The Curriculum Support Team (CST) is a new structure (2019) designed to enhance the work of the Curriculum Committee and the Curriculum Admin Team, each of which have a specific role in the development and oversight of curriculum.

The Curriculum Committee is a standing committee of the Faculty Senate which "discuss[es] and recommend[s] proposals affecting the academic program of the College, including but not limited to course proposals, program changes, addition and deletion of programs, degree requirements, and general policies with impact on instruction and learning."
The Curriculum Admin Team, an interdepartmental group of Academic Affairs staff working with the Chair and Vice Chair of the Curriculum Committee, supports the approval process by facilitating and helping to plan the steps and content needed for approval; ensuring that the proposal fields are entered properly; assessing proposals for potential problems; making corrections to catalog fields; providing feedback on proposal content; and managing curriculum operations and systems.
The Curriculum Support Team, a cross-functional group of faculty and staff from a wide range of departments across campus, supports early development and feasibility studies of new, and especially innovative or cross-disciplinary, ideas for courses, minors, micro-credentials and degree programs.

How to Engage the CST

A meeting of the CST offers anyone with a great idea for an academic offering the chance to discuss the concept or early proposal framework with a broad group of experts and stakeholders from across campus to consider all of the criteria that contribute to the success of the program. The freewheeling conversation provides the proposal originator with suggestions and information for design optimization and feasibility analysis.

Contact the Chair of the Curriculum Committee to organize a meeting of the CST. The Chair will work with you to supplement the core CST members (see below) with attendees who can bring important perspective, knowledge and insight to the meeting.

Description and Rationale

At Champlain, curriculum is considered the domain of faculty. Historically, curriculum work has begun with a faculty member who works with division colleagues and presents a well developed version of a proposal to the Curriculum Committee, who vet, approve, and advance the proposal to the Faculty Senate. The Curriculum Admin Team oversees the nuts and bolts of curriculum development and approval and is involved in the early stage of the curriculum approval process in the “Collaborative Development” step to make sure that the proposal fields are entered properly; to assess the proposal for potential problems; to make corrections to catalog fields; and to provide feedback on proposal content.

What has been missing from this process is a robust interdisciplinary vetting and discussion of the feasibility, impact, cost, and greater promise of proposals that involve major revisions, cross-divisional collaborations, or new innovative ideas. The Curriculum Support Team fills this gap by bringing in expertise from the faculty across divisions and programs, as well as Marketing, Admissions, Educational Technology, Diversity and Inclusion, Career Placement, and Administration to help determine likelihood of success and to envision as-yet-imagined possibilities for a new or modified program or minor, or an innovative course. Team leaders and the proposal originator coordinate to bring additional faculty and other expertise into the CST discussion to promote the integrity, depth, and breadth of a new or modified course or program.

The Curriculum Support Team acts as a “reality box,” providing actionable and timely feedback, recommendations, ideas for next steps, and so forth. The role of the team is not to approve or deny approval, but to ensure that the proposal is “approvable” and “implementable” within the desired time and resource parameters, and that the resulting course or program has a strong likelihood of success. The types of proposals that ought to be required to go through the CST process are new programs, major program revisions, new minors, new types of courses, courses that cross divisions, experimental courses, and new pedagogies.

The CST has been actively supporting faculty since 2019 to help them develop rigorous and vetted proposals to bring to the Curriculum Committee for approval.

Curriculum Support Team membership

Central Roles

Chair of the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee (Leader of the team)
Vice Chair of the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee
Registrar
Assistant Registrar
Director of Curriculum (Provost’s Office representative)
DEI expertise
Marketing/Admissions Expertise
DDL or other interdisciplinary/design Faculty

Contingent Roles

Chair(s) of the Space Committee
International Education representative
Finance/budget expertise
Academic Affairs Committee
Career Collaborative
Faculty or staff with relevant expertise
CLT or eLearning - for course design
Center Directors
External experts
Champlain alums
Employers