New Procedures for IL Proposals

Spring 2023

Beginning in spring of 2023, all Integrative Learning Proposals must follow a new process, moving through the ILAB (Integrative Learning Advisory Board) before being sent to the Curriculum Committee (CC). The rationale for this change is both practical and philosophical. In the past, meeting with the IL Coordinators was highly encouraged but optional. In practice, this meant that faculty who had not developed proposals under the guidance of the IL coordinators had to invest additional time reworking their proposal to meet requirements; this reworking often necessitated multiple interactions, often involving multiple revisions, with both the IL coordinators and the Curriculum Committee. The creation of the ILAB also marks a philosophical change in that it places the responsibility for the oversight of the IL in a rotating group of faculty and staff experienced in teaching in this area. The new process streamlines the original one by ensuring that faculty work through the proposal with guidance from the ILAB before the proposals reach the CC, to ensure that proposals for the IL designation:

1. have adequately clarified the distinct perspectives involved
2. indicated the learning goals and course work that are IL-related and
3. created space for students’ conscious reflection upon integrative learning.

The process is as follows:

1. Send an email to the Integrative Learning Advisory Board ([email protected]) indicating interest in submitting a course or pair of courses for an IL designation.
2. The chair will be in touch to schedule an informal meeting with one or more members of the ILAB.
3. After this informal conversation, faculty will submit a proposal to the ILAB for comments.
4. Should ILAB return proposals with comments, faculty will resubmit, addressing concerns.
5. At the point that the ILAB has no concerns, the faculty member may send the proposal to CC for approval.
6. In the rare event that CC has questions or concerns, proposals may come back to the faculty member; in that event, faculty should revise the proposal after consultation with the ILAB.