Policies

Changing Online Catalog Content

Like the former printed catalogs, online course catalogs represent a contract between the school and its students and function as a snapshot of programs and requirements that endure for a two-year period. This type of information may not be altered in the online catalog.

If a program undergoes considerable revision after the catalog is online, copy can be added provided it is clear that the new requirements affect students matriculating after a specific date in time (e.g., effective fall 2011).

The only other types of information that may be changed are:

  • Web addresses and faculty names and/or contact information
  • Egregious mistakes

Having live links to departmental webpages will offer students access to the most current program information. Also, a disclaimer appears on the front page of each online catalog, which reads as follows:

IMPORTANT NOTICE

The university reserves the right for any reason to cancel or modify any course or program listed herein. In addition, individual course offerings and programs may vary from year to year as circumstances dictate.

Procedures for Making Changes

  • Clients typically email the webmaster (as per the instructions on the footer of each webpage) at Campus Information Services (Jim Stapleton, senior director) to alert him that there is a need for a correction/change.
  • The catalog editor determines the merit of the request.
  • If that catalog is in revision, the catalog editor tells the clients to wait on change.
  • If the request follows the parameters outlined above, the catalog instructs web lab on exactly what needs to be changed and where.
  • After online catalog is changed and double-checked, the catalog editor goes back to CN database and makes the appropriate change there as well. 
  • The catalog editor emails the client to let them know the change has been made.

Statement on Accuracy and Currency of the Catalogs

University catalogs are available at https://www.rutgers.edu/academics/catalogs.
These are the current catalogs for Rutgers University schools. Even if a catalog’s two-year period seems old, it is the current catalog.  While a new version may be in the works, it will only be effective when complete and online.

As is stated in the Important Notice on the front page of each catalog:
The university reserves the right for any reason to cancel or modify any course or program listed herein. In addition, individual course offerings and programs may vary from year to year as circumstances dictate.

Catalogs that are not the responsibility of the UCM:

  • School of Graduate Studies
  • All RBHS units except the School of Public Health and the School of Nursing.

In response to questions about the effective dates of catalog content, university officials have provided us with these guidelines:

We cannot be in limbo without any operative catalog.  So, the current catalog stays in effect until the new one is published.  For example, usually the New Brunswick undergraduate catalog is published in the summer of the later year on the catalog.  However, if publication is delayed (the 2017-2019 didn't come out until October last year, for example), the catalog in effect at the time the students entered is binding on them.  (So, for example, the Fall 2017 entering students are still bound by the 2015-2017 catalog since the 2017-2019 wasn't published yet. Of course, if students prefer the policies in the later catalog, they can always choose those.)

Students should also be aware that the curricular requirements are those in effect in the academic year of their admission. Students who withdraw for two or more semesters are subject to the requirements in effect the semester that they return. Students who change their major are governed by the curricular requirements and regulations in effect during the academic year in which the change is made.