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Proposal Submission Guidelines

The Council on Academic Affairs provides the following suggested guidelines to individuals and units interested in submitting proposals for consideration. 

These guidelines were developed by members of the Council on Academic Affairs with experience in reviewing a wide range of proposals. The guidelines are meant to facilitate the review of proposals and minimize the need for revision.

These guidelines are intended to provide a general sense of topics and formats appropriate for most proposals. They are NOT a comprehensive guide or replacement for the Academic Organization and Curriculum Handbook. The Council on Academic Affairs strongly urges those developing proposals to review the appropriate sections of the manual prior to submitting them to the Council.

Cover Letter or Memo

The letter or memo should be addressed to:

Vice Provost W. Randy Smith
Council on Academic Affairs
Office of Academic Affairs
University Square South
15 E. 15th Ave.
Columbus, OH 43201

  • The letter should indicate the academic unit originating the proposal and contain one or two paragraphs briefly describing any action requested of the Council on Academic Affairs.
  • Attachments should be listed and identified.
  • Interested parties from the originating unit should be copied.

Proposal

Proposals should contain the following:

  • An executive summary or introductory paragraph describing the action to be initiated;
  • A section with background information detailing the rationale and describing the events, history, and/or relevant actions that initiated the proposal and the steps taken in its development;
  • Comparative data from other institutions with similar programs if available;
  • Specific actions and any corollary issues (positive and negative) that will arise from implementation:  issues frequently addressed include but are not limited to the following:
    • How will the proposal affect specific groups/constituencies (faculty, graduate/undergraduate students, staff, alumni, accrediting organizations, etc)?
    • What programmatic changes will take place internally?
    • How will the proposal affect students, faculty, and staff outside the proposing unit?
    • Does the content of the proposal overlap in scope or substance with the interests of other units?  If so, the concurrence of those units must be sought;
  • An overview of which committees at the department, college, and university level have reviewed and approved the proposal;
    • NOTE:  If this proposal is for distance delivery (with 50% or more of program activities occurring online) please contact the Office of Distance Education and eLearning at osuonline@osu.edu for assistance completing your proposal.
  • A description of the forms and outcomes of interactions with faculty, students, accrediting agencies, alumni, professional organizations, and other interested parties including minutes from meetings, faculty vote results, survey results, letters of support, etc. which offer valuable insight into the nature of the consultative process;
  • Some indication of the adequacy and availability of resources including but not limited to fiscal impact statements, commitments of funding from any sources, and memoranda of understanding between collaborating units; and
  • Any additional supporting documents referred to in the proposal (meeting minutes, memos, and letters of concurrence) and any forms required for processing the proposal (course forms, concurrence forms, etc).

The proposal must be submitted electronically as a single file in PDF format. For more precise information on preparing the proposal, visit the Academic Organization and Curriculum Handbook.