Undergraduate Academic Governance

Oakland University is governed by an eight-member Board of Trustees appointed by the governor to serve eight-year terms. The board provides general supervision of the University, including control and direction of all expenditures from the institution's funds. The board also appoints the University president as well as the secretary to the board and treasurer.

The University Senate is an all-university governance body whose membership includes administrative officers, students and faculty members elected for two-year terms to represent their academic units. The vice president of academic affairs is its presiding officer. It serves as a legislative forum that meets monthly during the academic year. The Senate recommends new degree programs to the president and the board and must approve the constitutions of colleges and schools. It determines academic policies and provides opportunity for public deliberation on issues of importance to the University.

UCUI is a permanent standing committee of the University Senate. UCUI is chaired by the Associate Provost, with its membership otherwise consisting of one representative from each organized faculty currently sponsoring a graduate degree program, plus three other representatives to be appointed by the Associate Provost.

UCUI oversees and assures the excellence of undergraduate education at Oakland University. UCUI recommends to the University Senate academic policies and procedures concerning undergraduate education and, when necessary, seeks advice from other appropriate bodies concerning the impact of these policies and procedures; evaluates and monitors petitions of exception regarding university-wide undergraduate academic requirements except for university-wide general education requirements; prepares an annual report on all petitions of exception to be shared with the Office of Academic Affairs, the Registrar, individual Committees on Instruction, and the Senate Planning Review Committee (SPRC); makes recommendations to the University Senate regarding proposed and existing undergraduate programs, including recommendations for program modification, suspension, or discontinuance; advises the SPRC and the Senate Budget Review Committee (SBRC) concerning proposed new undergraduate programs and to maintain regular communication with SPRC and SBRC through exchange of minutes; cooperates with the General Education Committee in overseeing undergraduate instruction throughout the University and to maintain regular communication with that committee through exchange of minutes; schedules and monitors decennial reviews of all undergraduate programs in timely fashion and report findings to the SPRC and the University Senate; evaluate ongoing and proposed undergraduate programs for their consistency with University academic policies and mission, to monitor catalog copy to ensure compliance with all such policies; and monitors all catalog changes impacting outside of the Committee on Instruction making the change; advises the Senate on all matters that body or its Steering Committee may refer to UCUI concerning undergraduate instruction and the general requirements within which the specifics of undergraduate degree programs function.

As the administrative arm, Undergraduate Education has responsibility for providing academic records management, academic standing and degree services for currently enrolled students; undergraduate program review; and for the authorship, maintenance and oversight of undergraduate policy and standards that promote high quality in educational programs and curricula. Undergraduate policy and standards are published in the Undergraduate Catalog.

The Undergraduate Catalog is the listing of academic programs, degree requirements, course description, policies, and related information. It is published annually and available online. All data in the Undergraduate Catalog reflects information as it was available at the publication date.