The Admin Save Difference

Back in the days before Li Marcus and Lexi Hergeth arrived at the Office of Undergraduate Courses, Curricula, and Academic Standards, clear guidance on what could or could not be administratively saved in CourseLeaf did not exist. To ensure faculty governance was conservatively followed, administrative saves of course records were stopped. However, as expertise and knowledge increased over time, OUCCAS heard significant feedback that caused staff to reconsider this practice and to discuss with partners in the Graduate School and Registration and Records how and whether to change it. In Fall of 2023, OUCCAS presented to UCCC and the Graduate School presented to ABGS a request to resume administrative saves with specific definitions and clear processes. Such a request would help in a number of ways in aligning with Office and institutional goals.

One of OUCCAS’ goals is to assist the faculty in focusing on student learning rather than on administration, and administrative saves of course records can help to accomplish that. OUCCAS received feedback that the faculty curriculum committees felt there were too many instances of tiny course changes on their agendas, and that very small changes did not need to go through the entire approval process. To cut back on the number of small change actions going to the committees, bringing back admin saves with clear guidelines seemed like a good solution. 

Administrative saves don’t do away with the entire approval process: they merely streamline the CourseLeaf system approval of certain minor actions. All course and program changes already have to go through department, college, and university-level approval right now, even though some changes don’t have much impact outside of the college in which they originate. 

Admin saves can move actions like scheduling, adding an in-college course to an elective list, or other small differences through the CourseLeaf system. Also, during the summer when faculty committees don’t meet, admin saves can prevent minor actions from being stalled in the system. Admin saves cannot be used for significant changes like revising learning outcomes, methods of evaluation, or changing a required course list involving courses from outside the college or department. See https://oucc.dasa.ncsu.edu/course-information/#admin for further information about major versus minor changes to courses and programs. 

Also, OUCCAS wanted to allow for flexibility in CIM records with scheduling, and uphold consistency between SIS and CIM, which admin saves would similarly help with. Reinstituting administrative saves would not change the way in which action initiators would be informed, but would eliminate their having to wait on the full approval process for minute changes. 

The University Courses and Curriculum Committee voted to approve the reinstitution of admin saves on February 7, 2024. Prior to that, the admin save concept had been discussed with every college, and each one had had the opportunity to provide feedback. In the January 24 UCCC meeting, the committee discussed Admin Save Memo feedback. The members brought up the implications of changing course offering schedules, adding electives and definitions of elective lists, and the question of how people were being currently supported and informed of changes versus how they could be supported and informed. Lexi shared a link to the Feedback for the Admin Save Memo Google Doc, and revised the memo in real time based on faculty responses. She created an Addition and Subtraction table on the Feedback document, and the faculty voted two weeks later on the completed Memo. 

Lexi worked to create the admin save memo guidelines during the summer of 2023, and discussions of the memo began last September. This project was initiated as a result of the OUCCAS office review, and OUCCAS partnered with the graduate school while working on the guidelines to ensure consistency across course levels. OUCCAS also partnered with Registration and Records to make certain that term offerings would be changed if the courses had not been taught for a long while. The graduate school has not yet held an official vote yet regarding admin saves. The Committee on Undergraduate Education will not vote on the memo, because admin saves do not involve GEP changes.  

Since the UCCC vote, OUCCAS has already been able to move a few notification-only actions forward with admin saves. If you think you have a small course change that would benefit from an admin save, you can send us an email at courses-curricula@ncsu.edu, and we’d be delighted to help. We are here for you!