Resolving Course Conflicts

Part of the UA Course Management Course Approval process for new course adds includes a 10-business day campus review period. During this period, all academic departments have the opportunity to review the list of pending course proposals sent out every Tuesday by email. This email is sent to those with approval roles for UA Course Management. In some cases it may be appropriate for a department to object to a proposed course due to:

• Significant content overlap, *60% or more, between the proposed course and an existing course in the course catalog.
• Proposed course uses duplicate text in the course title or description as an existing course in the course catalog. 

Overlap between a pending course and a future course which has not yet been proposed is not a valid reason for objection.

Objecting departments must:

1. Add a hold comment to the course request form in UAccess Student-Administrative Login: UA Course Add. The comment should indicate who is placing the hold and briefly enumerating the objection(s) to the course. i.e. “CALES is placing a hold request as there is significant content overlap with existing course, Subject Catalog#.”
2. The objecting department must email the proposing instructor or department contacts and include:
   • The details of the objection(s).
   • The course, subject and catalog #, with the overlap or duplication concern.
   • Attach the syllabus with duplicate/overlap items highlighted.
   • Offer to begin discussion between the two departments.
   • Copy courseapprovals@arizona.edu 

*Please note that it is the responsibility of the objecting department to complete steps 1 and 2 above before the end of the 10-day campus review period. The course approval process will not be halted in cases where objections are identified after the campus review period has ended. 

3. The two departments must work together to resolve the objection(s) to the course before the course can be granted final approval to be added to the course catalog. Many conflicts can be resolved via email between the instructors of the involved courses, while others may require a meeting with the Department Heads and instructors, or with the Associate Deans for the colleges involved. The departments involved should determine the appropriate level to begin the conversation, depending on the nature and degree of the conflict. Discussions and a resolution are typically reached within 14 days or less. In the rare cases that a resolution cannot be found after escalating to the college level, or if one of the involved parties fails to respond in order to find resolution for over 14 days, Curricular Affairs-Course Approvals, courseapprovals@arizona.edu,  should be notified in order to begin a mediated resolution. If CA is not contacted after 14 days and a hold takes longer than 30 days to resolve, the hold will be turned over to Central Administration Management for resolution with the department approvers.  
4. The final step is to send a resolution email to courseapprovals@arizona.edu that details all adjustments made to the pending course agreed upon during the resolution conversation and updated syllabus if the objection was content based. Please copy the resolution participants from both departments.