SSU Administrative Process for Area 6: Cross-Listed Courses

Note: Text in blue boxes are processes in the purview of the School of Ethnic Studies and Languages and the Dean of the College of Education, Counseling, and Ethnic Studies.

Purpose

This document describes the administrative requirements and process for course cross-listing. The processes described here include courses cross-listing with ethnic studies (ES) departments to satisfy General Education Area 6. Per Executive Order 1100, courses that will meet General Education Area F requirements must include cross-listing with AMCS, CALS, or NAMS.

Definitions

Cross-listed course: is a single course with multiple course prefixes. Cross-listed courses:

Have prefixes that include the same course number (e.g. UNIV 275 and LIBS 275) and title
Use a single course syllabus and Canvas shell that includes both prefixes
Have a single meeting pattern and instructor (or team of instructors) as if it were a single course offering
Fulfill the same student requirements. That is, if a department requires a specific course to meet a requirement (e.g. UNIV 275) and that course is cross-listed with another course or courses (e.g. LIBS 275) then a student may enroll under either prefix to meet the associated GE or major/minor requirement.
Non-ES courses must always be offered as cross-listed with an ES course, per EO 1100.

EO: A policy from the CSU Chancellor’s Office that describes system-wide requirements

FTES: Full-time equivalent student, based on a 15 unit load

MOU: Memorandum of Understanding

Approval Process for New Cross-Listing Courses

Cross-listed, Area 6 courses are approved through the normal curriculum approval processes in Curriculog.

Each course must be on its own Curriculog form created with the “Cross-Listing” feature (Please see the instructions for How to Submit a Proposal for a Crosslisted Course)

Except for the course prefix, all form content and attachments will be the same.

The MOU must be included as an attachment for new course approvals and revisions. Proposers should follow submission deadlines outlined in the Curriculum Deadlines. Courses already approved for cross-listing may submit their MOU (new or revised) directly to their Deans.

Support for Curriculog is available through Academic Programs’ Curriculum and Catalog Specialist (curricul@sonoma.edu).

In any cross-listing scenario, both programs must agree to the cross-listing. Therefore, Area 6 courses must be approved by an ethnic studies department to either be offered under an ethnic studies prefix or cross-listed with an ethnic studies prefix.

If a non-ethnic studies department wants to cross-list a course with an ethnic studies prefix, the proposer must submit the course syllabus and other relevant materials to the Chair(s) of CALS, NAMS, and AMCS. The Ethnic Studies departments will evaluate these courses together to determine if there is a cross-listing option with current or new courses in one of their departments. Proposals and previously approved courses may be reviewed on an annual basis. This will provide a supportive structure for the process and avoid ad hoc requests to individual ethnic studies faculty members.

If a cross-listing option is available, the Dean of Education, Counseling, and Ethnic Studieswill then meet with the Chair of the Ethnic Studies department selected and the Chair and Dean of the proposing department to finalize the MOU together.

MOUs may include the agreed-upon seat distribution, that is, how many seats will be open under each prefix. The seats will be equally distributed between participating prefixes, unless otherwise indicated in the MOU. The combined total of seats across all participating prefixes should not exceed the typical size for the type of course. The MOU may also include agreements about course rotation (e.g. one program offers the course in even years and the other offers it in odd years), course frequency (e.g. every spring semester), or other scheduling or curricular details.

Staffing

In a cross-listing, there is, at minimum, a “contracting department” and an “ethnic studies department” involved. (There may also be “additional departments” involved in the cross-listing.) The contracting department is the department that pays for the course, schedules the course (in consultation with the ethnic studies department), and contracts the lecturer when a lecturer is being hired. Lecturers accrue entitlements to the contracting department. As is the case with entitlements in general, lecturers are qualified and therefore eligible to teach on a course-by-course basis. The contracting department must draw from their own permanent faculty or temporary faculty pool, following the order of appointment for entitlements.

In order to teach a course with an ethnic studies prefix, all faculty (part-time lecturers and tenure/tenure track) must be affiliated with an ethnic studies program either through their primary faculty appointment or through a secondary or “courtesy” appointment.

Faculty may submit a CV and brief statement of interest for affiliation to the Chair(s) of the Ethnic Studies Department for which the course is cross-listed. Faculty affiliation may be renewed every three years. If an emergency or replacement hire needs to be made, the ethnic studies departments may approve an affiliation for a single semester until a deeper review is possible.

Funding

The FTES “credit” for cross-listed courses follows the prefix. This may impact student-faculty ratio (SFR) calculations reported to our own Office of Institutional Effectiveness and the Chancellor's Office unless the contracting department is evenly rotated between participating programs. In cross-listing arrangements in which one program is disproportionately contracting the instructors for cross-listed courses, it will appear that their SRF is lower than it truly is because some of the FTES are credited to the non-contracting programs. Programs may choose to account for their cross-listed courses in program reviews and requests for faculty hires, as this should not discourage interdisciplinarity.

Consistent with other classes on campus, the Provost’s Office funds ethnic studies (Area 6) courses through its instructional budget distributions to the Colleges. Budget is based in part on FTES and SFR. The Provost’s Office will manually adjust SRF to account for cross-listed courses, for the purposes of budgeting.

Process Revision

Academic Programs will lead review of this cross-listing process in Spring 2026 and revise as necessary. This review will include a series of discussions with ethnic studies faculty, Deans, and faculty governance.

Resources for Submitting for Crosslisted Courses

How to Submit a Proposal for a Cross-listed Course

Adobe eSign Directions for Cross-listing MOU

FINAL Fillable PDF Fall 2024 Cross Listing MOU .pdf (70.56 KB)

Curriculum Deadlines for Academic Year 2025-2026