Discontinuing Existing Courses

When a course is no longer useful, the department should take the initiative to have it discontinued. To discontinue a course, submit a Course Revision Form and obtain the necessary departmental, college, (and Graduate College) approvals.

The 6-10 Policy provides a mechanism for reviewing offerings for relevance and ongoing need.  It requires that courses be removed from the Courses Catalog if they meet either of the following conditions:

• average enrollment for the last two successive offerings of the course is fewer than 6 in a 500-, 600-, or 700- level course OR fewer than 10 in a 100-, 200-, 300- or 400- level course; or
• the course, regardless of level, has not been offered within the last three years.

Enrollment Warnings will be noted if courses have only been offered once and enrollments were below the guidelines outlined above.  These courses were not in violation at the time of review, but may be in violation if enrollments are low when the courses are offered again.

Thesis, individual instruction, and undergraduate open seminar courses are exempt from the policy. Exemptions may be granted on a course-by-course basis for courses which by their nature are intended to have low enrollments.  Registration statistics are based on enrollments as of the tenth day of class.

The policy provides information to units to better understand faculty activity and course demand.  Units are asked to justify courses in violation of the policy to their college office.  Based on the information provided by the college, the Provost’s Office will facilitate the deletion of courses from the Courses Catalog.  The policy is intended to be enforced biennially.

Updated March 2010