The instructions below explain how to successfully complete the proposal form for a program edit. This includes majors, minors, credit certificates, and non-credit certificates. If you want to propose a new program, please follow the instructions for how to submit a proposal for a new program. If you want to drop a program, please follow the instructions for how to submit a proposal to drop a program.
A prospectus is required for all undergraduate program proposals. For graduate program proposals, a prospectus is only required for new graduate programs or extending an existing graduate program to online delivery. A new prospectus proposal can be completed from the CIM Prospectus Management dashboard. Instructions on how to complete the prospectus form are found in the Prospectus Management User Guide.
The prospectus should be submitted and approved before the program proposal form is submitted to workflow for approval. However, you can begin work on the program proposal form in CIM while the prospectus is being reviewed. The work completed on the program proposal form can be saved and returned to in the CIM Program Management system.
Go to the CourseLeaf CIM Program Management dashboard at: https://psu-next.courseleaf.com/programadmin/.
Log in with your Penn State user ID and password.
A dialog box will appear requesting that you complete your login to CourseLeaf. Click the circle icon in the dialog box to proceed to the CourseLeaf CIM Program Management dashboard.
Once logged in, you will see the CourseLeaf CIM Program Management dashboard. In the Search field, enter the program code or program name of the program that you want to edit. Then click the green Search Button.
A list of matched search results will appear in the results table. Select the program that you wish to edit from the results table.
Below the results table will be a preview panel of the currently approved proposal for the program. To propose changes to the program, click the green Edit Program Button that appears in the upper right-hand corner of the preview panel.
The program proposal form will open in a new browser window.
The CIM program proposal form is a large form with several fields, which are described below. Before starting on program proposal form, please read the following tips and guidelines to help you successfully navigate form features and requirements.
The CIM program proposal form is a dynamic form. The fields that appear on the form will change depending on your answers to certain questions. For example, if you select "Undergraduate" for the Academic Level, a new section for Entrance and Retention Requirements will appear further down in the form. This section will not appear when any other academic level is selected.
Fields that are required are outlined in red. You cannot start workflow (i.e., begin the review and approval process) on your proposal until all required fields have been completed. You can, however, save changes to your incomplete proposal and return to complete and submit the form later.
Instructions for each question appear in italics above the question heading and field. Please read these instructions carefully before entering your information into the form.
You can save your changes to the proposal form at any time by clicking the Save Changes button at the bottom of your screen. This will save all changes made but will not submit the proposal to the approval workflow process. Saving changes allows you to come back to your proposal and finish editing at a later date.
Clicking the Cancel button will close the proposal without saving any changes made.
Once your proposal is finished and ready to begin the review process, click the Start Workflow button to submit the proposal to the approval workflow process.
Some of the form fields on the program proposal form already will be pre-populated with information from the last approved proposal. To satisfy all required fields, you may need to include information from prior approved proposals available in the Curriculum Archive.
When proposing to change an existing program, the program proposal form contains most of the form fields used when proposing a new program. Detailed information on each of those form fields can be found on the How to Propose a New Program User Guide.
Form fields that appear on the New Program Proposal form but not on the Edit Program Proposal form include CIP Code, Justification for the Program, and Program Learning Objectives (unless the requested edit is to begin offering a current major or option at a new location and the program learning objectives and/or outcomes will be different at the proposed location). While Prescribed Courses, Additional Courses, and Supporting Courses appear on the Edit Program Proposal form, they are pre-populated in a different combined format (as seen in the University Bulletins) than what is inputted on the New Program Proposal form. A description of this formatting change appears below.
The following new form fields and/or form field changes appear on the form when proposing a change to an existing program.
In limited circumstances, minor program changes that do not result in a substantive change in curricular content will be considered for expedited review. If a program change qualifies for expedited review, the proposal still must complete all college/unit and consultation workflow steps. However, the proposal will not have to go before the Senate Committee on Curricular Affairs for voting.
Examples of program proposal changes that qualify for expedited review include editorial updates/corrections to the program description or changes in program requirements in response to a name and/or number change with no substantive content change.
If this proposal qualifies for expedited review, select Yes. After selecting Yes, one additional form field will appear:
Provide a description of why the proposed program changes qualify for expedited review.
The last approved listing of prescribed, additional, and supporting courses will be pre-populated in the Bulletin Listing form field. The format of the course lists matches the format published in the University Bulletins.
Following the instructions in the How to Use the Course List Editor User Guide, edit the Bulletin Listing as needed.
More information about the specific components of the Bulletin Listing form field can be found in the Bulletin Listing Components and Formatting of Program Requirements User Guide.
The first time you propose a program change in CIM you may need to include information from prior approved proposals available in the Curriculum Archive to satisfy all required fields.
You only need to provide the information that is to be changed on the form (along with the subsequent details requested if the program is to be added or discontinued from a college or campus). All other form fields can be left unchanged. For example, if you wish to add AGBM 101 to the prescribed courses C or better requirements and delete AGRO 410 from the additional courses C or better requirements, you add AGBM 101 and remove AGRO 410 from the Bulletin Listing.
The original pre-populated entry appears as follows:
The edited entry appears as follows:
When reviewers are reviewing the proposal, they can identify proposed changes by the red-green markup of the text. Red strike-through text is used to indicate deletions and green text is used to indicate additions.
The automated approval process in CIM is called the workflow. Once you click the green Start Workflow Button, your proposal will begin this approval process.
The required workflow steps are defined by each academic college. As reviewers in each step approve the proposal it will move to the next step of the workflow. As the proposal moves to the next workflow step, the appropriate user(s) will be notified via an automated email that the new program proposal is ready to be reviewed, edited, approved, or rejected.
You can log in to the CourseLeaf CIM Program Management dashboard at any time to see where your proposal is in the workflow process. Once you have located your proposal in the dashboard, the preview will include the full list of workflow steps the proposal must complete. The current workflow step for the proposal will be in bold orange text. Completed workflow steps will be in bold green text.
At any point in the approval process a reviewer might have questions about the proposal. You will have the opportunity to address these questions and/or provide additional information about your proposal at various steps throughout the workflow. You cannot directly edit your proposal until it returns to you in the workflow process. You will be notified via email when the proposal has reached the workflow step for you to review and address reviewer feedback.
A reviewer may also choose to rollback the proposal to a previous step in the workflow. In this case, the proposal will need to repeat the workflow steps from the point the proposal was rolled back to.
More information about proposal review can be found in the Workflow Management User Guide section.
Once the proposal has received final approval from the Senate Committee on Curricular Affairs after being published in the Senate Curriculum Report the next step of the workflow goes to the Office of Undergraduate Education for review if the program edit consists of one or more of the following changes:
Once approved, the Office of Undergraduate Education will confirm authorization on behalf of the Executive Vice President and Provost to implement the proposed program changes.
If the proposed program edit does not include one of the above change requests, this step will be skipped.
In instances in which authorization is required from the Executive Vice President and Provost, the Office of the University Registrar will input the appropriate changes into LionPATH Update Academics after final approval of the Senate Committee on Curricular Affairs and authorization from the Executive Vice President and Provost. In addition, approved curriculum changes will be coded in the degree audit with the appropriate effective date.
In instances in which authorization is not required from the Executive Vice President and Provost, the Office of the University Registrar will code approved curriculum changes to the degree audit with the appropriate effective date after final approval of the Senate Committee on Curricular Affairs.
Once the proposal has completed the approval process, the proposer will receive an automated email message notifying you of the proposal approval.
The approved program changes will publish in the University Bulletins at the time of their official effective semester. For example, if the program changes are approved during the month of October and the official effective semester is for the following spring semester, the program changes will be published in the University Bulletins at the beginning of the spring semester.
