DeCal Courses in the IAS Teaching Program

Students wishing to offer a DeCal course in one of the undergraduate majors in IAS are encouraged to first read the current policy on the sponsorship of DeCal courses in IAS.  It is important to note that IAS policies and deadlines may differ from those which you have experienced in other campus departments or as are stated in the guidelines provided by the DeCal website and office personnel. 

The Student Learning Center http://slc.berkeley.edu/ucftr/decalstartup.htm provides regularly scheduled workshops/clinics on designing & facilitating a class.

We also suggest that you visit the DeCal website http://www.decal.org/home/index.php and read the section entitled “Start a Course” http://www.decal.org/start/index.php as well as visit
http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/syllabus.html  for an excellent discussion on creating a course syllabus.

The following documents are used by the IASTP for the process of approving a student facilitated DeCal course.  They may be found at http://education.berkeley.edu/specialstudies/ or reached by the links provided.

• Course Proposal form [pdf]
• Student checklist [pdf]
• Faculty checklist [pdf]
• Department chair checklist [pdf]

                      
DeCal Course Policy
Approved by the IAS Council of Chairs
 February 2006

• There must be clear standards for what a student needs to do to pass the course (and, by implication, to “not pass”).  These standards should be clearly communicated to the students enrolled in the course through a syllabus, or other appropriate written document.

• That the course workload be commensurate with the number of units offered for the course.  No less than three hours of work per week (including class attendance, study, etc.) should be expected for each unit.

• The course description, syllabus, and book list must be approved by a faculty sponsor, and be submitted to the Program Chair in time for him or her to approve it and pass it on to the Council of Chairs.  The deadline for courses to be offered for the Fall must be submitted to the Program Chair no later than May 1.  The deadline for Spring is October 15.  Both the Program Chair and the IAS Council of Chairs have the authority to deny authorization for the course.

• DeCal courses are intended to be enrichment courses that are offered once or possibly twice.  In the rare occasion that DeCal courses become regularized projects (projects and publications that continue past the second semester) these should become extra-curricular activity, important in their own right, but not appropriate for a continued DeCal format.

• The faculty sponsor must agree to monitor the course closely, to supervise the awarding of p/np grades, and to attend at least three of the class meetings.

• The Program Chair must limit the number of DeCal courses taught in his or her program to a maximum of one per semester.

• As noted in Academic Senate Regulation A205A, no instructor may sponsor more than one DeCal course per term.  This also extends to student initiators.

• Any student initiator of a DeCal course must meet a minimum UCB cumulative gpa requirement of 3.2 and not have more than 1 outstanding incomplete anytime between submission of the proposal and the offering of the course.

• At least one student initiator must be a declared major in the sponsoring program.

• Any Program Chair may, in concert with his or her faculty advisory board, adopt a policy of denying all DeCal course proposals within his/her program.

• Any exceptions to these policies must be approved by the Program Chair and should be made in consultation with the IASTP Council of Chairs.

Procedures for Submitting Proposals for DeCal Courses
rev. 04/06

1. Complete a Special Studies Proposal Form.  You may pick up a proposal packet from the front desk at 101 Stephens Hall or download a copy of the Special Studies Course Proposal Form, Student Checklist, Faculty Checklist, and Department Chair Checklist from the web site indicated above.

2. Submit the completed proposal (see additional guidelines and notes below) to an appropriate faculty sponsor (be sure to provide the faculty sponsor with a copy of the Faculty Checklist) and request their sponsorship.  If they agree, obtain their signature on the form.

3. Submit the signed proposal to the appropriate Program Chair for review no later than the specified date for the term in which you intend to offer the course.  Be sure to provide the chair with a copy of the Department Chair checklist.  The Department Chair will notify the Department Scheduler which courses are approved for the term and which have been denied.

4. The Department Scheduler will notify you within 15 days of the submission deadline whether or not your proposal has been approved and arrange for the scheduling of the course.

Additional Guidelines and Notes:

• All facilitators must provide a Berkeley.edu email address for communication purposes.

• A copy of each facilitator’s unofficial transcript must accompany the proposal.

• Each facilitator must provide a short summary of their qualifications to teach the proposed course (background knowledge, other course work, experiential experience, etc.)    

• Course enrollments will be limited to no more than 30 students.