HB 2504 Requirements for CV's and Syllabi

Origin and Language of HB 2504/TEC 51.974

House Bill 2504 was passed by the Texas Legislature during the 2009 legislative session. This bill mandated that, "Each public institution of higher education, other than a medical or dental unit,...shall make available to the public on the institution's Internet website...," information for each undergraduate classroom course offered for credit by the institution. The resulting statutory language is now included in Section 51.974 of the Texas Education Code.

The statutory language requires that a syllabus must be provided that:

a) satisfies any standards adopted by the institution;

b) provides a brief description of each major course requirement, including major assignments and examinations;

c) lists any required or recommended reading; and

d) provides a general description of the subject matter of each lecture or discussion.

Additionally, the statute requires that a curriculum vita must be provided for each regular instructor that lists the instructor's:

a) postsecondary education

b) teaching experience; and

c) significant professional publications.

(Further, the CV made available on the institution's internet website under this law may not include any personal information, including the instructor's home address or home telephone number.)

The law goes on to note that "The institution shall make the information...available not later than the seventh day after the first day of classes for the semester or other academic term during which the course is offered."

How Collin College Complies with HB 2504/TEC 51.974

Collin College adheres to this mandate by requiring faculty members to develop their course syllabi in the Concourse Software System. Failure to develop a course syllabus in Concourse will leave that section without a posted syllabus for the purposes of this mandate, and that will render Collin College noncompliant with the law.

Each syllabus that is developed in Concourse is automatically imported into the associated CANVAS shell so that students will have access to the same syllabus that is posted for HB 2504/TEC 51.974 purposes.

PLEASE DO NOT MAKE A SYLLABUS AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS OTHER THAN THROUGH CONCOURSE.

Providing a syllabus to students through a method other than the Concourse system will leave the college noncompliant with the law, and making a syllabus available through more than one channel (i.e. Concourse and a separate syllabus posted to CANVAS as a pdf, for example) could result in challenges from students regarding what the official syllabus for the course is in a variety of circumstances.

Reviewing Syllabi and CV's - How to Meet Requirements of the Law at Collin College

In terms of what to look for when reviewing syllabi, Associate Deans/Directors and/or Deans should look for the following minimal elements.

On Syllabi:

The standards for syllabi adopted by the institution are built into the Concourse syllabus form. There are a few optional sections (e.g. one section is required for programs in which students must pass criminal background checks in order to be licensed to practice), and those are clearly identified as optional in the Concourse system.
Brief descriptions of major course assignments are needed for graded activities like projects, papers, speeches, performances, etc. If significant assessments (i.e. exams) are shown in the course calendar (described below) and the topics covered in the class prior to that exam (and after a previous exam) are to be tested, then that entry in the course calendar should be sufficient for meeting the description of an exam. Otherwise, please indicate what topics will be covered on each major exam. If a final exam is to be comprehensive over the content of the entire term, please indicate that as a component of the description of the final exam.
Required and recommended reading is probably most easily shown in the course calendar along with the titles of the texts if more than one text is assigned. If faculty are using supplementary texts, we strongly recommend that the faculty member list the title of the individual readings or sections in the supplemental texts so that the connection to the lecture topics are clearly shown.
Finally, the general description of the subject matter of each lecture or discussion is probably most efficiently done by week in the course calendar. (More granular entries (i.e. by date) are also acceptable, but less granular entries are generally not going to be deemed acceptable. Please DO NOT simply indicate "Chapter 1," as the description of the lecture for a particular day or week because that is not descriptive of the content without having a textbook available. Collin College strongly recommends listing the chapter 1 title or some comparable description of the content being covered as well. So entries in the course calendar like "Chapter 1-An Introduction to the Study of Sociology" or "Chapter 3-Graphical Methods for Describing Data" do provide the required descriptive content. Certainly faculty can develop labels of their own for these descriptors, but the descriptors of the content being covered MUST be present.

On Curriculum Vitae:

The instructor's postsecondary education should include the institution, the Degree (typed out completely), and the field of study as shown on the faculty member's transcript. So "M.B.A. in Finance from SMU" should be described as a "Master of Business Administration in Finance - Southern Methodist University." Likewise, if an individual holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from UTD but their degree is actually a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, it should be described on the CV as a "Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Mathematics - University of Texas at Dallas."
Teaching experience should, at a minimum, include an entry for Collin College (if a new hire) that shows the month and year a faculty member started. We also recommend that faculty include a "-Current" statement so that the CV doesn't have to be rewritten every semester. So if a new adjunct faculty member was hired with no previous teaching experience, Collin College recommends that the individual list "Adjunct Faculty in ________ August 2021 - Current"
Significant professional publications are left completely up to the faculty member to define. It is acceptable if no information is provided here, but please don't discourage faculty members from listing what they feel may be helpful in demonstrating their knowledge of their field in this category.
Finally, do actively discourage faculty members from copying and pasting information into the Concourse CV that includes their home addresses or phone numbers. This information is being posted publicly, and they should be alerted to that fact so they do not reveal more information than they intend to.