Gaining approval for a change in some aspect of the University of Waterloo's undergraduate programming is easier if you are clear about who needs to do the approving, and what they need to see to make their decision. It is therefore helpful to understand the governance of academic programs.
All authority over academic decisions at Waterloo rests, ultimately, with the University Senate. This is spelled out in the legislation that created the University, the University of Waterloo Act. This Act gives Senate authority over educational policy, curriculum, admission standards, the conduct and result of examinations, and so on. The legislation also grants Senate the right to create councils and committees, and to assign these bodies the authority to act on behalf of Senate on particular matters.
Senate Undergraduate Council (SUC)
The SUC is a creature of Senate, per Senate Bylaw 2. For some matters, Senate has delegated authority to make decisions on its behalf (e.g., approval, modification, and deletion of courses), while for more significant matters (e.g., new programs and plans, major modifications to existing programs/plans, or academic regulations), SUC makes recommendations to Senate, which ultimately approves the item.
SUC Curricular Subcommittee
SUC is piloting a curricular subcommittee. The subcommittee members review all curriculum proposals and determine whether they are brought to SUC on the consent agenda or on the regular agenda (approval required).
Faculty Councils
Faculty Councils are also creatures of Senate. These councils have the delegated authority to make decisions about operational matters that apply within the faculty. For most curricular matters, faculty Councils make recommendations to SUC. Within each Faculty, there are approval steps that must occur before changes are considered by the Faculty Council (e.g., Departmental approval, Faculty Undergraduate Committee approval). The constitutions for each Faculty Councils can be found on the faculty's website.
Registrar
The Registrar also plays an important role in governance of undergraduate academic programming. The Registrar is responsible for the production and maintenance of the Undergraduate Studies Academic Calendar. While many changes in the Calendar require approval of SUC or Senate, some are considered editorial or operational and such changes can be implemented by the Registrar without having to be approved by SUC or Senate.
Approval process
As a consequence of this governance structure, approval is something of a hierarchical process, whereby more significant changes or changes having a wider impact on the faculty, faculties, or University, require a process with more steps. The approval for changes having a more localized impact, such as the program or department, has fewer steps. When done well, this approach facilitates good decisions made in an efficient manner.
At the different levels of review and approval, those involved may need different types of information to make a good decision. For example, the academic contribution of a curriculum change should be considered in detail by the subject area specialists involved in teaching the program before it is approved at that level. At higher levels of approval, such as SUC, those considering the proposal will want to see evidence that demonstrates that such careful consideration has taken place, but this needn't involved detailed explanations that only a subject specialist could understand. At these levels, the committees are judging not only that a change has academic merit, but that it is in the best interests of the University and our students. For example, SUC will want to see that the other programs or students that might be impacted by the change have been appropriately consulted.
Since the approval processes up to the level of Faculty Council vary among faculties, we encourage you to consult faculty-specific information sources, or contact faculty representatives, for these early approval stages. Below, you will find more specific roles of the SUC, the Registrar, and those who are resources to SUC.