Innovation in:

the Curriculum Proposal and Approval Process,
and the Catalog & Class Schedule Production

Integration of:

The Above Jobs with Advising & Evaluations Services

Download This Paper in .pdf Format

Paper Written By:
James W. "Jim" Jessee
Director of Academic Publications, Facilities and Database Services
Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
California State University, Chico

Table of Contents

Overview

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I have more than 30 years of experience at Chico State as an analyst, curriculum data base administrator, and editor of The Catalog and The Class Schedule. The years have permitted me to observe and participate intimately in the curriculum planning and approval process, development of modern academic advising and evaluation support services, state-of-the-art student database and curriculum management operations, and computer-based academic publications and Web pages. This document is a significant revision of an original presentation made by Dr. Robert Standing, Director of Advising, and myself at the 1995 National Academic Advising Association, NACADA, in Nashville, TN. Thank you Bob Standing for being my mentor and a nationally recognized leader in advising.

Curriculum planning and approval, preparation and production of a catalog, class schedule, and other advising documents are often labor-intensive and fragmented operations that are the principal sources of the high cost, inaccuracies, and inconsistencies which plague university publications and frustrate academic advising and evaluation. Computer-based curriculum advising and evaluation, commonly known as "degree audit," are additional labor-intensive processes which depend on the very same curriculum information gathered for catalog publication.

Course and degree audit data are often maintained independently from catalog publication information and, therefore, differ, sometimes dramatically, from degree descriptions provided to students in the catalog, class schedule, and other advising literature. We all suffer from the consequences. Full integration of degree audit with catalog publication is essentially unheard of anywhere, except here at Chico State. CSU, Chico has undertaken this integration of functions and a single source curriculum database, greatly reducing the cost and inaccuracies of our publications, while establishing the foundation for an integrated catalog publication, advising, evaluation, and degree audit system.

We are now well committed to the Web (WWW) by making our catalog, class schedules, and other academic advising and evaluations documents and advising and evaluation tools available on the Chico State Website and through the student Portal. We are integrating access to these documents and other registration aids and services in the Portal for direct access while students are engaged in the advising, planning, and registration process.

It is perhaps a reflection of the size of our university (Master Planned for 17,900 FTE) and the peculiarity of our academic organization (Admissions, Advising, Evaluations and Student Records, and The Catalog and Class Schedule production are part of Academic Affairs), which thrust the responsibility for academic publications into the hands of a database analyst, rather than a registrar, a student service, or publications professional. The consequence of this data processing perspective, in league with the professionals in Admissions, Advising and Orientation, Evaluations, and Publications has led to strategies which significantly reduce both the time and cost of producing our publications and increase the accuracy and consistency of information contained in these and other publications. At the same time, the foundation is being laid for completely integrated publications, academic advising, and the degree audit system.

In this document we have extracted the organization and key principles which guide the curriculum proposal and approval process, the development of publications, and our academic advising and degree audit system at CSU, Chico. Many of these reflect publication, database, and degree audit developments across the nation; others are homegrown ideas and practices we offer as a good working example for others.

Principle 1: Plan, Plan, Plan

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The single most important factor for facilitating curriculum development and reducing the cost and improving the accuracy and utility of a university catalog, class schedule, and other advising and evaluation documents is a long-term and comprehensive planning effort. Twenty-five years ago, CSU, Chico formed a publications evaluation and master planning committee. This committee, and the evaluation exercise described below, has continued for all these years since in one form or another. The current University Catalog Committee now consists of the primary curriculum approval staff, producers of campus publications, the editors of various campus advising materials, and representatives of the primary users of these publications, including students, faculty, and our own professional advisors and evaluators. We also seek feedback from our off-campus constituencies, high school and community college advisors, military advisors, parents, and friends of the University.

In our first endeavor at evaluating our publications, we gathered the catalog, class schedule, recruiting, admissions, advising, and evaluations literature together in one place and examined them for accuracy, contradictions or redundancy of information, and consistency of image. We found no overall control, coordination or consistency of information, and no planned or consistent image of the University in its literature. Based in part on a consultant's study and largely on the long-term effort of this University publications master planning group, several key recommendations were adopted by the University which are listed below. Implementation has saved the University hundreds of thousands of dollars and a great deal of time over the last twenty-five years. These curriculum approval structures and catalog production methods have vastly improved the accuracy and integrity of academic information provided to the faculty, students, and community.

One key feature of our planning effort was to rationalize, stabilize, make public and easy to use, the curriculum proposal and approval process. The Provost Office, and specifically the position of Vice Provost for Academic Affairs for Undergraduate Education (originally a Dean of Curriculum or Undergraduate Education) was to be in charge of the course and curriculum proposal and approval process, coordinating, logging, and assisting with all paperwork and appropriate routing for technical review and approval. Graduate courses and programs were coordinated by this Vice Provost, too, although, they were forwarded for review and approval by the Dean of the Graduate School as well.

In practice, this Vice Provost or Dean has had a chief staff member, an administrative analyst position, who handled all the faculty/chair/dean advising and coaching on how to propose course and curriculum revisions, how to do required paperwork, and handled all the logging and coordination of the extensive reviews and approvals required. The position worked hand in glove with the VP, seeking advice, direction and approval, not to mention direct help with negotiations with the faculty, chairs, curriculum committees, Academic Senate and deans over concerns and issues. The staff position developed all the forms, many now as on-line screens, procedures, timelines, and documentation in the department manual for these processes. This position built and maintains the Academic Department Manual for this and all curriculum, scheduling, and registration control processes.

During various times of reorganization and budget cutting this Vice Provost position was eliminated, and the chief staff person took over all the former VPs curriculum process and approval responsibilities, reporting directly to the Provost. Other parts of this VP's responsibilities were transferred to the Director of Academic Facilities, Publications and Database Services (APO) as well. This curriculum analyst became known as the "Curriculum Maven." Having this function and a single point of control at the highest level of Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs has proved to be a blessing, and much envied by many of our compatriots in the CSU and elsewhere across the nation. Typically this function, along with Catalog production, is often buried deeper in the organization in Enrollment Management or Student Affairs, sometimes publications, and handled by clerical staff. Our high level of attention and staffing well reflects the importance of these functions and responsibilities.

In addition a "technical review process" was created to assure accuracy, conformity to policy, and consistency in all our course and degree program descriptions. This technical review process, conducted before final approval, is the second envy of most or our colleagues who work with curriculum and catalog production across the nation. When new proposals are conceived and received, the "Curriculum Maven" works with the initiating faculty, chair, dean and their staff to make sure the materials have been prepared correctly, and that all forms, written justification or rationale, approval signature page, and the actual course and degree catalog descriptions are in standard and complete form. Depending on the level of the change, new course or program, minor or major revision, it is routed as appropriate to the "technical review staff" for their comments and suggestions, and eventually to the Academic Senate and Chancellor's Office as may be required, too.

The technical review group includes, the Catalog Preparation Office (APO) who look for compliance to catalog conventions, rules, and formats for publication; the Advising Office to see that it can be advised well and that all University Curriculum policies and standards are met; and the Evaluation Office, to see that it can be evaluated and programmed into degree audit files. All three offices check that it literally adds up, that all courses and their pre-requisites are accounted for, and that the program is expressed clearly in adopted catalog program description conventions and language amenable to "degree audit" coding and processing (requirements are, logical, clear, comprehensive, and specific)., too.

On the database and processing front, all catalog supplemental files have been converted to an XML based file structure and maintenance tools, and our Catalog Main File coding has been amended to more tightly couple it with the CMS Course and Degree Program identifications, for better integration of our curriculum files and systems. Documentation of the technical file development, maintenance, and processing is addressed in a separate white paper on this matter. We hope to make our catalog development and production system available to other CSU if not more campuses.

Here are the other planning principles adopted that have proven to be very successful over the years, and have made our Catalog an award winning publication, and praised by our own, and regional high school and college advisors as one of the most accurate and clear sources of information available.

1. The Catalog shall be the flagship publication of the University.

The Catalog is recognized as both a recruiting and marketing tool and comprehensive source of information for students, faculty, on- and off-campus advisors and evaluators. Its writing style, typography, tone, and art design are to be a model for other university publications. We developed a writing style guide, which details form, style, preferred word choice and spelling, and includes the proper use of university-approved acronyms and abbreviations. A university font, logo, and other distinctive marks, official ink colors, and an image guide detailing use of the logo and university name, were established. This Guide is now adopted for all University Publications and is available at: http://www.csuchico.edu/pub/PubGuide/writingstyleguide.html.

2. The Catalog shall be comprehensive.

The Catalog shall contain all necessary information for admission, registration, academic advising, evaluation, and graduation from the University. It will not refer people to other publications for basic information. It will contain comprehensive information regarding the bread-and-butter issues: fees, expenses, financial aid, scholarships, student employment, student life, health, housing, and special services. It should be a complete handbook for parents, students, faculty, staff, and other on- and off-campus constituencies. We had discovered that a reason for proliferation of other publications was a perception that The Catalog was not sufficiently comprehensive and detailed.

3. The Catalog will be produced every two years.

The Catalog publications, print and Web, will be produced for a two-year period in conjunction with a formalized two-year academic planning and revision cycle and will be available by January 15 in the year that The Catalog becomes effective (e.g. January 15, 2007 for The 2007-2009 University Catalog). The Web catalog is updated as changes happen for new programs, administrators, faculty and advisors change, but most significant course and degree program changes are not approved for implementation until the next printed catalog appears, thus on-line changes are minimal.

4. The Class Schedule will be produced on an annual basis, with final Fall Semester, and tentative January, and Spring Semester schedule information produced before or by the start of fall registration during April in the spring semester preceding. January and spring schedules may be updated until the beginning of January and spring registration, in October each year, but we ask all colleges to tentatively schedule all courses they intend to offer in those terms before the fall registration to aid students with year-round planning.

As of 2006/07, The Class Schedule is produced and published on the Web only. Previously it was printed as a single year-long publication, all semesters and terms for the new academic year. We have found that the printed version is not missed by most. It was determined that a two-year catalog and a comprehensive one-year class schedule would stabilize information for faculty, students, and advisors, especially for off-campus advisors at the two-year community colleges which are our primary feeder schools, and facilitate student planning. Every effort is made to stabilize schedule information, particularly once registration begins each semester (classes may not be changed in day and time or cancelled once registration begins without special permission.). However, we offer an hourly update of The Class Schedule information on the Web, and live or real-time scheduling information while students are using the Portal to register for classes, adding and dropping.

The one-year Class Schedule, integrated with "year-round" advising and registration planning, greatly facilitates both faculty and student advising for an entire academic year, and, of course, planning to graduate in four years or less. Students are encouraged to plan a year-long schedule, looking at the fall, January, and spring offerings for the entire following year each spring during a formal advising period. They also inform the departments of missing courses needed, or courses required that may be scheduled at the same time. See The Class Schedule on the Web for detailed explanation of the registration process at Chico State. Because this system provides course demand information months before the start of classes, departments can add or increase the size of classes accordingly, with sufficient time and data to get or reallocate the resources needed.

New functions integrating the catalog files and student records are being developed to inform colleges and departments about the number of majors by class level that have completed or not required courses in their programs. This should help predict future course demand and the size of classrooms needed, too.

These strategies not only help academic planning of courses to offer, but cut down on time and money spent for publications and reduce or eliminate the sheer quantity of pages produced on an annual basis. We spread the substantial cost of preparing and producing a catalog over two years. Since the catalog is a recruitment tool, the January 15 "on the street" deadline was a deliberate attempt to be the first catalog in the State available and in the hands of high school and community college students and their advisors well before students make their final college choice decisions. Many students indicate that our catalog was a reason for deciding on Chico State, and many advisors have praised the quality, clarity, accuracy, and timeliness of our catalog.

5. The Catalog shall be designed as a compendium of stand-alone pieces.

Each catalog section or chapter, including individual academic program descriptions, is laid out as self-contained chapters (i.e., they begin and end on their own pages), enabling these separate sections to be included in other publications or printed as off-prints for individual distribution. These off-prints, which are printed from the catalog prepared PDF files, are distributed by the University Outreach professionals and other recruiters and advisors in the colleges and departments. The idea is to produce the artwork once for the Catalog and use it often. This practice not only eliminated the high cost of separately preparing these guides and related literature, but also eliminated inconsistency in presentation of the information. In addition, many pages of The Catalog are simply repeated in other publications or Web pages with minimal alteration. All of the text and graphics used in the catalog can be provided in an electronic form for use by others.

Other publications are encouraged to use appropriate text from The Catalog, which is provided to them through the campus computer network. This prevents any re-keying or inadvertent changing of information when text is formatted using word processing or desktop publishing technology. This practice assures consistency throughout our publications.

The Catalog is always maintained as the source of text for other publications. Revision to and use of the catalog based off-prints between catalog issues also provide revisions of necessary catalog text information by updating the master catalog text files and artwork and reprinting the off-print for distribution. This keeps the source text and artwork updated and ready for the next catalog publication. The Guide to General Education is one such piece that is updated annually in preparation for the next catalog, as well.

6. The Catalog shall be photo-intensive and use digital based images. The University has made a decision that indeed a good photo is worth a thousand words, and has elected to have photo intensive publications whenever possible. With each catalog chapter or section beginning on a new page, there is a good deal of white space that can accommodate photos or other images. We have designed the catalog and off-prints to fill available white space with photo images, in keeping with a specified layout design. The catalog illustrates this design. Academic programs may have two to four photos depending on the amount of text they choose to use. We encourage more photos at the expense of text.

We have developed a single University photo collection, whose primary purpose is for use in The Catalog, but is to be available for all University publications. That extensive 25-plus-year collection is now being digitized in formats, black and white and color, suitable for both publication and Web page display, and is made available for use on the WWW. This collection, which is centrally cataloged and indexed by Academic Technologies in Information Resources, is continually developing. We plan to replace about one-third of the photographs in each new catalog. With approximately 300 total photos in the catalog, this allows us to plan for about 100 new photos every two years, although many more than that are taken and catalogued. Thus, individuals with new publications can go to the University photo collection and find images which fit their needs. As new photos are required and acquired for the catalog or other publications, they are added to the university digital photo collection, rather than kept as the private property of an office or publication author.

Historically, we reused most of the photographs in subsequent catalogs, off-prints and other publications. Therefore, we also recovered from the printer the half-tones produced for the catalog and reused them in subsequent publications, saving many thousands of dollars on this step in the printing process as well. Now we have a developing digital image library that is made available for other publications and used on the WWW as well.

7. The Catalog shall be developed and printed using state-of-the-art technology. We have found that state-of-the-art has changed rapidly in the past 25 years, but Chico struggles to keep pace. We now use Adobe In-Design software running on an IBM compatible machine with high resolution color monitors and a high quality printer for most of the catalog development and production process. All proofing, including photo positioning, is done with a color printer from the editor's desk. With this equipment and software we compose for output composite PDF files with complete pages with photos and other graphics "in position," These PDF files are used by the printer to directly output to negatives in "signature layout order." This has saved many thousands of dollars in traditional signature composition and layout using the marriage of halftones and single page negatives of the text produced from camera ready copy on photographic quality paper.

With a newly adopted University Strategic Priority of educating for and practicing sustainability, the production of the catalog now embraces recycled paper and sustainable printing production practices. The 2007-2009 University Catalog is our first all recycled paper content catalog.

8. The University shall have a position of University Publications Officer to review and approve all campus literature for external distribution and Web pages, and enforce publication policies and guidelines. The University created the position of University Publications Officer to review and approve all campus literature and to develop, guide, and enforce campus publication policy. This position is sometimes referred to as the "Logo Cop," and the function has been extended to include review of officially sanctioned University Web pages too. We developed a comprehensive statement of publications policy and guidelines, which is distributed annually to the campus community. The Publications Officer is an integral member of the Catalog Committee.

Principle 2: Capture the First Keystroke and Use Your Existing Data Base

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Always capture the first keystroke; never re-key anything.

This principle has involved developing a comprehensive, campus-wide document and data processing system. We have sufficient infrastructure to be able to move text and data files from decentralized offices, where text and data is originated, to the editors and staff, who work directly on these files, and back again to the authors for proofreading and continuing maintenance. We make every effort to avoid re-keying any text or data. The problems of uncoordinated purchase of microcomputers and word processors with incompatible file structures complicated the issue. The solution was to require each author to provide a "plain text" file or to use Microsoft Office products that can be imported directly into Adobe InDesign.

Adopt a data processing approach to catalog and class schedule publication.

The minimum that a campus should do to reduce the cost of producing a catalog is to adopt a desktop publishing approach to catalog production. Chico went a step further and adopted a data processing approach to the production of The Catalog. It has made a significant difference with respect to accuracy and consistency of information, as well as reduced cost.

Much of the information contained in The University Catalog, especially faculty and course information, is already maintained in electronic data files, faculty information and personnel files, course master files, and so forth, which are used for the daily operations of the University. Individuals, offices, mechanisms, and procedures already existed for capturing and processing this information. We decided that information should only be gathered once and used as much as possible. Using information directly from these operational data files eliminates redundancy and inevitable inaccuracies caused by re-keying in a word processing or desktop publishing manner. Thus we are assured that our published information reflects precisely the operational information and that this information is the same everywhere it appears. For example, a course's title, description, units, general education status, and prerequisites are the same everywhere a course is referenced (be it right or wrong!). Degree and residence unit requirements, general education, literacy, and other State code requirements are stated exactly the same in every degree program. These elements are maintained in one place but appear in dozens of program descriptions. We change the source text once, and it appears the same everywhere.

Operational data base information tends to be better maintained and monitored for accuracy because it directly affects many daily activities from class scheduling, registration, to facilities and personnel management, and faculty workload accounting. Using this information directly in The University Catalog, The Class Schedule, and other advising publications produces another powerful feedback mechanism which also helps assure the accuracy of the source data files. The catalog editor, database manager, and file keepers are all informed of errors or changes necessary in the literature because corrections and changes are accomplished in the publication only by updating the source operational data files, not just some separate text or desktop publishing file someplace. Marked-up publication copy often serves as a source for data entry and data base corrections.

Principle 3: Keep Data Entry and Text Editing Timely and at Home

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Keep data and text entry in the hands of those concerned and knowledgeable about it.

Maintain information in an ongoing fashion. This principle addresses the issue of accuracy and comprehensiveness and accompanies the decentralized approach for producing publication copy outlined in Principle 2. Let the people most knowledgeable and concerned about the information prepare the input for the catalog as a regular feature of their job whenever possible. We ask and invite the faculty and curriculum committees to maintain course information steadily, using standard curriculum revision procedures and forms for entry into the University database. They now know that the work done for this chore will be reflected in the next catalog without having to mark-up separate catalog copy in the next great rush to meet the publication deadline. Use the right course or degree program form and process once, and the chore will end there.

We ask principal authors to maintain text for The Catalog as changes occur.

Updates to catalog text should be the companion, if not the focus, of changes in campus policy and procedures. Many changes in program, policy, or procedure are conceptualized and submitted to approving bodies as marked-up changes to the catalog copy. Many offices maintain their text portion of catalog copy on a weekly or monthly basis. The editor of the catalog watches for changes in programs, policies, and procedures, and asks the appropriate office to submit catalog revisions as soon as these changes are approved. The standard procedure for submission of catalog changes is to correct a photocopy of the current catalog information. Some offices maintain their own text files. We make these updates to catalog text files in an on-going fashion, and even produce a laser proof copy of the next catalog pages that reflects the change to give back to the author for immediate verification. This assures accuracy, reinforces the author's willingness to provide corrections, and reduces the stress for all parties, in that the work can be done without a deadline. Thus we avoid much of the rush and inaccuracy that accompany standard last-minute methods of updating catalog copy.

Principle 4: Integrate Publications and Degree Audit Functions

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Avoid all redundancy with respect to maintenance of degree program information. Integrate to the greatest extent possible degree audit functions and catalog publication. This long and determined pursuit of this principle is currently unique to Chico State and, we believe, potentially our most important contribution. The idea is simple: The Catalog's academic program requirement information is the sole authoritative source for general education and all degree program requirements, majors, options, minors, certificates, and so forth. As we had neither an electronic source for producing The Catalog nor a degree audit function at our University when we began this effort twenty-five years ago, we determined that these two functions should be integrated. We have developed a single source file (the CAT file, which is like a script for the published catalog) describing all the elements of The Catalog, from faculty listings and course descriptions to comprehensive academic program requirements for degrees, majors, minors, and credentials. These elements are used to produce the catalog publication "typography" and were designed initially to be the "template," or source for the academic program descriptions for the, to be adopted, campus degree audit system.

Thereafter, the degree audit system's descriptions of degree programs and other requirements were to become the source for the Catalog production, drawing such program description details directly from the degree audit database.

Alas, something funny happened on the way to achieving a campus degree audit system over all these years. We have implemented and experimented with several, and only recently adopted the CMS compatible degree audit system. For this latest system our catalog degree program descriptions or templates do form its source for degree audit information, although it must be redundantly keyed into the CMS system using their own formats, and far more elements of detail. At this time, both CMS and the degree audit system are in such flux and in constant change, upgrade, or maintenance, that the program descriptions within it are not at all easy to extract to produce catalog descriptions. We cannot rely upon it for producing the catalog's degree descriptions or anything else in a timely way. This goal remains elusive.

Our catalog publication copy is produced through a series of locally developed programs, collectively called "The Catalog Production System." The input file for this catalog production job is a file named CAT, which combines a precisely formatted identification and description of each academic program in the University with XML tags and specifications and text for producing headlines, narrative, column, page, and other typesetting or page formatting requirements (See a separate paper on the Catalog Production System available).

The CAT file was also designed to serve as the source file for producing the Academic Program File "templates," which are compared to the students' "Permanent Academic Record," to produce degree audit screens and reports for students, faculty, advisors, and evaluators. Thus, as this was to be implemented at Chico, the source of the published information in The Catalog and off-print Academic Planning Guides is precisely the same as the electronic information used for this important advising and evaluation or degree audit activity. While the above is not yet happening, we are coding the CAT file using CMS course and program identifications, and using the system to determine courses required for majors, comparing them to actual student records, to see how many majors have not taken specific courses required for schedule planning purposes.

Those who build or maintain degree audit program files and catalog program descriptions separately can recognize that we can eliminate much redundancy of information-keeping and assure a single authoritative source for such information, if these two functions are integrated. Furthermore, any redundancy in information-keeping of this nature inevitably leads to differences in the "facts," thus contradictions and inconsistency and the resulting difficulties for advisors and evaluators. We have already converted our current "Catalog Production System" to integrate with the "Course Inventory," "degree program identifications," and other CMS operational files, plus some augmentation files required. This integration is reflected in The 2007-2009 Catalog. That conversion was straightforward and did not greatly affect or change the "Catalog Production System" design or operation from the publications standpoint.

CMS Degree Audit was not designed to directly integrate or support catalog production; thus, we are faced with a bit of a problem and a setback with respect to this principle, once again. Adoption of "the CMS Degree Audit" will temporarily require the simultaneous maintenance of two degree program files, one for "Catalog Production" and another for "Degree Audit," thus creating an unfortunate redundancy of information-keeping and destroying the integration of the "Catalog Production" and "Degree Audit." We are analyzing the feasibility of directly addressing CMS degree program files for their catalog degree program publication information and believe that this is feasible, but most difficult. Timing of this is also pertinent. Degree audit templates are often updated after the catalog is produced, not before, when we would need them, so this is a major processing issue to be resolved. It will require substantive changes to the current "Catalog Production System" software, and simply may not be worth it.

Principle 5: Provide Authors with Proof Pages for Editing Throughout the Publication Cycle

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We use Adobe InDesign to produce PDF files and a laser printer to produces an exact image of the page proofs with photos in position. We submit whole chapter drafts to the departments and staff for proofreading. The nature of humans is that they do not see errors in information or format, be they ever so small or subtle, until they see the final typeset or proof pages. This is of course very costly if you're using traditional methods to produce typeset galleys. Every author's change or "AC" produces the consequential additional costs (the true meaning of AC). The ability with desktop publishing to very cheaply provide precise emulation of final page proofs has done more to improve the thoroughness of the proofreading cycle than any other characteristic of production. The fact that we provide such page proof copy throughout the process, in an on-going fashion, as we process any change, large or small, helps, too. The result is a well-proofed and highly accurate publication. This reduces cost and increases error detection dramatically and allows us to do the final typesetting at the last possible moment before printing. We even use the output from the laser printer for local off-prints of Academic Planning or Service Guides between Catalog years, if changes are made, and we use laser printer proofs entirely for other lesser quality publications.

Principle 6: Act as If "The Catalog Is a Contract"

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Act as if The Catalog is a contract with your students, faculty, advisors, and evaluators; develop and enforce academic program and course change policies accordingly. We believe that the issue of whether The Catalog is a legal contract is undetermined and irrelevant. We are required by the California State University System to provide prominently a disclaimer which says that requirements and rules may be changed at any time by the Board of Trustees or responsible authorities. A major criticism of our earlier catalogs by both the students coming from our feeder community colleges and their advisors was that they could not rely on the information in The Catalog. We were determined to make The Catalog an authoritative, reliable, and stable source of information.

Accordingly, we adopted a guiding philosophy to treat The Catalog as if it were a contract with our students, faculty, and community college constituencies. We ask that all contributors to The Catalog regard it in this way, too. Furthermore, we developed policies which regard the integrity of the information in The Catalog as sacrosanct. Changes after The Catalog is sent to the printer are approved as soon as possible, but effective with the next Catalog only. Any significant programmatic changes which are to take effect before the next catalog (i.e. it is dead wrong or an officer or accrediting agency requires it to be effective sooner) are made under presidential authority only. Normally, The Catalog, right or wrong, is treated as the gospel until the next catalog is published. When asked for the correct policy or requirement, we simply state, "What is in The Catalog ?" It is infallible by definition.

The University has adopted a two-year catalog and academic planning cycle which are coordinated with catalog publication. The memo which describes the academic planning cycle and its coordination with catalog production is on-line in the Department Manual. This two-year catalog and one-year class schedule have saved this University a tremendous amount of staff time and money and have not inhibited the creativity of our faculty or the University's ability to respond to change. There is no prohibition to implementing new courses or even new programs. We schedule new courses and develop appropriate new academic planning or service guides to announce new programs in between catalog publications. These efforts are really preparing the text and copy for the next catalog and do not necessarily invalidate current information in the published catalog.

To assure "infallibility," a feature of our curriculum review and approval process is the establishment of a "technical review committee," described above, which assists the Curriculum Maven, and Deans of Undergraduate and Graduate Education with the review, mark-up, and eventual approval of all degree changes. All proposals for program changes are directed to this committee for a thorough technical review before they are submitted to the Academic Senate or other formal approval bodies. This review and subsequent markup check the proposal for several technical issues. Do the units add up? Do the required courses exist? Are all prerequisite courses specifically listed and actually required in the program as well? We wish to avoid any and all bad surprises and to insure that all courses required are outlined in detail. Does the program adhere to local, Chancellor's and State policies and requirements? Does the program adhere to conventions necessary for inclusion in the "Catalog Production System" file and now the "PeopleSoft CMS" degree audit file. The proposal is marked up and cycled back to the colleges or departments until all issues are resolved, and we have at least a technically sound proposal.

This is not to say the faculty and department chairs don't try to make changes which they want effective the next semester, if not last week, which would change or invalidate information for existing programs or courses in The Catalog and thus break our implied contract. They also get ahead of themselves and start distributing their "new programs" and "new courses" before formal review and approval have taken place. These things always happen. The University requires, however, that only catalog copy be used in departmental handouts and advising sheets. Fortunately, at Chico we have a Publications Officer and a series of academic deans and administrators willing to enforce the above policies.

Faculty and curriculum committees are encouraged to process changes when they occur; this is part of our "on-going maintenance" principle. In fact, we ask faculty to make the new catalog a stimulus for revisions and changes which they can begin processing immediately. The publication of the latest catalog signals the beginning of the next two-year academic planning and catalog production cycle. We provide faculty a timeline for academic planning and catalog production along with their complimentary copy of the latest catalog. We, in fact, usually get a wave of minor changes, sometimes much to our chagrin, immediately after The Catalog hits the streets. These course and program changes are to be effective, of course, with the next catalog.