October 26, 2016

Dear Colleagues,

In continuation of the Four Year Degree Initiative, prerequisite enforcement is rolling out on our campus. This is an important step in reducing time-to-degree, and in addressing the challenges of increased enrollment and lack of instructional space. As we move toward a campuswide launch, there are two topics to address: accuracy of prerequisites and responsibility for enforcement.

1. Accuracy of Prerequisites

In July 2015, the Academic Senate asked all academic departments to review their prerequisites such that by mid-Winter 2016 all prerequisites would be up to date. Thus, at this point, we expect that all prerequisites are accurate—the success of enforcement depends on it. Please use the Prerequisite Report to view your courses’ current prerequisites; if you need to make updates, you can do so in the Integrated Course Management System (ICMS). Updates to prerequisites are approved by the relevant college committee (directly through ICMS) and are not reviewed by the Senate’s Committee on Courses of Instruction.

2. Responsibility for Enforcement

The final responsibility for prerequisite enforcement rests with the instructor per Senate Regulation 527. Beginning with Fall 2017 registration, prerequisite enforcement will be ON by default for undergraduate courses, and OFF by default for graduate courses. If you wish to change these defaults for your courses, please work with your schedulers to do so in Banner.

A launch timeline is attached to this memo. While the campuswide rollout begins with Fall 2017 registration, prerequisite enforcement launches for College of Engineering courses during Winter 2017 registration and for College of Biological Sciences courses during Spring 2017 registration. The Registrar’s Office will provide additional information to CBS in the coming weeks.

Thank you very much for your time and participation. Please visit the Registrar’s prerequisite webpage for additional information on how the system works, and visit here for step-by-step instructions on how to update prerequisites in ICMS.

Sincerely,

Jon Rossini
Vice Chair, Davis Division of the Academic Senate
Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance

Reference Document: Prerequisite Timeline