Deactivating Courses

When a course is no longer useful, the department should take the initiative to have it deactivated. To deactivate a course:

  • log into the Course Inventory Management (CIM) system;
  • type the course rubric and number of the course;
  • review the CIM ecosystem and notify any programs that reference the course, as they will be impacted by this deactivation;
  • click the red Deactivate button on the left side;
  • indicate the Proposed Deactivation Term, Justification for Change, and who is requesting the course change. In the Justification for Change box, please include a statement that you reached out to those programs listed in the ecosystem; and
  • click the green Save & Submit button to start the workflow approval process.

Once the Save & Submit button is clicked, CIM will route the deactivation request through the necessary departmental, college, and Graduate College workflow for review and approvals.

The Six-Ten (“6-10”) Policy provides a mechanism for reviewing course offerings for relevance and ongoing need. It requires that courses be deactivated and thus removed from the Courses of Instruction within the Academic Catalog if they meet either of the following conditions:

  • the course, regardless of level, has not been offered within the last three years – six academic terms plus three summer terms (Term Violations); or
  • average enrollment for the last two successive offerings of the course is fewer than six in a 500-, 600-, or 700-level course OR fewer than 10 in a 100-, 200-, 300-, or 400-level course. Note that the last two terms offered need not be within the three-year period covered by the term violation above (Enrollment Violations).

Additionally, Enrollment Violations Warning will be noted if courses have only been offered once and enrollments were below the guidelines outlined above. These courses were not in violation at the time of review, but may be in violation if enrollments are low when the courses are offered again.

Thesis, individual instruction, and undergraduate open seminar courses are exempt from the 6-10 Policy. Exemptions may be granted on a course-by-course basis for courses which by their nature are intended to have low enrollments. Registration statistics are based on enrollments as of the tenth day of class. The policy provides information to units to better understand faculty activity and course demand.

While units can pull their “6-10” reports at any time by visiting the DMI website, the Provost’s Office will annually provide these reports to colleges as part of an annual review process. Colleges are asked to deactivate the course, request and justify keeping the course active, or request and justify to be added to the exemption list by the Provost’s Office.