The Directors of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) play a vital role in the administration of the curriculum as well as in student success and assessment of the undergraduate major.
DUS responsibilities
Departments or programs generally delegate the duties below to the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS). However, these responsibilities and how they are delegated by a department or program also depend on the number of students and faculty in the area. Some of these activities might be completed by Chair of the department, for example, and in other cases might be irrelevant.
The following list is provided only as a guideline, with the understanding that each academic area manages responsibilities in a way that works best for its students, faculty, and staff.
Curricular matters
- Chairs the curriculum or undergraduate program committee
- Proposes changes to the requirements for the undergraduate programs of study administered by the department or program, helping to keep programs updated and responsive to student needs
- Oversees related updates to the General Catalog
- Oversees implementation of proposed undergraduate changes that have been approved by the College (i.e., that website is updated; electronic signage is updated; advising informed; and related publicity handled, for example)
- Reviews Catalog and MyUI schedule of course descriptions and remind faculty to update these as needed
- Brings issues of pedagogy and best practices and/or related workshops, grants, or UI activities to the attention of the faculty
- Handles enrollment-management issues
- Updates the College on related curricular planning issues and ideas
- Monitors high rates of DFW grades in gateway courses
General Education (GE) and oversight of related service courses
- Oversees General Education (GE) CLAS Core courses and other service courses, mentoring instructors and helping them to understand obligations and challenges related to these particular courses
- Suggests and advises on faculty proposals for GE status for departmental courses
- Encourages involvement with the Center for Teaching and/or with the Division of Online Education about the redesign of essential GE gateway courses, helping to keep these updated and fresh for entering students
- Seeks funding for course redesign
Compliance issues
- Coordinates assessment of the undergraduate major or majors
- Reviews new or revised syllabi for undergraduate courses
- Oversees enhancement of classroom experiences for students while raising related issues in pedagogy and best practices in faculty meetings or in other ways
- Reminds faculty of early textbook ordering policy and syllabus attachment requirement
- Reminds instructors of undergraduate academic misconduct reporting policies, sanctions, and the importance of reporting
Student-related needs
- Advises undergraduate students as needed and/or works with area's professional academic advisor on related advising approaches and issues
- Authorizes petitions for exceptions and substitutions for requirements of the programs of study with their administrative home in the department or program and submits these to the Registrar’s office
- Reviews student requests to evaluate transfer credit to apply for the major, minor, or certificate offered by the department or program
- Reviews student requests for study abroad credit to apply to the programs of study offered by the unit
- Appoints honor thesis committees in consultation with the thesis advisor and the student or works with any new Honors in the Major faculty advisor as needed
- Informs faculty of updated information and student opportunities or support from CLAS Undergraduate Programs, the Academic Advising Center, University Honors, the Career Center, the office of Supplemental Instruction/Tutoring, or other offices that support students and faculty
Engagement and outreach activities
- Encourages undergraduates to participate in conferences or to publish
- Works on departmental graduation ceremonies or celebrations
- Helps with outreach activities, such as involvement in community events, performances and other activities, such as on-campus fairs or open houses
- Leads related activities on scholarships and awards for undergraduates
- Encourages undergraduates to participate in research, conferences, and publication
- Meets with students referred by Admissions or otherwise works with Admissions on related questions and events
- Helps with alumni outreach, including newsletters and surveys
- Delegates the organization of panels or workshops on graduate school preparation/choices/opportunities and/or on careers related to major
- Delegates student club activities
Meetings and related information
DUS meetings and notes
The Directors of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) meet several times each fall and spring semester to discuss issues of mutual interest. An agenda is sent by the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education before each meeting.
The Associate Dean also welcomes feedback and agenda items related to undergraduate education at any time. Notes from the DUS meetings are shared informally with the DUS and are then added to this page.
DUS are asked to share important information and topics from these meetings with their departments or other units.
Spring 2025
Fall 2024
Archived notes
- April 6, 2023
- March 8, 2023
- February 16, 2023
- Assessment memo from Wayne Jacobson, Director of Assessment
- Learning outcomes assessment update form
Some notes from older meetings are available; email requests to clas-curriculum@uiowa.edu.
Calendar of curricular changes: Guidelines
Late spring through early August
- Assessment: Annual program assessment update due to Matt Shadle, CLAS Academic Assessment Coordinator, by the end of June.
- Planning for a new or a substantially revised major, minor, or certificate: Speak to the CLAS Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education as soon as possible and while still in the pre-planning stage of the possible new offering to discuss feasibility, action steps, and a timeline. Resources also need discussion, with the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education guiding this process. Also see this page about making significant curricular or structural changes and submit an intake form.
- Course revisions: Any final revisions to courses in the MAUI Course Library must be completed before the related MyUI schedule is published for students. Most changes, however, are expected to be made following the Registrar's Offerings Planner deadlines. (These deadlines for each session can be found in the Offerings Planner in MAUI.) After the schedule is published, CLAS allows only minor changes to fix typos or other small errors. Other changes interfere with students' planning and can cause errors in Schedule Builder.
- General Catalog editing: Review current General Catalog pages and consider course revisions needed for the next edition. Revise any courses that must be updated as part of the catalog editing process. This step is especially important if a department or other unit is revising a major, minor, or certificate. The catalog editing period occurs during the fall semester, and any course level edits that can be completed before catalog editing should be.
- Syllabus review: The DEO must review each syllabus before the start of the semester to ensure that all syllabi uphold UI and CLAS policy; this review should be done soon enough to give instructors time to revise a syllabus if needed.
- Textbooks orders: Textbooks must be ordered before early registration (ER) starts for the session or semester. This deadline is mandated by federal legislation, and compliance is overseen by the Registrar's Office and the UI bookstore. ER for spring generally starts in early November, and ER for fall generally starts in early April.
- Information in MyUI: CLAS strongly encourages instructors to attach either a syllabus (clearly marked as a DRAFT) or a short document with key course information to the MyUI description of any course offered for the following session before early registration begins. Guidelines about what to include in General Catalog course descriptions and MyUI course descriptions can be found on the CLAS Undergraduate Courses page of this website.
September and October
- General Education CLAS Core proposals: Proposals are due in the fall semester by the first week of classes. Information on proposal requirements can be found here. There is also a spring deadline; see below.
- Inactive Course Review: Courses not taught in the last four years are considered inactive. Early in each fall semester, each of these inactive courses is sent to its administrative home department through workflow, and departments are asked to designate each course to be kept or removed from the Course Library, with a rationale for the decision. The college then reviews each form as well and follows up with departments as needed. This process is overseen by the Registrar's Office, who also compiles a report for the Regents each year, as mandated, on courses removed and added. More information about Inactive Course Review can be found on the Curriculum page of this website and in MAUI Help.
September through April
Planning for a new or a substantially revised major, minor, or certificate: As indicated above, planning for new programs or significant changes to existing programs involves many steps and, in some cases, approval from multiple parties. Often, meeting with the Undergraduate Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee (UEPCC) and/or other college committees is part of the process, and these meetings could happen any time during the academic year. CLAS UP will work with departments to schedule these meetings according to the projects' overall timeframes.
October
General Catalog editing: In late October, the following academic year's General Catalog opens for editing. Department initiators and editors should begin reviewing catalog pages early and move them through the workflow as soon as possible. Any significant curricular revisions should be completed in time for catalog editing for that year, or they cannot be implemented until the following year.
A first draft of the catalog is published in time for summer Orientation, generally by June 1 of each year. A final copy of the catalog is published by the start of the fall semester. Departments should wait to make changes to departmental websites and other materials until close to those changes' implementation dates, generally the beginning of fall sessions.
The Office of the Registrar oversees the General Catalog, including its editing process and cycle. The catalog website includes important dates, the most current General Catalog, and links to older, archived catalogs. The Registrar's Office website includes more information about the catalog editing process.
November through February
- Course revisions: Revisions to courses must be completed for the Summer session and the Fall semester before MyUI Courses is live. The live date for MyUI Courses is decided by the Registrar.
- Textbooks orders: Textbooks must be ordered before Early Registration begins. The Registrar and the UI bookstore oversee compliance of this deadline. ER for Spring and the following Summer usually begins in early November. See the Registrar's academic calendar for exact dates.
- Information in MyUI: CLAS strongly encourages instructors to attach either a syllabus (clearly marked as a DRAFT) or a short document with key course information to the MyUI description of any course offered for the following session before early registration begins. Guidelines about what to include in General Catalog course descriptions and MyUI course descriptions can be found on the CLAS Undergraduate Courses page of this website.
December through January
- General Catalog editing: The General Catalog closes for departmental editing in mid-December and closes for collegiate editing in mid-January.
- First-year seminar proposals: Proposals for these courses are generally due before the start of the spring semester, with the deadline overseen by the Office of the Provost.
- General Education CLAS Core proposals: Proposals are due by the first week of classes in spring for consideration for GE status effective fall. Information on proposal requirements are here.
March
Textbooks orders: Textbooks must be ordered before early registration begins. The Registrar and the UI bookstore oversee compliance of this deadline. Fall Early Registration usually starts in the second week of April. See the Registrar's academic calendar for exact dates.
Late spring
Undergraduate sample plan editing: Once catalog revisions have been approved by related collegiate offices, sample plans open for editing and are revised to reflect any changes made to the majors, minors, or certificates in the catalog.
A note on roles similar to DUS
In some departments, especially those with programs of study spread across multiple subjects, it is common to designate additional faculty roles similar to DUS with titles such as "Coordinator" or "Director." CLAS Undergraduate Programs welcomes these faculty members to join our monthly DUS meetings and contact us to be added to the CLAS DUS email list. These faculty members are also included in the contact list below.
A note on programs in other colleges
Several programs of study are offered collaboratively by CLAS and another college. These programs include:
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (program college CLAS; curricular college Carver College of Medicine)
- Microbiology (program college CLAS; curricular college Carver College of Medicine)
- Science Studies (program college CLAS; curricular college College of Education)
The DUS/Directors of these programs are also welcome to join our monthly CLAS DUS meetings and CLAS DUS email list, and the contacts for these programs are also included below.
Contacts by department
| Department or program | Contact (and role/title, if different from Dus) | |
|---|---|---|
| African American Studies | Louise Seamster | |
| American Studies | American Studies | Jose Fernandez |
| Latina/o/x Studies | Rene Rocha, Director of Latina/o/x Studies Program | |
| Anthropology (including Global Health Studies) | Matthew Hill | |
| Art, Art History, and Design | Brenda Longfellow, Associate DEO | |
| Art History | Amy Huang | |
| Studio Art | Thalassa Raasch | |
| Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | Lori Wallrath | |
| Biology | Erin Irish | |
| Chemistry | Mona Maalouf | |
| Cinema (including Screenwriting Arts) | Patrick Wimp | |
| Classics | Justin Vorhis | |
| Communication Sciences and Disorders | Elizabeth Walker | |
| Communication Studies | David Supp-Montgomerie | |
| Computer Science (including Informatics) | Elizabeth Kleiman | |
| Dance | Melinda Myers | |
| Earth, Environment, and Sustainability | Earth and Environmental Sciences | Ben Swanson |
| Environmental Policy and Planning; Geographical and Sustainability Sciences | Silvia Secchi | |
| Economics (administered by Tippie College of Business effective fall 2025) | Alexandra Nica | |
| English | English | Harry Stecopoulos |
| English and Creative Writing | Louisa Hall, Director of English and Creative Writing Major | |
| General Education Literature | David Gooblar, Director of General Education Literature | |
| Enterprise Leadership | David Hensley | |
| Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies (including Social Justice) | Aniruddha Dutta | |
| Health, Sport, and Human Physiology | Exercise Science, Health Promotion, and Health Studies | Lucas Carr |
| Human Physiology | Ray Fagenbaum | |
| Sport and Recreation Management | Kara Kehe | |
| Therapeutic Recreation | Adrienne Johnson | |
| History | Elizabeth Yale | |
| Interdepartmental Studies | contact CLAS UP or Associate Dean Cornelia Lang | |
| Journalism and Mass Communication | Brett Johnson | |
| Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures | Bruce Nottingham-Spencer | |
| Emilie Maurel-Destruel, Associate DEO | ||
| Mathematics | Cynthia Farthing | |
| Microbiology | Aloyius Klingelhutz | |
| Music | Trevor Harvey | |
| Philosophy (including Ethics and Public Policy) | David Cunning | |
| Physics and Astronomy | Jane Nachtman | |
| Political Science (including International Relations) | Nick Martini | |
| Psychological and Brain Sciences | Psychology | Paul Windschitl |
| Neuroscience (administered jointly with the Department of Biology) | Jan Wessel | |
| Religious Studies | Diana Cates | |
| Rhetoric | Cassandra Bausman | |
| Social Work | Alison Oliver | |
| Sociology and Criminology | Sociology | Jennifer Haylett |
| Criminology | Michaela Ruppert | |
| Spanish and Portuguese (including Latin American Studies) | Rachel Klevar | |
| Statistics and Actuarial Science | Statistics and Data Science | Sanvesh Srivastava |
| Actuarial Science | Elias Shiu | |
| Theatre Arts | Megan Gogerty | |