How to Submit Courses for Designation
Binghamton has acquired new software to help us manage curricular proposals, from program changes to course approvals. This launch will introduce our new general education proposal forms.
In MC Curriculum, you can launch new general education proposals and ask for renewals of previously
approved temporary designations. Additionally, you can easily manage and track your
proposals. You can use MC Curriculum immediately as follows:
- Log in with your Binghamton credentials.
- Launch a new proposal by clicking “+ New Proposal.”
- Choose “2025-2026 New General Education Designation Request” or “2025-2026 Renew General Education Designation Request”.
- You can manage submitted proposals in the “My Proposals” tab.
We will keep our old General Education Google Proposal Form open until December 3rd, 2024, to allow time to transition to the new software.
Please find our how-to guide for MC Curriculum here. We are happy to help and offer training on the software to any department that requests
them. Please email us if you are interested in setting up training.
Gen Ed proposals for current faculty will be reviewed by UUCC up to the submission deadline. Accommodations will be made for new faculty or changes of instructors. However, it is better to apply early to give time for UUCC meeting time, resubmissions, follow-ups, and approval processes.
Winter/Spring Gen Ed Proposal Deadline: December 2nd, 2024.
Summer/Fall Gen Ed Proposal Deadline: May 8th, 2025.
Please note for Fall 2024, UUCC meets Monday mornings so proposals should be submitted by the previous Wednesday.
For all General Education requirements, a course is understood to be four credits. There are exceptions to this rule:
- Transfer courses that earned three credits at the student’s original school;
- Physical Activity/Wellness courses;
- Laboratory Science courses of one and two credits that have a four-credit pre- or corequisite;
- Oral Communication courses of varying credits;
- A total of four credits of MUSP courses, taken for a letter grade, may be used to fulfill the Aesthetics requirement;
- Colleges/Schools or programs in which three-credit courses are the norm.
For more information, please contact Undergraduate Education.
For more information on the new SUNY General Education Framework, please see Policy and Guidance: SUNY General Education.
General Education Designations and Learning Outcomes
For more information on the different categories including the required student learning outcomes, guidelines from the University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and support tools see the pages below.
Combination Limitations
Starting Fall 2023 the Faculty Senate Executive Board has approved the following limitations on designation combinations.
|
Skills, Activities, and Competencies (as many from this column as instructors cover and assess) |
Methodologies (only one from this column) |
Specific Knowledge Areas (only one from this column) |
| C/O/J Composition + Oral Communication | H Humanities | G Global Interdependencies |
| T Critical Thinking and Reasoning | A Aesthetics | D/USD Diversity: Equity Inclusion and Social Justice |
| I Information Literacy | N Social Sciences | |
| Y/S/B Activity + Wellness | L Laboratory Sciences | |
| WL World Languages | ||
| M Mathematics |
For an example UUCC could approve a course to hold C, T, I, N and D designations.
Requesting General Education Designations FAQ
| Who can submit requests for Gen Ed designations? |
| Faculty, instructors, or staff are allowed to submit requests for Gen Ed designation. The University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee has left this decision up to individual departments: some departments have mandated that only the undergraduate director or chair can submit requests, while other departments allow instructors or administrative staff members to submit requests. Please check with your chair or undergraduate director regarding the policy in your department. |
| When should requests be submitted? |
| We recommend that requests are submitted early during the course-building period (at least two weeks before the class schedule goes live) so that approved designations can be added to the courses before registration opens. However, we will consider Gen Ed designations up until the Add/Drop Deadline of a semester. |
| What is the difference between a "fixed" and a "temporary" Gen Ed designation? |
|
Fixted (formly permanent) means that the course will always receive the General Education designation, regardless of when the course is taught or who teaches it. Only permanent courses can receive fixed designations; topics courses or experimental courses cannot. Temporary (formaly provisional) General Education designations are for one semester only or for specific instructors only. Because of their nature, topics courses receive temporary Gen Ed designations. If one instructor teaches a course to meet a General Education requirement but another instructor for the same course does not, we would use a temporary designation. Temporary Gen Ed designations can be renewed up to two years from the last time the course was taught. |
| Can a Gen Ed designation be removed from a course? |
|
Yes. The department chair or undergraduate director (or their designee) may request that a Gen Ed designation be removed because a course is no longer being taught to meet the requirement. Instructors can also request that a designation be removed; if the request comes from an instructor, the department chair and/or undergraduate director should be copied on the request. All requests to remove a designation must be made in writing (i.e., via email), not over the phone. IMPORTANT! If a course already has students registered, or a course has already started, all students MUST be informed in writing before a designation is removed from a course. We strongly discourage the removal of a designation once a course has started. |
| If a Gen Ed designation was approved for a course, why isn't it showing up in BU Brain? |
| Gen Ed designations are added to courses at the end of the course-building period. Although weekly queries are run during registration to look for new courses, they do not always pick up all of the new courses that were built. If your department adds a course after the end of course building, please contact Undergraduate Education. |
