Proposal Guidelines and Samples

All new courses should be created via the
Curriculum/Course Management System (CMS).
When creating a course, please be sure to attach a syllabus containing the required components defined in the
UgC/GC Policy on Course Syllabi:

• Title of the course
• Course objectives and expanded course description
• Acknowledgement if the course carries Diversity, GE, or Writing II credits
• Course-level learning outcomes
• Weekly schedule detailing topics, readings, and assignment deadlines
• Course assignments including structural overview and expected page length
• Comprehensive grading structure information
• Additional required or recommended reading list
• For courses requesting online delivery, additional documentation must be appended (See the Request for Distance Education Course Approval section)
• If a course has a concurrent graduate-level listing, graduate workload expectations must be detailed separately from undergraduate requirements.
• For Community-Engaged (XP) courses, please refer to the
  XP Course Approval Guide or the
  Center for Community Engagement website.

Recommended components to include in the syllabus are:

• Resources for Student Well-being, Social Belonging, and Academic Success
• Academic Integrity Statement
• Accommodations & Accessibility Syllabus Language
• Specific instructional office hours
• Updated institutional health and safety protocols (if applicable)
• UCLA Academic Senate Land Acknowledgement
• Title IX Syllabus Resource Note

Instructions for creating a course via the CMS

To gain access to the BruinLearn support site for curriculum management assistance, please enroll your user profile via the
BruinLearn CMS Support Site Enrollment Link.

Standard Single-Listed Courses

• Review CMS Course Creation Instructions →

Multiple-Listed / Cross-Listed Course Groups

• Review CMS Multiple-Listed Course Creation Instructions →

Proposals to the FEC

Departments may initiate course and program changes via the
Curriculum/Course Management System (CMS).
To gain access to the BruinLearn website for CMS support, please enroll yourself using the
BruinLearn CMS Course Enrollment Link.

Common examples of proposals submitted to the FEC include:

• Creating, revising, and deleting courses
• Requesting distance education approval for new or existing courses
• Revising requirements for a program (clarifying or changing requirements, updating the number of classes for a program, adding or deleting information, etc.)
• Certifying a capstone major
• Creating or deleting a major, minor, or program
• Renaming an existing department or program

Please review the specific guidelines below depending on the type of change or action your department wishes to request. You may also want to refer to the
Guide to Undergraduate Course and Program Approval
for further details on delegated authority.

All proposals should include a clear rationale about why your program is requesting changes. The following guiding questions are optional and are simply intended to help with the development of your rationale:

• How is your proposal relevant to your program’s most recent Program Review?
• How will your proposal improve undergraduate or graduate learning or time-to-degree?
• Is there data to support your proposal?
• Are there particular implementation plans that would be helpful to explain?
• How will students be informed if your request is approved?
• How and when will your program know that this change has led to the desired outcomes?

Criteria for Impacted Course Designation

The Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) of the College or school considers the following strict structural parameters when evaluating a departmental request to formally designate a course as Impacted:

• High Enrollment Demand: The course experiences extreme enrollment caps where late student drops would unfairly deny qualified students on the waitlist an equitable opportunity to take the course that term.
• Resource Allocation: The course carries an exceptionally high instructor-to-student ratio or demands a large institutional commitment of materials and facilities (e.g., laboratory classes).
• Infrequent Offerings: The course sequence meets infrequently, making it highly difficult or impossible for a student to catch up if they have missed sessions prior to the second week of the term.
• Writing II Alignment: The course satisfies the Writing II graduation milestone.
• Proposals requesting impacted status must include:
  • An official Letter of Support written by the host department (which must explicitly document an internal faculty vote).
  • A comprehensive breakdown of empirical enrollment data for the requested courses tracking back over the past few academic quarters.

As you may know, the College FEC is delegated authority to grant final approval for some actions while other actions are forwarded to the Undergraduate Council for final approval.
This means that your request may be subject to Undergraduate Council review subsequent to College FEC approval.
Therefore when preparing your proposal, it is important to recognize that the College FEC and the Undergraduate Council have different meeting and proposal deadlines. Access proposal deadlines for the
College FEC Calendar and
Undergraduate Council Calendar.
Accordingly, take care to review these multiple sets of timelines as you prepare your proposal to help ensure that it is reviewed and approved in a timely manner, especially if the proposal requires further review by the Undergraduate Council and beyond.

When you are ready to submit your final proposal to the FEC, please submit using the
course and curriculum management system.

All courses should be deleted via the
Curriculum/Course Management System (CMS).

To gain access to the BruinLearn tracking site for administrative CMS guidance, please enroll your profile using the
BruinLearn CMS Support Site Enrollment Link.

This approval requirement encompasses the following course modalities:

• Online Asynchronous
• Online Synchronous
• Hybrid Online
• Mixed Enrollment

All online courses in the College will be reviewed by the College FEC at one of their
scheduled FEC meetings.

To revise or create an online course, please follow the standard steps for course creation or revision. For granular criteria, please consult the
Distance Course Information Sheet.
The additional documentation must be added directly to the attachments section of the course within the CMS and must consist of:

• A Department Chair memo that includes a rationale, documented faculty vote, and the requested effective term.
• A comprehensive course syllabus.
• A completed Approved-for-Distance Course Information Sheet, with comprehensive responses to supplemental tracking questions.
• A formal assessment of the course or a letter of support from a campus instructional design unit, such as Online Teaching & Learning (OTL) or the Center for Education Innovation & Learning in the Sciences (CEILS).
• For courses requiring technological resources not currently accessible to all UCLA instructors, a letter from the appropriate teaching or administrative unit confirming resource availability.

Faculty Development & Evaluation Rubrics

The
UCLA Teaching & Learning Center (TLC)
provides instructional materials to
guide faculty in developing online courses.
When designing your curriculum, it is highly recommended to reference the
TLC Online Course Review Checklist
utilized by instructional designers during structural evaluations.

The College FEC utilizes this standardized
Distance Course Evaluation Rubric and Checklist
to review all incoming hybrid, mixed enrollment, and synchronous/asynchronous online course proposals.

Request for Distance Education Course Approval (Summer Only)

If your department wishes to offer remote versions of existing courses on a temporary basis during the Summer term, please submit an application using the portal link below. You will be required to upload an inventory of your planned remote offerings using the designated template, which is available here for
Download: Summer Remote Course Template PDF.
If you handle multiple subject prefixes, please generate a separate request form for each unique subject area.

Access College FEC Summer Submission Portal →

All submissions must accompany structural department attestations clarifying exactly how the remote offerings maintain equivalent contact hours, rigorous exam administration safeguards, and overall academic integrity baselines.

Note: All delegated approvals executed by an FEC remain subject to systemic review and potential rescission by the university Academic Senate Undergraduate Council.

Revisions to majors should be submitted to the Course and Curriculum Management System (CMS) via
curriculum.registrar.ucla.edu.
To gain access to the BruinLearn website for CMS support, please enroll yourself using the
BruinLearn CMS Support Site Enrollment Link.

Please ensure you have the following information prepared to upload alongside your proposal:

• Departmental or Faculty Advisory Committee Memo:
  • Rationale for the Revisions: Please address the core guiding questions and remember to spell out any institutional acronyms completely.
  • Faculty Vote Record: Provide the exact date of the department meeting and a formal log of the vote results, including the total number of eligible faculty voters. If the vote was conducted online, note the specific open voting window alongside the final tallies (e.g., Topic for Vote: YES: # | NO: # | ABSTAIN: #).
• CMS System Input: Input the formal structural updates within the CMS tracking module. For system or workflow questions, you may coordinate directly with Blake Livesay at
  blivesay@registrar.ucla.edu.
• Supplemental Documentation (As Applicable):
  • A formal memo from the relevant academic dean is required if the proposal includes modifying the name of the major or introduces structural alterations with operational resource implications.
  • If your proposal appends or deletes course listings managed by external departments or interdisciplinary programs, the College FEC requires an attached memo from those affected units consenting to the updates.
  • The College FEC may request that your department obtain an academic resource memo from the Office of Academic Planning and Budget (APB). To request this documentation, please reach out to Rebecca Lee-Garcia (Director of Financial Analysis and Decision Support) at
    rleegarcia@ponet.ucla.edu.

Revisions to minors should be submitted to the Course and Curriculum Management System (CMS) via
curriculum.registrar.ucla.edu.
To gain access to the BruinLearn website for CMS support, please enroll yourself using the
BruinLearn CMS Support Site Enrollment Link.

Please ensure you have the following information prepared to upload alongside your proposal:

• Departmental or Faculty Advisory Committee Memo:
  • Rationale for the Revisions: Please address the core guiding questions and remember to spell out any institutional acronyms completely.
  • Faculty Vote Record: Provide the exact date of the department meeting and a formal log of the vote results, including the total number of eligible faculty voters. If the vote was conducted online, note the specific open voting window alongside the final tallies (e.g., Topic for Vote: YES: # | NO: # | ABSTAIN: #).
• CMS System Input: Input the formal structural updates within the CMS tracking module. For system or workflow questions, you may coordinate directly with Blake Livesay at
  blivesay@registrar.ucla.edu.
• Supplemental Documentation (As Applicable):
  • A formal memo from the relevant academic dean is required if the proposal includes modifying the name of the minor or introduces structural alterations with operational resource implications.
  • If your proposal appends or deletes course listings managed by external departments or interdisciplinary programs, the College FEC requires an attached memo from those affected units consenting to the updates.
  • The College FEC may request that your department obtain an academic resource memo from the Office of Academic Planning and Budget (APB). To request this documentation, please reach out to Rebecca Lee-Garcia (Director of Financial Analysis and Decision Support) at
    rleegarcia@ponet.ucla.edu.

New major proposals should be submitted to the
Course and Curriculum Management System (CMS).
To gain access to the BruinLearn website for CMS support, please enroll yourself using the
BruinLearn CMS Support Site Enrollment Link.

All proposals must include a memo addressed to the Chair of the College Faculty Executive Committee that outlines the following:

• Goals & Rationale: Outline the clear goals of the major alongside a brief summary detailing the core rationale and academic need (please reference the guiding questions section above). Remember to spell out all institutional acronyms completely.
• Official Faculty Vote Record: Provide a formal log of the vote results, including the total number of eligible voters, using the following baseline criteria:
  • Departmental Majors: Must include the exact date and record of the full departmental faculty vote.
  • Interdepartmental Programs (IDPs): Must include the exact date and record of the Faculty Advisory Committee vote.
  • Example Format: Topic for Vote | YES: # | NO: # | ABSTAIN: #

For a comprehensive breakdown of all required institutional components, please refer to the
UCLA Compendium for Academic Program Approval.

Please utilize the
Undergraduate Program Proposal Template
to build your final submission.

New minor proposals should be submitted to the
Course and Curriculum Management System (CMS).
To gain access to the BruinLearn website for CMS support, please enroll yourself using the
BruinLearn CMS Support Site Enrollment Link.

Please have the following information prepared to upload to the proposal:

• Goals & Rationale: Detail the definitive goals of the minor alongside a brief summary containing the explicit rationale and academic need (please reference the guiding questions section above). Remember to spell out all acronyms completely.
• Official Faculty Vote Record: Provide a formal log of the vote results, including the total number of eligible voters, using the following baseline criteria:
  • Departmental Minors: Must include the exact date and record of the full departmental faculty vote.
  • Free-Standing Minors: Must include the exact date and record of the Faculty Advisory Committee vote.
  • Example Format: Topic for Vote | YES: # | NO: # | ABSTAIN: #

For a full explanation of the required institutional parameters, please refer to the
UCLA Compendium for Academic Program Approval.

Please utilize the
Undergraduate Program Proposal Template
to build your final submission.

Baccalaureate degree-granting programs can apply either for Capstone Major Certification (all students completing the major are required to complete a capstone experience) or Capstone Program Certification (at least 60% of students completing the major have an opportunity to complete a capstone experience). Regardless of which option is selected, the application and certification processes are identical.

Documentation and program revisions must be processed via the
Curriculum/Course Management System (CMS) and should include the following materials:

1. The Capstone Information Form: Complete and upload the
   Fillable Capstone Information Form (Word Document).
2. Departmental Cover Letter: Attach a cover letter detailing faculty involvement in reviewing and endorsing the application, including the official vote record to pursue certification. (Please remember to spell out all institutional acronyms completely.)

For granular parameters and background details on the Capstone Initiative, please
visit the UCLA Capstone Initiative Website.