Per Appendix J Section II of our contract, as well as the 2005-2011 memo of agreement, the following rules apply to distance education courses with regards to the development of DE courses. The second point is most important, as it helps ensure faculty control over DE offerings.

• Course development is recognized as either 1) creating a new course or 2) converting or adapting an existing course to a DE format.
  
  
• Departments do the following:
  
  

• determine which existing courses are appropriate to be offered in a DE format,
• initiate the approval process for new DE courses within the discipline, and
• determine how many DE courses can be offered each semester.
  

Such determinations are to follow existing college course offerings, development and approval processes.

Therefore, the FA strongly encourages each department to establish its own DE committee.