Rule 3362-2-25 | Low-enrolled courses.
(A) Purpose
The purpose of this rule is to create a consistent framework for identifying low-enrolled courses across the entire academic course schedule. The goal of this framework is to ensure balanced enrollment in courses to improve student outcomes, accessibility to courses, and efficiency of planning section and staffing needs.
(B) Scope of authority
(1) Shawnee state university retains the right to schedule courses in accordance with programmatic and student needs and the provost has the final authority over class schedules.
(2) Department chairs and school directors will consult with program faculty in determining the timing, rotation, and staffing of courses for each academic semester and session. The department chairs and school directors will submit a recommended course schedule to the appropriate college dean.
(3) College deans will review the recommended class schedules from the schools and departments in the college. The dean may suggest or enact changes and has final approval over the course schedule submitted to the registrar.
A faculty member may request alterations to the published course schedule; however, the department chair or school director will determine whether such requests will be recommended to the college dean, and the dean has discretion to approve or reject any such recommendation.
(C) Determination of course section capacities
(1) Course capacities will be established for all courses, as detailed below, regardless of whether they are taught in-person, as a hybrid course (in which a defined percentage of class sessions meet in person with additional instruction conducted online), or in the hyflex modality (student can attend in person, online synchronously, or online asynchronously).
(a) Specific faculty-student ratios as determined in the collective bargaining agreement between Shawnee state university and the faculty union unless and until such provisions have been superseded by a board of trustees policy.
(b) Faculty-student ratios for in-person courses not covered by a collective bargaining agreement or superseding board policy are determined by considering a combination of pedagogical, safety, and/ or accreditation restrictions along with physical room capacity.
Department chairs, school directors, and deans should strive for consistent faculty-student ratios across all sections of the same in-person course.
(2) Course capacities for fully online courses and course sections are determined by the collective bargaining agreement between Shawnee state university and its faculty union unless and until such provisions are superseded by a board of trustees policy.
(3) In instances where more than one course or course section is scheduled in the same room with the same instructor at the same time (concurrent instruction), the faculty-student ratio will be calculated using the total capacity in all sections or courses included in the concurrent instruction format.
(D) Identification and cancellation of low-enrolled courses
(1) Approximately six weeks prior to the first day of classes for a semester, the college dean will review the enrollments in each class section on the course schedule.
(2) Class sections that have enrollment less than or equal to seventy per cent of the course capacity ("low-capacity sections") will be identified.
The college dean will provide a list of low-capacity sections to department chairs and school directors and engage in discussions as to whether each low-capacity section should remain on the course schedule or should be canceled due to low enrollment.
No later than the end of the fifth week prior to the start of the semester, department chairs and school directors will send written justification for running low-capacity sections to the dean. The dean will determine if each low-capacity section remains open or will be canceled.
(a) The department chair or school director will provide the class schedule to each faculty member in their unit no later than four-weeks before the start of the semester.
(b) If possible, the individual faculty member assigned to a course that has been canceled should be reassigned to another course or section if canceling a class is likely to decrease their teaching workload to fall below twenty-four workload credits for the academic year.
(c) Faculty may request in writing to extend the deadline for the dean's decision on cancellation of a low-capacity section or course.
If the dean grants this request, a deadline for a final decision and enrollment requirement will be clearly communicated.
(3) Following discussions with chairs and school directors, if a course that is enrolled at less than or equal to fifty per cent of its capacity is requested to remain on the course schedule, the college dean must send the request with justification to the provost for approval.
This will also include requests to run emergency low-enrolled sections and course sections not included in the teach-out plan for an academic program undergoing a teach-out in anticipation of its discontinuation.
(E) Later changes to class schedule
After faculty have received their class schedule (by the end of week four prior to the start of the semester), the university shall not subsequently change the faculty member's class schedule unless program needs or enrollments require such action.
Department chairs and school directors shall make reasonable efforts to discuss needed changes with impacted faculty members prior to the changes being made.
(F) Monitoring of and removal of infrequently scheduled courses from the academic catalog
(1) At the start of each spring semester, the office of institutional data, reporting, and analytics will generate a report on courses listed as active in the academic catalog that have not been offered in the past five academic years. The list will be shared with the provost, registrar, and college deans.
(2) The college deans will engage in discussions with the department chairs and school directors associated with these courses to determine the reason for not running the courses on a regular rotation to allow students the opportunity to enroll in the course.
(3) The college deans will provide a summary report to the provost and registrar with justification for maintaining these courses in the academic catalog.
(a) Following review of the justification, the provost and registrar will determine if a course that has not been offered in the previous five academic years should be removed from the academic catalog.
(b) The provost will recommend courses that should be removed from the academic catalog to the academic and student affairs committee of the board of trustees. The board of trustees may approve a resolution authorizing the provost to submit course discontinuation proposals as part of the curriculum approval process.
Last updated December 4, 2025 at 2:36 PM
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