Cross-Listed Courses

Although the Curriculum Committee is often charged with overseeing the process, the local college senate has authority for placing courses in disciplines [Title 5, Section 53200(C)(1)]. The guiding principle of course placement is content, not personnel or FTE considerations. Courses should be placed in a discipline based on the body of knowledge necessary to teach the course.

Courses assigned to multiple disciplines need not be listed on more than one course outline of record (COR) or in the catalog under multiple subject codes. For example, a hypothetical course, ART 101, could be taught by faculty with minimum qualifications in either Art or Graphic Arts. Both teaching disciplines could be listed in the “Teaching Disciplines” section of the COR of Art 101, and no separate COR of Graphic Arts 101 need be created.

However, separate CORs for each discipline may be created if the faculty in both disciplines believe the course should be cross-listed. For example, faculty may teach a hypothetical course, Social Psychology, which is recorded on two separate CORs, one as PSYCH 120 and one as SOCIL 120. They would be listed in the catalog under both subject codes, and both would have IDENTICAL CORs.

Principles for cross-listing courses:

  • Each discipline includes the body of knowledge necessary to teach the course. Keep in mind that cross-listing a course might affect its articulation status if a receiving institution asserts that an instructor in a different discipline would not have sufficient concentration in the discipline for which the course is being articulated.
  • The course has a clear and significant place in each department’s curriculum. Requests to cross-list will require justification and credible rationale in the COR as outlined in 2.1 under “steps for cross-listing courses” below.
  • Each department shares responsibility for the course, each updating its COR in tandem with the other, ensuring that their CORs are identical. Whenever a change to a degree or certificate necessitates a change to a cross-listed course, the departments must work together to ensure that any changes are uniform. If the Curriculum Committee determines that each department is not sharing in the responsibility of maintaining the cross-listing of a particular set of CORs, then the committee may uncross-list the course and assign it to only one discipline, notifying all affected departments.

Steps for cross-listing courses:

If multiple departments choose to cross-list a course, the following steps need to be taken for approval of the course through the curriculum process each time a course is designed, updated, or revised.

  1. Both departments must meet and agree to cross-list a course and mutually share the responsibility of maintaining revisions to CORs, degrees, and certificates.
  2. Both department faculty must submit the COR in eLumen. The rationale for revision must include:
    1. Explanation of how each discipline includes the body of knowledge necessary to teach the course.
    2. Explanation of the need for including the course in each department’s curriculum.
  3. Statement of commitment to mutually share responsibilities of teaching the course and maintaining revisions to CORs, degrees, and certificates.
  4. Representatives from both departments must be present at the Curriculum Committee meeting, to answer questions and concerns, when the cross-listed COR proposals are considered.