Course Scheduling
Cross-listings
Requests are discussed and approved by the scheduling team (scheduler, curriculum committee chair, and department chair). This policy is in place because cross-listings are limited to three and must be used strategically. The scheduling team considers the potential number of interested students when making a decision.
When requesting cross-listings, please note:
- Cross-listings can apply to an instructor or a course
- Undergraduate classes cannot have any cross-listings the first time they are offered, and can only add cross-listings once they are added to the course inventory
Course Proposal Forms
New course proposals are to be submitted via this form by the following deadlines: courses for the next summer/fall semester are due September 28, and courses for the next spring semester are due March 1.
Skills & Experience Flags
Please visit the Center for the Skills and Experience Flags website to learn more about flag requirements and how to propose a flag for your course.
- How do I add cross-listings to my course?
During course scheduling, list proposed cross-listings on your course proposal. If you wish to add a cross-listing to an existing course, inform the Department Chair and Graduate Coordinator. For UG courses, we are limited to four cross-listings outside MES. Some majors and most minors have lists of allowable courses, and we can add courses to them with no limit. When considering a cross-listing, think about the content of the course and whether you can make a plausible case for relevancy, but also consider the size of the major -- if a major is relatively small, perhaps consider a different cross-listing for a major with more students. You can always check with the Department Chair or Graduate Coordinator for their opinion. Please note: new courses cannot be cross-listed until they are added to the catalogue.
- What happens if my course doesn’t make?
Courses that have very low enrollment (2 or less for graduate, 6 or less for undergraduate) will be changed to individual instruction or cancelled. In such cases, you will need to either have a plan B (another course on the schedule) or request a reduced teaching load. The second option is risky, because there is only so many reduced teaching loads a chair can hand out, and these reductions are generally limited to faculty who need to finish projects on a deadline (almost exclusively junior faculty) or faculty who are in heavy service positions (Graduate Advisors and Language Coordinators). We need more courses, not less, so we are always trying to avoid a cancelled class.
- How do I change my classroom?
Classrooms are assigned in the previous long semester. It is up to the faculty member to visit the assigned room and inform the Department Chair and Graduate Coordinator as far in advance as possible if you need a different room. If you wait until the semester of instruction to ask for a change, it is unlikely to happen, since classes on campus are already scarce and moving once the semester has started is difficult. If you have a serious concern, please notify the Department Chair.
- When and how should I propose new courses?
Courses for the summer 2025/fall 2025 are due September 28, 2024 and courses for spring 2026 semester are due March 1, 2025. See above for the relevant form.
- How does the department determine which course are assigned TAs?
College policy is that a course is assigned a TA based on the following calculation:
Large Lecture: for each 60 enrolled
Writing Flag Courses: for each 25 enrolled
5- and 6-Hour UG Language Courses: for each 20 enrolled
The college, however, allows us to assign TAs to smaller classes for the purpose of graduate student training. Language courses are assigned TAs with relevant competency, in conversation with the language coordinator. English content classes are assigned TAs based on the student’s research interests and the instructor of the course, namely we try to let students TA with their advisors, if the relevant course is large enough (~35 students).
