Banking Degrees or Certificates

Banking Programs

An accurate list of program offerings is essential for students’ educational planning, therefore the Curriculum Committee reviews and approves all requests to bank certificates and degrees.

"Banking a program" (i.e. degree or certificate) is temporarily deactivating it, removing it from the catalog until further action is taken.

How to Bank a Certificate or Degree

1. The faculty member(s) in collaboration with the Dean must first contact the Curriculum Specialist in the Office of Instruction and request a Proposal Impact Report. This report will specify programs (i.e. degrees and certificates) that will need to be modified as a result of banking a program or programs.
   
   
2. Once the decision has been made to bank the program(s), the faculty member and Dean will work together to submit a Banking Memo (in Word format - via email) to the Curriculum Specialist in the Office of Instruction addressed to the Curriculum Committee.
   
   The memo needs to include the following:
1. Division and Department
2. Title of Certificate or Degree being banked
3. Reason(s) for banking the program(s)
4. Any data that supports the reason(s)
5. The catalog year in which the banking becomes effective, which is typically the following academic year (e.g. 2023-24 catalog)
6. Both faculty and Dean signatures
   
   
3. The Curriculum Committee Chair or Co-Chairs will work to place the banking memo on the next available Curriculum Committee meeting.  

NOTE: Faculty are expected to attend the Curriculum Committee meeting to present the justification for banking their program(s).

1. The Committee will then move to approve or deny the banking request.

Sample Banking Memo

A program will be considered for banking if a Dean (in conjunction with department faculty) submits a request, via a memo, to bank the degree or certificate and the request is approved by the Curriculum Committee.  Below is a sample format that can be used when creating the memo.

Impact of Banking Certificates and Degrees

When a degree or certificate is banked, Skyline College is actively making the decision to not award the degree or certificate to students until the program is reactivated.  If students have started the program, and not finished the coursework, they would be negatively impacted by the banking.  Additionally, if the degree or certificate is required for another program (ie. stackable certificate) students would be unable to complete both programs.  Thus, it is important for us to understand the larger picture of student impact before deleting a program.