General Announcements Programs of Study Edit Process

The General Announcements (GA) represents the official Rice curriculum. During the spring and summer, before the GA is published each August for the next academic year, all academic departments and programs are asked to review their curricular listings in the GA to ensure that their information and requirements are current and up-to-date.

The Office of the Registrar (OTR) facilitates the edit process to the curricular program listings for the GA, using the CourseLeaf CAT System. This process includes edits and updates made in the Programs of Study section of the GA over the course of three rounds of review. To ensure that all information is correct, during the first two rounds of reviews, department and programs are required to review and "sign off" on their GA text for the next academic year. The third and final round of review and "sign off" is done by the respective Dean's office. Additional information on the Office of the Registrar (OTR) GA Edit Process is available here, including relevant dates, deadlines, and key details.

During the first two rounds of reviews, each department/program is asked to review their proposed GA text and indicate on the sign-off memo that they have either:

  • "Reviewed and approved with no changes" or
  • "Reviewed and approved with changes attached"

Official sign-off requires the approval signature of the academic department chair or the approved program director. The memo requires this approval signature, even if no changes are proposed for that round of edits.

The Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs (VPAA) facilitates a parallel process for the annual editing of the policy and procedures portions of the GA (i.e., other GA text outside the Programs of Study portion). Both of these processes follow the same three round timeline as outlined in the VPAA's online General Announcements (GA) Edit Process Guidebook, (Rice login required.)

Links to the 2024-2025 GA Staging Area (Preview Websites)

As the edits are processed and completed each round, a preview of the General Announcements (GA) is available for review in a staging area (prior to publication).

The 2024-2025 General Announcements (GA) staging Area is available here.

Note: Users may need to refresh the browser to see the latest changes on the preview site.

Revision Submission Portal

You may submit your revisions using the portal below or by emailing them to registrar@rice.edu.

GA Edit Process

As the Office of the Registrar (OTR) receives the proposed changes to the GA from academic departments and programs, the OTR will then make the appropriate updates to each department or program's GA text in the system. During the three rounds of edits, each department and program is asked to thoroughly read, review, and comment where appropriate on the following tabs found in their unique Programs of Study pages:

Department or Program Information

  • Overview: General information about the department or program, including contact information
  • Undergraduate: Complete listing of undergraduate academic programs offered by the department or program
  • Graduate: Complete listing of graduate academic programs offered by the department or program
  • Faculty: Listing of current departmental or program faculty and their titles
    IMPORTANT: Edits to the main faculty listing on the GA should be sent to the VPAA's Office according to their portion of the GA Edit Process, in addition to submitting these Faculty tab edits.
  • Courses: Complete listing of active courses in the Rice Course Catalog
    IMPORTANT: Separate and distinct from the GA Edit Process, the process and instructions on how to edit, revise, and inactivate courses within the Rice Course Catalog are here    .
  • Codes: Internal abbreviation and descriptions used by the OTR and other Rice offices to identify programs

Individual Program Information

From the Undergraduate or Graduate tabs, the list of programs offered by the department or program will appear. Clicking on an individual program will list the requirements for that academic program.

  • Outcomes: Program Learning Outcomes for the academic program
    IMPORTANT: Suggested edits to the Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) are subject to the review and approval of the office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) before publication.
  • Requirements: Complete listing of all requirements necessary to complete the academic program successfully
  • Policies: Information pertaining to policies (e.g., admission, transfer requirements, etc.)
  • Opportunities: Opportunities that students in the academic program can pursue (e.g., joint UG/GR programs, special research opportunities, etc.)

GA Review, Curriculum, and Degree Works

IMPORTANT: The annual review and approval of department and program curricular requirements (as found under the Requirements tab of the respective GA listings) additionally serve as “sign-off” on the corresponding curriculum as it appears in the university's degree audit system, Degree Works, for all academic programs that use Degree Works (which includes all undergraduate programs of study, all graduate certificates, and select master’s degree programs). Because the curricular requirements documented in the General Announcements are Rice's official curriculum, Degree Works must match that academic year-specific (or "catalog year") curriculum as documented in the GA.

Frequently Asked Questions

Some of the edits our department submitted were not processed as we proposed, why is that?

With the implementation of CourseLeaf CAT (the Catalog Management System), the OTR has been processing all proposed edits through a standardized template/style guide for consistency between academic programs. Certain terminology regarding academic credentials, as well as the formatting of some requirements may be edited according to the template.

Other edits may not be processed if they constitute a "substantial change" to the curriculum, as defined by the Faculty Senate, without first receiving the approval of the Faculty Senate.

There is a course in a requirements grid that doesn't have a URL to click for the description, and the title is not listed. Why?

This indicates that the course is currently not active for the academic year for which you are reviewing the GA, or that it is a new course for which the new course request process is not yet complete. If the course is inactive, it should either be removed from the list of courses that fulfill that requirement, or the process to re-activate the course should be initiated using the New Course Request Process. If the course is new, the new course request process should be finalized using the CIM workflow in order to appear in the GA.

I would like to edit the title for a course listed in my requirements. How do I do this?

The information for the courses listed in the requirements are being pulled in through the Course Catalog. Should you want to change this information, please follow the Course Revision process guidelines. If you want to add additional details regarding a course, we can do so by indicating a “footnote and additional information.”

A faculty member would like their faculty listing to reflect their preferred first name (e.g., “Jim” not “James”) or to include a middle initial – can the department/program submit edits to names as they appear on the Faculty Tab?

The faculty member's name as it is listed on the Faculty Tab for the department/program will match the way the name is listed on the full faculty listing of the GA, found here. The OTR will send requests such as these to the VPAA for their review. If approved, the name will be edited in each place it appears on the GA (the full faculty listing, and any department/program faculty tabs).

Our department/program would like to edit our Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) in the Outcomes Tab, can this be submitted during the edit process?

The OTR will send any PLO edits to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) for their review. If approved, the OTR will input the edits.