To: Department Chairs, Program Directors, St. Olaf Faculty, AAA's
From: Mary Cisar, Registrar, Assistant Vice-President for Academic Affairs
Subject: Catalog Revisions, 2008-2009 St. Olaf College Academic Catalog
Date: March 28, 2008As in the summer of 2007, the St. Olaf Academic Catalog will be web-based only, with a few copies printed from the web, duplicated, and three-hole bound to meet accreditation and archiving requirements. The 2008 timeline for revision will be similar to that of 2007.
The St. Olaf Academic Catalog will be updated once a year over the summer, with the new posting available around August 1. Any changes after that point will go into the following summer’s catalog.
It is, therefore, crucial that all academic departments/programs review the portions that pertain to that department/program. Please follow the procedures outlined below. These instructions will also be posted on the Registrar’s webpage, along with Curriculum Committee guidelines for course descriptions, under Current/Upcoming Events.
Dates and Deadlines:
Monday, March 31, 2008: Registrar sends out call for catalog revisions to chairs/directors (this letter).
Thursday, April 3, 2008: Assistant Registrar sends out catalog course lists from SIS (to be used in reviewing courses section of departmental catalog copy).
By Friday, April 25, 2008: Chairs, directors, AAA’s complete the steps below and return edited copy to Mary Cisar.
Beginning April 28, 2008: The Registrar’s Office enters the revised information, sends proof copies back to departments/programs for checking and final editing. The whole process continues into July.*
By August 1, 2008: The St. Olaf Academic Catalog, with search engine, is posted to the St. Olaf website.
* If you are the contact person for the catalog from your department/program/office, and if you plan to be away at any point in this process, please provide contact information or an alternate contact person.
To update your copy, please follow this procedure:
1. Prepare a master printout of your current copy by printing out the relevant sections of the 2007-2008 catalog (make sure you are in the 07-08 version) from the St. Olaf web site: http://www.stolaf.edu/catalog/ Please make sure you are aware of all portions of the catalog that reference your department/program. (Suggestion: Perform a Google search of the 07-08 catalog to find all of these references.)
2. Mark your changes on the printout -- clearly and in red ink.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: We need to see where changes have occurred. If you submit your copy to us electronically, we will not be able to determine this. It is much more efficient for us to enter the data that have changed than to reformat what you submit. The ONLY time electronic copy will be accepted is when a major chunk of copy has changed almost in its entirety -- and even then you should submit ONLY THAT PORTION ELECTRONICALLY, via e-mail attachment in Microsoft Word.
Please review every part of your catalog section for items that may have changed in the past year. Look also at other sections that include information about your department/program and advise the chairs/directors of those areas of changes that they need to make in their copy.
3. Make a photocopy of the annotated document(s) and put it in your files for later reference.
4. Send the edited document(s) to Mary Cisar, Registrar ( cisar@stolaf.edu, x3434) by Friday, April 25, 2008.
Your changes will be entered into the master document and reviewed by the Registrar’s Office. A proof of your section of the catalog will then be sent to you for review and revision. The turn-around time on this revision will be five (5) days from your receipt of the copy.
If you are the contact person for the catalog from your department/program, and if you plan to be away at any point in this process, please provide contact information or an alternate contact person.
You must return this proof to Mary Cisar -- with changes clearly marked in red – as quickly as possible upon receipt.
We will make final corrections, make adjustments as needed, and upload the catalog to the St. Olaf website by August 1, 2008.
CONTENT MATTERS
Although a web-based catalog does not have the space constraints of a printed one, we will continue to use as our guide the previous catalog word limits, i.e., 200 words maximum on the general overview of each academic department/program, 100 words maximum on the overview of each major or concentration, and 75 words maximum for each course description.
DEPARTMENT/PROGRAM LISTINGS: FACULTY
The lists of faculty at the beginning of each academic department or program should include those faculty ON STAFF for 2008-2009 as of July 15, 2008. The entries should look as follows:
Faculty name in full, (home department in the case of interdisciplinary programs such as American Studies), specialties
Coordinators of interdisciplinary programs are asked to list ONLY their CORE FACULTY in the faculty listings.
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Course listings will continue to be of those courses that have been approved by the Curriculum Committee and, for semester courses, the faculty, including courses that will be taught for the first time in 2008-2009. The description will appear as it does on the green sheet for the faculty meeting. If a course has not been approved, it cannot be listed in the catalog.
See Curriculum Committee Course Description Guidelines at http://www.stolaf.edu/offices/registrar/CoDescGuideCEPCApp.htm for guidance on the format of course descriptions.
Courses that were last offered during the 2003-2004 academic year or prior to that year should be dropped from the listings. Departments and programs will receive, from Kathy Granquist (granquik@stolaf.edu), their list of active, dormant, and expired courses very soon to help you with your editing.
The names of the instructor(s) who most recently taught the course will NOT be included.
Course listings WILL NOT include indications of GE attributes. The Class and Lab Schedule is the source for this information. Including them in the catalog creates the potential for misleading information to students, since GE attributes sometimes change.
Department listings should include the descriptions for all Interim courses taught in 2008 -- with the notation "Offered only in Interim." If an Interim course is offered every other year and will be offered in 2009, it may be included; note "Offered in [e.g.: 2009] and in alternate years."
FACULTY AND OTHER PERSONNEL LISTINGS, END OF CATALOG
The back section of the St. Olaf Academic Catalog 2008-2009 will include the names and degree information of members of the Board of Regents, college officers, emeritus and retired faculty and administrators, and the faculty ON STAFF during the 2008-2009 academic year as that information is known as of July 15, 2008. Faculty names, academic titles, terms of service, and degree information will be listed in full in an alphabetical faculty listing at the end of the catalog. The Office of the Dean of the College provides this information. If you would like to check to see whether your information is correct in the database, please contact Phyllis Stuckmayer (stuckmay@stolaf.edu). A listing at the end of the catalog will provide prospective students with the information they need to contact those administrative departments with which they are likely to have business.