The general catalog provides a wealth of information about the university. This section provides a link to the catalog as well as links to historic catalogs and information about catalog submission procedures and deadlines.
The curriculum section of this site provides links to curriculum propsoal submission and tracking tools provided by the Office of Academic Planning and Assessment as well as some additional resources from the Office of the Registrar.
The catalog year policy sets the rules for what catalog requirements will be applied to a students curriculum. The basis for most catalog designations is the term of declaration.
You may view and search the general catalog online. The general catalog contains information about admissions procedures/policies, degree requirements, course descriptions, academic policies, and more. Students are assigned a catalog term in accordance with the catalog year policy. A student’s catalog term determines which catalog requirements they are required to meet for the awarding of their degree/major/minor/option.
Catalogs are archived and available as PDFs in the OSU Archives.
Information in the online OSU General Catalog may be updated anytime. It is updated as curriculum proposals are approved throughout the year. Please email or campus-mail hard copy updates to the catalog coordinator, Larry Bulling, in the Registrar’s Office, B102 Kerr Administration Building.
The catalog coordinator emails annual update requests to all departments, schools, colleges, and other units in November. Updates are due after the first week of January. First, second and third proofs will be emailed back to updaters for approval in February, March and April.
PDFs of the official printed version of the OSU General Catalog for the coming academic year will be posted in OSU Archives on May 1.
Copies of the catalog will not be printed except by print-on-demand through OSU Printing and Mailing The OSU Bookstore may also sell printed copies made by OSU Printing and Mailing.
Here we've provided an explanation of the policy and procedural guidelines for its implementation. For additional information review the official policy in the catalog.
At the time of graduation, all students, including transfer students, must use a catalog that is not more than ten years old. A student may petition to the Head Advisor of their College for any extension of a catalog greater than ten years from their expected graduation term.
The Catalog Term of the Curriculum record governs the catalog year used to evaluate baccalaureate core and university degree requirements in MyDegrees. The term here should reflect the term of the student’s admission and matriculation at a particular student level or their term of readmission at a particular student level. For Degree Partnership Program students, the first term the student is admitted to OSU will be the matriculation date and will determine the catalog year for institutional and baccalaureate core requirements.
Also, changing degree type (e.g. BA to BS degree) does not necessitate a change in the curriculum record unless that degree type was not available in that college/major at the original time of matriculation.
The Catalog designator in the Field of Study tab determines what catalog year requirements the associated field of study (major/minor/option etc.) will be evaluated under. These items can carry different catalog terms from one another and from the curriculum catalog term. Generally, the field of study catalog is determined by the term in which that particular field of study was officially declared by the student and entered in Banner. However, if the student is pursuing a major and option, the major and the 1st option associated with that major must have the same catalog. The catalog of the linked major and option is set by when the major was declared. However, if the option being declared did not exist at the time of the major declaration then the major catalog must be moved forward to the term when the new option was delcared. Subsequent majors/minors/options will be assigned a catalog based on the term they were declared.
Also, a student in consultation with their advisor can choose to move their field of study catalog year forward. This is accomplished by submitting a signed Catalog Declaration form with the appropriate catalog term designation. Catalog terms can be moved forwards but not backwards in time (with the exception of moving the first option back to synchronize it with the major).
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Catalog Term Rules for Curriculum Changes - Advisors.docx | 16.13 KB |
The Curriculum Proposal System is provided by the Office of Academic Planning and Assessment for the submission and tracking of curriculum proposals.
Category I proposals are for major curricular changes that require state level approval.
Category II proposals are for other changes to courses, option and minor requirements, and more.
The Office of Academic Planning and Assessment provides information and guidance regarding the assignment of credits to a course. View their Credits–Definition and Guidelines for more information.
The OSU university curriculum council approves curriculum changes throughout the year as proposals are submitted, not on a set schedule by term.
To generate your own reports of OSU curriculum changes, follow these directions:
Category I proposals are new academic degrees or academic units, or changes to academic degrees or academic units. For further details, see the Office of Academic Planning and Assessment.
Category I proposals started after January 2010 may be found in the curriculum proposal system (CPS) administered by Academic Planning and Assessment (no password or logon required).
Category I proposals prior to 1/2011 were reviewed and processed on paper, and recorded, tracked, and stored in an online database. No password or logon is needed to look at this database. The database is best viewed in Internet Explorer. You may experience problems using other web browsers.
Category II proposals are for new courses, options and minors, changes to courses, options, minors, or terminations of courses, options, and minors. They are reviewed, processed, and stored in the curriculum proposal system (CPS) administered by Academic Planning and Assessment (no password or logon required).
To search through the proposals, click on the view all proposals link.
Prerequisites are established by Category II approval.
Information on prerequisite enforcement.
No prerequisites or corequisites may be deleted from or added to a course or section without an approved category II proposal. Prerequisites for a section must be in place before registration for a the term begins.
If registration is not in progress, existing prereqs or coreqs may be switched from unenforced to enforced, or enforced to unenforced, without category II proposals. Prereqs may not be switched or changed once registration has begun.
All sections of a course must use the same prerequisites or corequisites that have been approved for that course except as noted below.
Departments may not add prereqs or coreqs to the section Comments field of the online Schedule of Classes except as noted below:
Blanket courses: X01 through X10 (Research & Scholarship, Independent Study, Thesis/Dissertation, Writing & Conference, Reading & Conference, Special Problems/Special Projects, Seminar, Workshop, Practicum/Clinical Experience, Internship/Work Experience)
Special Topics courses, X99: Note–there are still some courses titled “Special Topics” that do not follow the X99 numbering convention. These will be treated as X99s.
These two exceptions are handled at the section level (each CRN).
Prereqs enforced by Banner are coded at the section level in SSAPREQ.
Coreqs (Banner-enforced corequisites) are coded at the section level in SSADETL.
Prereqs and coreqs enforced after registration by the instructor or department cannot be coded at the section level in SSASECT but may be listed in the section's Comments field.
Graduate-level courses that have undergraduate prereqs that are not enforced by Banner. These prereqs may be deleted without a category II. Email your request to the catalog coordinator.
Departments may add enforced prereqs to blanket courses and special topics course sections without Category II proposals, as long as no enrollment has occurred.
If students have enrolled before the enforced prereqs were requested to be added to a CRN, Associate Registrar Tom Watts decides to add it or not. Such changes are rarely approved.