Closures, Suspensions, and Inactivations

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Refer to the Standard Approval Process Flowchart to see which approvals are required for university governance reviews.

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  • Closing, Suspending Admission into, or Inactivating an Academic Program (Temporarily or Permanently)

    The federal government requires colleges and universities to get approval prior to closing a program, which includes temporarily or permanently suspending admission of new students into a program. (Note: A failed recruitment effort, or failure to enroll a sufficient number of new students for a cohort or to meet an enrollment threshold, does not constitute suspending admission as long as you plan to continue actively recruiting for the next admission cycle.)

    To close, suspend admission into, or inactivate an academic program, you need to go to the program's CIM page and complete the Program Closure Form. You will be required to include information on how you are going to "teach out" the program. That is, how you are going to provide current students with the coursework they need to complete their degrees.

    Please note that you cannot stop admitting new students or remove the program from the website or any admission materials until you are notified to do so by the Office of University Accreditation.

    [NOTE: Program proposals are public information. Do not include student names or confidential information in the proposal.]

  • Closing an Academic Unit (School, Department, etc.)

    To propose changing the name of an existing academic unit, you need to prepare a proposal outside the CIM system. 

    Follow the Faculty Senate submission guidelines for non-curriculum proposals. Before you submit the proposal to the Faculty Senate, you will have to submit the proposal through your school governance process, the University Accreditation office, and Graduate Council (for academic units which house graduate programs or offer graduate courses). These steps should be done sequentially via email. Each will provide you with memos documenting the review and you will attach those memos to your proposal along with the Proposal Submission Form. 

    Be sure to include in the proposal any changes to faculty lines and academic programs currently housed within the department. However, if you want to move the academic programs housed with the academic unit to another unit, you will also have to propose each program change separately through the CIM system using the Program Change Proposal. Or, if you plan to close the programs currently offered in the academic unit, you also have to follow the instructions above to close each program via CIM.

    ADPC (Academic Deans Policy Council) approval may be also be required, especially for a school closure. This is usually determined by the Graduate School Dean, General Welfare Committee or Provost.

    [NOTE: If any academic programs will be affected by the unit closure, follow the instructiosn above to close the programs or see the program change webpage to move the programs to another academic unit.]

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