100-00 Faculty Role and Responsibility

There is one faculty at Penn State and the titles of individual faculty members are based on the disciplines in which they specialize or the departments or schools in which they hold positions.

All faculty members, regardless of their location or academic home, are considered part of the University faculty in their discipline. In the context of the curriculum, faculty in a common discipline across the different colleges are expected to work together collegially in the development of new and revised academic programs and courses. Efforts on the part of the faculty in this regard must be supported by the academic leadership.

In the design of the curriculum every effort should be made to create consistency across the campuses to enable students, where practical, to move readily among Penn State locations without undue loss of credits.

A common University course numbering system will be followed.

All courses taught under the same name and number will necessarily have the same objectives, follow the same broad outline, and pursue the same learning outcomes, notwithstanding difference of campus. However, the detailed course outlines need not be identical. In fact, the specific approach to course topics is expected to vary to reflect the specialization of the individual instructors.

If an academic program is offered in several colleges, the academic requirements for the completion of the program are not expected to be identical, but they should be comparable in all colleges. The differences in programs with the same name can reflect different areas of emphasis or specialization. These differences must be clearly evident in the Bulletin.