in 1975, the Gummerman Task Force in 1990, and the Graduate School Task Force on Doctoral Programs in 1990, UEPC proposes the following procedure for the elimination of undergraduate programs:

I. Administrative Mechanism:

Upon receipt of a formal request from the Provost's office, UEPC will review the accompanying documentation to ensure that all procedures have been duly followed, namely, the Reasonable and Moderate Extension from the affected department, with cover memoranda from the chair or director of the program and the appropriate dean. There must also be the Approval Form for Curricular Changes listing the dates of the relevant committee, academic unit, and college votes, as necessary, and the signatures of the responsible authorities. Any missing documents will be requested from the Provost's office before any further action will be taken.

UEPC will then appoint a panel of three informed members of the university community, including one faculty member from the affected academic program, one administrative leader from the appropriate college, and one member of Faculty Senate representing that college (more than likely a member of UEPC). These three panelists will be chosen by UEPC from lists provided by the academic unit and the Provost's office. The panelists will then meet to discuss what additional information they need, either in the way of additional documentation from the program, the dean, and/or the provost, or in the way of interviews with faculty members, administrative leaders, students, AP and Civil Service staff members, and/or other informed sources of information relevant to the program, as necessary.

Within thirty days of their appointment (excluding administrative holidays), the panelists will make their recommendation on the proposed elimination to the chair of UEPC, providing whatever supplementary documentation they deem appropriate to their decision. UEPC will then meet with the panelists and frame a resolution for consideration by the full Faculty Senate at its next regular meeting. As has been generally accepted practice, meetings of the panelists, UEPC, and the Faculty Senate will be open to all interested members of the university community, subject to Roberts Rules of Order and the Faculty Senate's Operating Papers in the University's Employee Handbook.

II. Formal Considerations in Program Elimination Recommendations:

The Panel and UEPC will be guided in their deliberations by the following qualitative and quantitative considerations, including trends in data over time:

1. Student demand for the program;
2. Employment prospects for graduates of the program;
3. Quality of the program, as suggested by

a. accreditation;
b. program review
c. faculty;
d. students;
e, graduates;
f. facilities;
g. design and curiculum;

4. Centrality of the program, as defined by

a. interrelatedness;
b. complementarity;
c. university mission and focus statements;
d. university strategic plan (Southern at 150);

5. Cost-effectiveness of the program, as indicated by data concerning

a. comparable programs at other Illinois universities;
b. comparable programs in other academic units of the university;
c. special tuition and fees paid by students in the program;
d. sources of external funding;

6. Other matters, such as

a. workload, conditions and terms of employment as determined contractually by the administration and the faculty union;
b. interests of term-faculty, AP, Civil Service, graduate assistants, and student workers;
c. arrangements for teaching out the program.

Return to February 11, 2003, Minutes