University Catalogs

I. Scope

This policy applies to all departments, schools, programs, institutes, and other units of the College of William & Mary, including the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (the university).

II. Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that official university Catalogs are archived and readily available for use by the university’s students, alumni, administrators, faculty, staff, and external constituents.

III. Policy

A. Catalogs

The Office of the University Registrar maintains the university Catalogs, which are created and housed in the College’s online catalog management system. Two Catalogs are produced annually, one undergraduate and one graduate; these contain program information for all William & Mary students and programs.

Each Catalog contains policies, procedures, academic requirements, courses and other information and requirements applicable to students who enroll at the time that Catalog is in effect. Thus, each student who enrolls is bound by requirements contained in the Catalog in effect at the time of enrollment, even though subsequent years’ Catalogs may contain different requirements. For undergraduate students, the requirements of the major are determined at the time a student declares the major.

B. Publication date and post-publication changes

Each online Catalog is finalized and goes into effect on or near August 1. They may then be viewed on the Registrar’s website. Changes that occur after that date are included in the following year’s Catalog. Post-publication corrections to the Catalogs in effect should be rare, but when essential, may be made if they do not substantially alter the incoming students’ expectations.

C. Archive

The Office of the University Registrar and the Office of Institutional Accreditation & Effectiveness annually create a permanent record (archive) of each online Catalog. Archived Catalogs are digitally housed with the University Archivist by October 15 of the year of publication and included in pdf format on the University Registrar’s website of Archived Catalogs.

D. Content   

Academic and service units supply their Catalog material, including course inventory and descriptions, program descriptions and curricular requirements.  

For the Graduate Catalog, the schools have primary responsibility for the information in their own chapters. For the Undergraduate Catalog, the Arts & Sciences departments and dean’s office, as well as the deans’ offices in Mason School of Business, School of Education, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science/School of Marine Science, have responsibility for their schools’ academic content. Hyperlinks to supplemental websites may be included in Catalog material, but the information on those websites is not considered official Catalog content and will not be archived.

The Office of the University Registrar ensures that the front sections of the Catalog, containing university policies, official statements, and additional information, are updated annually and that content files are made available to the Office of Institutional Accreditation & Effectiveness to convert to a PDF document. 

The Office of the Provost supplies the content of the faculty and faculty emeritus sections.

IV. Approval and Amendment

The Policy was approved by the Provost on July 1, 2017.

V.  Related Policies or Other Documents

• Procedures for Creating Official University Catalogs
• Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools - Advertising, Student Recruitment, and Representation of Accredited Status Policy (pdf)