Guidelines for Renaming Degrees or Academic Major
More advice: Things to Think About When Proposing Name Changes
Proposals to rename academic majors begin with the major or program faculty.
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The program faculty will prepare a brief proposal requesting the name change and giving supporting reasons. A brief memo (one or two paragraphs to one or two pages) is usually sufficient.
Some common justifications for a change in major name are: that the new name more accurately reflects the curriculum than the old name; that the activities of the program faculty and the training they offer are more accurately reflected by the new name; and that the name of the discipline has changed and consequently the major should be renamed to reflect this change in the discipline. In these situations, program faculty judge that both new and in-course students are best served by the requested name change. The proposal should explain the degree to which in-course students accept the name change. Generally, in-course students accept and use the new program name. In-course students will be permitted to complete the program under the name of the program when they were admitted if they make a request to do so.
If the proposed name issimilar or related to an existing major, program, or department it is especially important that the proposal clearly and explicitly address any issues of overlap. If there are likely to be any concerns about overlap issues, the affected program(s), department(s), school(s) and college(s) should provide letters of endorsement. All affected parties should be made aware of the planned name change in advance and endorsements should accompany the proposal.
The proposal should specify the intended effective date of the change.Typically, when a major name is changed all currently and subsequently enrolled students will use the new name from the effective date forward. For major programs that want to keep both the existing and newly proposed names fully active, that request should be justified in the proposal. If a request for a major name change is based on a major curricular reorganization, the proposal may be viewed as a request for either restructuring of a major or for a new major. (Both of these actions require UW System and Board of Regent approval, whereas name changes are final after UAPC approval.)
- The program faculty will forward the proposal to the school/college level. Following approval at the school/college academic level, the Dean will send the proposal to the Provost. For undergraduate programs, the University Academic Planning Council (UAPC) will consider the proposal. For graduate programs, the Graduate Faculty Executive Committee (GFEC) will consider the proposal. GFEC actions will be ratified by the UAPC. The Provost's Office will communicate the name change to the Registrar's Office for action and to UW System Administration for information.
(Adopted by the UAPC, May 2002.)
Restructuring or Discontinuing Degrees or Majors
Proposals to restructure or discontinue academic programs are approved at the school/college level. Following approval by the school/college academic planning council, proposals are forwarded to the Provost. For undergraduate majors and degrees, the proposal will be considered by the University Academic Planning Council. For graduate programs, the proposal will be considered by the Graduate Faculty Executive Committee (GFEC). GFEC actions will be reported to the UAPC. These actions are reported by the Provost's Office to the Registrar's Office and to the UW System Administration for information only.
Suspending Admissions to Degrees or Majors
In some cases program faculty wish to suspend admissions to a program in advance of discontinuing the program. The guidelines are provided in the memo below:
November 7, 1995
Memorandum
To: Academic Deans and Directors
From: John D. Wiley, Provost
Re: Suspending admission of new students to an academic major
In the past year, questions have arisen about suspending new admissions to academic majors as a first step in phasing out the major. (For example, new admissions to the baccalaureate program in Physical Therapy were recently suspended while consideration of restructuring the program as a master's degree was considered.) Phase-out of a major requires a number of formal governance approvals, but often before the program is ready for complete phase-out it is appropriate to suspend new admissions. Until now, there has been no formal procedure to follow in notifying my office and others of this step. I am proposing to institute a relatively simple procedure to assure that these decisions have your sign-off and that various offices -- Admissions, the Registrar, the Graduate School (for graduate majors), the UW System HELP office, etc. -- are all working from the same information.
In the future, if your school or college intends to suspend admissions to one of its majors, please send my office a letter stating your intention, a brief explanation of the reason, and the plans you have for taking final phase-out of the program to the University Academic Planning Council. I inform the UAPC, ask the Graduate School to approve (as appropriate), and assure other offices are officially notified.
The Registrar will maintain the major in question on the official UW-Madison majors list with one of the following notations:
- NO NEW FRESHMEN ADMISSIONS EFFECTIVE FIRST SEMESTER YYYY-YY
- NO NEW ADMISSIONS EFFECTIVE FIRST SEMESTER YYYY-YY
The expectation is that majors in this status will be phased out within two to three years and not left indefinitely in this status. Note that even after majors are officially phased out and removed from the official majors list, students "in the pipeline" can still be granted a degree, though it is better to accommodate only a small number of degrees this way.
Xc: Interim Dean Charles Read, Graduate School, Registrar Don Wermers, Director of Admissions Pete Storey, Associate Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows, Martha Casey, Academic Planning